Point noted, but that still doesn’t make my mind any clearer on where my heart truly lies, especially after the death omen I saw.
Asher slides out of the seat and hops up onto the sidewalk. Then he reaches back inside to offer his hand. I slip my fingers through his, and he pulls me out, keeping his hand wrapped around mine. Cameron notes our interlocked hands with a drop of annoyance but surprisingly doesn’t comment.
Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Cameron ambles toward a building made solely of tinted glass. All the lights appear to be off inside, but I have a feeling there’s a lot more than meets the eye to this place.
My suspicions are confirmed as Cameron shoves open the entrance doors. Soft music drifts outside and enfolds around me like a blanket. Hypnotized by the rhythm and possessed by an unseen force, I feel a pull toward the inside.
Drift, drift, drift, my feet move for the door as my mind gets swept away from reality. I only return from my daze when a warm hand touches my shoulder. I blink and realize I’ve made it inside and am standing in front of a broad stairway that stretches up to a pair of massive black doors.
“You need to make sure you don’t let this place get to you,” Asher says, tugging on my shoulder so I’ll turn to face him. He searches my eyes, and then his forehead furrows. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for you to be in here. You look … Well, you look a little caught up.”
“I’m fine,” I lie. “But where’s Cameron?” I look around the large, vacant room and spot him in the corner, chatting to a taller man with hair as red as blood. “Who is that?” I whisper to Asher.
Asher still seems unconvinced I’m okay as he keeps his eyes on me. “That’s the person who’s going to get us inside.”
“I thought Cameron had a lot of clout because of who his family is?”
“He does, but they still have to make sure he is who he says he is.”
“What about you? Why are they letting you in if you’re an Angel?”
“Technically, I’m not anything right now.” He studies Cameron from across the room. “Sometimes, I wonder if he knows more than he’s letting on.”
“Well, I think that’s a safe bet to make, considering he’s … well, him.” I pause. “But why do I get the feeling you’re not really speaking about what he knows about the Grim Angels?”
“Because I’m not.” His eyes remain on Cameron for a second or two longer before he focuses on me. “You remember how I said I have no clue who my father is, right?” When I nod, he continues, “Sometimes, I wonder if he does.”
“How would he know when you don’t? That doesn’t really make any sense.”
“Yeah, it does. Our mother never told us, but my father’s a Reaper, and he lives in the Reaper world, which means Cameron has more insight to that side.” He slides his tongue along his lip, the metal piercing glinting in the low lighting flowing from outside. “And he said something to me when he showed up at the field this morning that made me wonder if he knows.”
Casting a glance at Cameron, I inch closer to Asher. “What did he say?”
“I was telling him how unfair it was that he had our family to get information from, and he said something about me being lucky that I was out of the loop when it came to our bloodlines; otherwise, I’d be paying for it like he is.”
“Why wouldn’t he just tell you?” I ask. “Why keep it a secret?”
“I’m not sure yet, other than maybe he wants to hold it over my head.” He bites on his bottom lip, and I can tell he’s keeping something from me. Cameron clearly said more than what he’s letting on. “If he does know who our father is, then I need to find out. The last thing I ever want is for him to have something to hold over me.” His solid chest rises and crashes as he frees an uneven breath. “Maybe, while I’m paying my mother a visit about your little dream she invaded, I’ll also try to get to the bottom of a secret she seems pretty adamant about taking to her grave.”
“You think she’s going to tell you all of this just by asking?” I ask, noting how uneasy he grew with the mention of his mother.
“After me being banished, maybe. It’s not like there’s a reason left to protect me from the truth about who I really am. Plus, she’s been around a lot longer and might actually be able to give us a little insight to what exactly is supposed to happen when the last Grim Angel is left standing. She’s older than me and wiser, knows more about the history of the battle...” His eyebrows dip together. “Which makes me really fucking interested to hear why she’d show up in your dream and warn you about taking the shortcuts. There has to be a reason. I just hope it’s a good one and not bad.”
“Yeah, I’m really curious, too.” And worried.
Even though I’ll never say anything to Asher, I wonder just how good his mother could be, considering she was once with a Grim Reaper.
About as good as you since you’ve thought about it before.
I shake the thought from my head as Cameron strolls over to us, grinning from ear to ear.
“What are you so happy about?” I ask warily. A happy Cameron rarely is a good thing.
“I’m just glad to be here amongst my own kind.” He trots up the stairway, rubbing his rock hard stomach. “Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve tasted a soul, and quite honestly, I’m starving.”
I scrunch up my nose as I start up the stairs after him. “You’re seriously not going to feed here, are you?”
