“We all have our secrets, and I would never demand that you admit all of yours. Besides, this was a fun surprise. I feel like I haven’t had fun in forever.”
His frame relaxed, and his hands dropped as he blew out a sigh. Behind him, I caught my first good look at his wings. Sure, I’d seen them as essence, but that didn’t compare to the tangible beauty that was displayed before me.
He held the blue, fragile-looking things in an active position to allow me to explore every bit of them. Deceptive and starkly honest, the contradiction intrigued me, and I took a step closer. They appeared so thin and delicate that they were nearly translucent, but at the same time, the scars and bent veins lent them a hard edge.
Not thinking, I reached out and ran a trembling finger along the thickened margin of his left wing. Kian tensed up immediately, and I jerked my arm back. When he blew out a heavy breath, I squinted and dragged my finger over one of the darkened scars of his right wing. He shivered, and a little moan slipped free.
I grinned. This will be fun.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Several more sets passed with little progress. We gained more volunteers as our paid messages traveled about and began changing everyone’s perspectives. Grace created a small patch for our Reapers to add their cloaks. It became a symbol of the righteous and the bold.
Grace’s responsibilities were ramping up, as well. Noulian was right around the corner, so the Angels would open their half of the operation before long. I had no doubt that that part would quickly fill up with volunteers. After all, if the Reapers were good, the Angels had to be excellent. That, in turn, would garner us even more Reapers, because Reapers didn’t wish to appear inferior. In this instance, the competition between the two would produce some benefits for us.
Whispers of the King planning a massive celebration for the resolution of the devastation on Earth could be heard everywhere we went. The Soulless were absolutely worth their weight in credits for that alone. I’d charged Con with finding us some Soulless that would drop the rumor, and he’d come through. Now everyone wondered if we would have performers or music. And the date was well after the contract stated we were to be completed. I hoped it would spur him into actually doing it. If he didn’t, he’d have an entire country full of disappointed beings.
Axton and the others had encountered the flash a few more times, but never on the same planet, which made it hard to pin down a schedule. If we could just determine where they would be and when they would appear, we could at least discover their identity. It ate at Axton, leaving him grouchy. When he’d gone through the ferrule and found nothing new about Bevan’s murder, he’d become an asshole. I was one word away from strangling him.
Master Akai kept questioning me about my plan to kill the King as if it were a foregone conclusion. I fantasized about strangling Master Akai as well.
Both the whispers in my head and the pricks along my skin continued. I couldn’t figure out why my mind had turned against me so soundly, but I knew why my hair stood up on the back of my neck—they were still watching me. They hadn’t attacked me again, probably because Trace insisted that one of the trio escort me everywhere I went. That likely compounded my need to strangle Axton, but I tried to cooperate… sometimes.
Then, I had to go to another meeting. This time Trace babysat me, though he followed a few paces behind Grace and I. We wanted someone to show themselves. Not knowing who was after me only added unneeded worry, and I was convinced that it and the Earth issue were connected. Trace didn’t agree, saying that I’d likely pissed off so many others that our pool of killers was too large to be sure. Kian found that funny, of course, but I found it less so.
When Grace and I came to the side entrance to the palace, Trace jogged up and entered with us. She split off from us, waving as she walked towards Corin’s room, a little smile on her face.
“Her and the prince have something going on?” Trace leaned over and whispered to me as we watched her go.
“I think so, but she maintains that they don’t. That they’re merely discussing political moves that