reading! Remember, when you see one of us Reapers, tell them Zella says hello.
Chapter One
“We will go without you,” Axton insisted, the strain of his attempt to remain calm evident on his face.
His nostrils flared, and his pale skin turned a deep grey. Even as I watched, his jaw moved while he ground his teeth together.
“Stupid pot lickers,” I hissed and threw the summons paper at him.
It fluttered to the floor, wafting side to side on its downward path. It seemed so uncontrolled in its descent, something that I identified with all too well.
Axton said nothing. Instead, he stood there brooding with his eyes fully black and his fists clenched. Kian and Trace waited on the side like spectators, their heads turning back and forth as though we were lobbing hits at one another rather than words. They wouldn't weigh in unless asked, and no one would ask.
“Fine,” I spat. “If you want to ruin the work I've done in one single instant, fine. We'll go like good little soldiers. If you can't learn to listen to me, knowing that I'm well acquainted with the game that is being played here, fine. But don't expect me to enjoy having to give up part of the minuscule amount of power that we've attained.”
He jerked his chin down, and I assumed he accepted his idiocy in full. I stepped forward, ready to march to my room, away from the pot lickers that only wished to surrender what we'd only just earned. My foot slipped as the summons went flying across the room, thrown into the air again by my step. My gaze followed it as it smacked into the couch and dropped onto the ground, crumpled and stained. I shuddered, then a hand landed on my shoulder, and I jumped aside, spinning. Axton's jaw flexed, and he looked away. He ran his hand over his close-cropped black hair while I walked away.
I spent the rest of the binal alone in my room, pacing back and forth as I alternated emotions. The drowning worry, seething anger, and sheer exhaustion did little to help the situation and certainly didn't allow me to think well enough to figure out what the King wanted.
I needed our next meeting to be on our terms, not his. Jumping to his call only reinforced his power. Oh, we would have to meet with the King eventually. He was the King, after all. But I'd preferred to wait just a binal or so, citing exhaustion or some such mess to give me time to discover what he wanted us for. The trio worried about the law, they claimed, and what would happen if we refused. They didn't understand that it was all a game to the other side, one that could have dire consequences if we played it wrong. Instead, they allowed fear to rule them, and I would have to stoop too far to keep them from attending the King. That left me stuck, fuming and ready to strangle the entire lot of them.
I slept roughly, tossing and turning as scenario after scenario ran through my dreams, each one worse than the one before it. Visions of Kian being pushed over the lip of the soul soup—his hand outstretched and my name on his pretty lips—taunted me. Trace was beheaded, his soul pouring out before swallowing me as it screamed. Axton appeared locked in a dark cell—his body so gaunt, he looked like a pile of bones beneath a cloth. The dreams drained me, sucking my energy away into the void.
When the sun rose, we donned our black uniforms and black cloaks in silence. My embroidered cloak had been upgraded with additional swirling lines along the edges. Beyond being slightly fancier in dress, my number had dropped as well. When we'd gotten our passes “fixed” so they had the ability to track us once again, the Technicians had also lowered my number. A promotion, they claimed. I only saw it as one more thing of my mother's that I'd lost in the effort to save souls I didn't even know. Most of the time, it felt like a fair trade, but sometimes, in the dark, it weighed me down like a punishment.
For too long, I'd stood in my room, rubbing the raised area along my wrist and staring at the pieces of my mother's chest the trio saved. Then Kian yelled for me, pulling me from the depths that swirled inside. After finishing the rest of my bottle of