He peers over his shoulder at me with his brow cocked. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because it’s wrong, and—”
“It’s what I do, Ember.” A conniving grin spreads across his face. “And technically, what you should be doing.”
“I’m not a Reaper yet.”
He smirks. “Yet?”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I protest. “I just meant—”
He turns his back on me as we reach the doors, cutting me off.
I shake my head in frustration, and Asher squeezes my hand.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I tell Asher apologetically. “He twisted my words around.”
“I know he did.” But his forced smile suggests otherwise.
Keeping my lips sealed, I wait at the top of the stairway as Cameron raps his hand on the door. A moment later, the lock clicks, and the two doors simultaneously swing open. Music and mist instantly drown me, and the scent … like desire and madness and fulfillment all wrapped up in one… pulls me in.
My feet move of their own accord, gliding my body through the doorway. This time, I don’t wander very far before Asher snags the back of my shirt and secures me to him.
“Just breathe,” he whispers in my ear. “Don’t let it get to you.”
The sound of his angelic voice breaks the fog in my head. My vision snaps into focus, and I get a good glimpse of the large, rounded room we’re in.
Reapers are everywhere, thick like the fog in the air, along with a few humans. I don’t understand how I know they’re human, other than I sense it deep inside my blood and through the scent in the air. Knowing I can actually smell humans and their souls is horrifying. But the horror is mixed with a blinding hot need to take a taste.
Taste, taste, taste,
Unhinge your jaw.
Open your eyes wide,
And breathe in the toxicity
That you secretly crave.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Asher asks me, watching my reaction closely. “I can take you out of here if you need me to.”
“No, I’m fine.” I tear my attention off the Reapers and the people in the room. “I promise.”
“She’s more than fine.” Cameron captures my hand, startling me as he jerks me through the crowd of Reapers. “She’s home.”
Asher calls out my name, dashing after us. I stick my hand out behind me while attempting to slip my hand from Cameron’s, but his fingers constrict, refusing to let go. Asher catches my other hand, and somehow, I end up holding onto the both of them. I feel so strangely right i
n this moment that my mind begins to swirl like the fog.
Maybe this is where I belong, between the two of them.
I quickly shove the thought from my head. No, I can’t go there.
I grasp onto each of their hands, letting Cameron guide us through the Reapers, each of whom stop what they’re doing to look at me. Their eyes spark with interest, but the look evaporates when they notice who I’m with.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, we make it out of the crowd and are swept to a back room out of the watchful eyes and far, far, far away from the toxic scent of the souls.
“What are we doing here? I thought it was to…” I trail off at the sight of their uncle tied up in a chair in the corner of the room with his arms and ankles bound by ropes.
He looks thinner than the last time I saw him, his dark hair scraggily, and his face is in need of a shave. He’s hardly recognizable as the man I used to call Professor Morgan back when I thought he was only a teacher.
“Uncle,” Cameron snarls derisively, “how nice to see you again.”
“What are you doing here?” their uncle growls, baring his teeth. Then his lip curls in my direction. “And with her.”
Cameron reaches around behind him and miraculously retrieves the book out of thin air. Then he drops it in front of his uncle and steps back with his arms crossed.
When their uncle says nothing, Asher moves beside me, keeping a hand on the small of my back. “We need you to unlock the book,” he says calmly, “so we can read what’s on the pages.”
Their uncle’s expression momentarily warms at the sight of Asher, but his possession quickly regains control again. “He’ll find you,” he spits. “You know that, right? No matter what, you can’t hide from Altarius.”
Cameron crouches down to eye level with him. “Stop with the threats. We didn’t come here to hear your utter nonsense. We just need your blood. That’s all.”
“You can’t have it,” their uncle bites back, jerking on the ropes. “I won’t betray Altarius.”
“It’s a good thing my kind were considerate enough to take you in, then.” Cameron flashes him an arrogant grin.
“They didn’t take me in,” he growls, the veins in his neck bulging. “They’re holding me hostage for my soul.”
“Is that true?” Asher asks Cameron.
Cameron gives a noncommittal shrug. “I was told the rebellion has been taking some of those under Altarius possession in order to keep his power under control. It’s not for his soul, though.”
“Liar!” Their uncle cries out, wrenching his arms and legs against the restraints. The chair rocks on two legs and scrapes against the marble floor. “They feed off me all the time.”
“That may be true, but only because you’re here.” Cameron scoots the book toward their uncle. “Now, your blood,” through gritted teeth, he strains, “please.”
“Never! I won’t help you save her.” His withering glare lands on me.
I shrink back toward Asher as my eyes sting with tears. Seeing him here, tortured under Altarius’s possession, makes me wonder exactly what’s happening to my mother, brother, and Raven. Are they still in Hollows Grove? Or have they been captured by a rebellion of Reapers? Are they trapped somewhere, their souls being tasted? Deep down, I’m pretty sure I know what happened to at least one of them. My mother, who comes to me in my dreams, is more than likely dead.
Cameron heaves an exhausted sigh. “Fine, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” His hand snaps forward, and he seizes hold of his uncle’s arm.
His uncle growls, showing teeth, his eyes flaring with rage. “Get your hands off me! You traitor!”
“Traitor?” I dare a step forward and look down at Cameron. “Why did he call you a traitor?”
Ignoring me, Cameron sticks his hand into his pocket and retrieves a knife.
“He’s a traitor of his own flesh and blood,” his uncle snaps. “Going against his own kind.”
Cameron runs his thumb over the edge of the blade and grins. “That’s really one person’s opinion.” He angles the knife toward his uncle’s forearm, preparing to cut.
“Don’t cut too deep,” Asher warns, his fingers twitching on my back. “We still need him alive.”
Cameron rolls his eyes, and then, looking more pleased than he should, he drags the blade across his uncle’s flesh. Blood pools out and trickles down his arm, soaking the rope around his wrist. Cameron scoops up the book from the floor, and lowers it to the stream of blood. Red stains the pages, and ink bleeds through, forming the words that August Millard once wrote about Angels, Reapers, and Grim Angels.
“It worked.” For the first time in weeks, I breathe freely again.
This is it. The answer to freeing the souls—freeing my family and friends—has to be on those pages.
“Of course it worked.” Cameron studies the page with his head angled to the side. “Hmm … Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” Feeling uncomfortable with him reading it, I lunge forward to steal the book from him.
He snaps the book shut, shoves it behind him, and makes it disappear again.
“Cameron,” Asher warns, inching toward him, “give us the book.”
His shifty gaze glides to me. “I will, but after I get something out of it first.”
I curse under my breath. “I should have known this was coming.”
He smirks. “I think you might have but didn’t want to admit it, because you were secretly looking forward to it.”
Asher lunges for him, but I snag the back of his shirt and draw him back.
“Don’t. Not when we’re in this place, especially when you’ve been banished.” I give a pressing glance at the doorway, which is now occupied with a largely built skeletal figure sporting a floor length cloak.
“Fuck,” Asher curses but quickly composes himself and shuffles back from Cameron.
Cameron exchanges a look with the Reaper in the doorway, making me feel even more uneasy. Something bad is about to happen. I can feel it in my Angel blood.
“I see,” Cameron says, staring at the Reaper.
The Reaper bows his head before whisking out the door with a swish of his cloak.
“Well, things just got interesting.” When Cameron turns to us, I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified by the ease in his eyes.
“What’s going on?” Asher asks with his hands clenched into fists. “I swear to God, if you’ve set us up, I’ll kill you.”
“Big words for a banished Angel without his powers.” An artful grin rises on Cameron’s face. “Would you two relax? This has nothing to do with me.”
“Then what’s going on?” I ask, mentally preparing myself for whatever’s coming.
Cameron’s grin broadens. “I was just informed that, in order to get out, we have to pay a fee.”
“I thought you had clout here?” I frown as my shoulders sag. “Was that a lie, too?”
“I do have clout.” He saunters toward me. “Unfortunately, you two don’t.”
“Whatever they want from us, I’ll do it.” Asher sidesteps in front of me, blocking me from Cameron’s view. “No one can touch her.”
“I’m afraid this is something you can’t do.” Cameron’s eyes darken, and an icy chill slithers up my back. “Because they want her to taste a soul.”
“No way,” I stammer, backing away. “I can’t.”
For a fleeting instant, Cameron appears remorseful, but the look is gone in the swish of a cloak. “You have no choice, princess. It’s either taste a soul or be trapped here.”
Asher shakes his head and kicks the wall. “I fucking knew something like this was going to happen. Goddammit!” He clutches his head as he paces the floor. “I should have never trusted you.”
“This has nothing to do with me.” Cameron narrows his eyes at Asher. “I didn’t think they’d try to pull this stuff.”
“That’s the problem. You never think,” Asher growls, whirling around and get
ting in Cameron’s face.
“Be careful, brother,” Cameron warns. “You don’t want to fight me when you don’t have your strength.”
Asher’s chest heaves as he battles to calm down. “After this, we’re done.”
“That’s really not for you to decide.” Cameron gives an unsubtle glance in my direction. “Are you ready?”
I swiftly shake my head. “I can’t do something like this, not when I can barely keep myself afloat already.” I look to Asher for help, hoping he’ll have some other alternative on how to get out of here.