was far too close to her. My immediate reaction was to scrunch my eyelids closed, but I could still see her.
Thump, thump.
Suddenly, I was plunged into darkness with only soft, floating orbs to keep me company. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision of tears and spots. The oppressive ache inside eased, leaving me sore like an old bruise had formed on my soul.
Thump, thump.
A cool aura crawled up my body slowly and stopped on my shoulder. Shadow sent a sense of mourning through me, worsening my tears. It seemed to bloom within me, growing with each struggling breath. No, Kian will be fine. I shoved the feeling away, packing it around the monster that… was it wiping its cheeks?
I shook my head and looked around. Grace was the first one I saw clearly. She sat crumpled, scrubbing her grey-stained hands on her soiled cloak. Sweat beaded her brow, and she had an unhealthy pallor to her skin.
“Hurry if you don’t want others to find you here,” she said, her voice hoarse.
Then she slumped forward and landed on Kian’s now-rising chest with a thump.
The sound of her head pushing air out of his lungs propelled me into action. I jumped up, startling Axton and Trace, who were checking the prone bodies that lay everywhere.
“We need to move. Grace’s glow or whatever will bring others. I don’t want to explain why or how this happened,” I said tersely.
Axton nodded, and Trace marched to one of the sobbing Reapers. He snatched the male up, presenting him to me like a morbid gift. I laid a hand on the Reaper’s tear-stained cheek and entered his jumbled mind.
I didn’t yank the memories out like I’d done to his friends, but I didn’t tarry either. Digging through his memory bank, I found what I searched for but growled when I discovered the textured edges around insertions. According to this male, they’d received a note to follow any of us that exited the palace. When they missed Grace, Trace, and I, they convened on a side street near the palace. They lucked up and spotted Axton and Kian crossing the road, and changed their plans, hoping to make up for their mistake.
They’d nearly killed Kian because they wanted to suck their boss’s ass. No, they had killed Kian. The male sagged in Trace’s hands as I clawed the rest of the memories out. When I opened my eyes, I looked up at Trace and growled. He nodded and dropped the Reaper like a piece of trash. We repeated the process with a few others, but none of them had any more information than the first guy.
“Axton,” I called, turning away from the useless Reaper.
He spun with a dopey look on his face and a soul connected to his hand. While I’d been busy murdering the rest, he’d reaped the first batch.
“Any memory of us or their death?” I asked. I hadn’t paid attention to the one I’d reaped and released earlier.
He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just blank.”
“Good. Leave them then. We’ve been here too long, and I’m feeling antsy.” I scratched at my legs as if to make my point.
They buzzed with the need to get moving.
“I’ll carry Kian, if you’ll take Grace,” Trace called.
He was back in his Reaper form, his cloak covering his torn uniform.
“We have another problem,” I sighed and gestured to Grace. “Her cloak is covered in blood. If we’re seen carrying two unconscious, blood-soaked bodies through the city, I doubt anyone will forget us quickly.”
“Too bad we couldn’t make them change,” Axton said, sounding like himself.
I glanced over at him, noting his usual swagger as he walked towards us. His grumpy expression seemed normal enough.
“We’ll just have to take the long way around. None of us can fly, right? No new or hidden talents?” I asked.
Both shook their heads.
I turned away from them and sighed, my hands on my hips as I surveyed my kingdom of destruction.
Chapter Sixty-One
In the binals that followed, Grace regained her strength and seemed to have no lasting physical effects. She explained that Kian had really died. As I’d thought, that’s what I felt the second time. Because of the mate bond, I experienced it when his heart stopped.
That news unsettled me greatly for many reasons. Merely knowing that Kian's anchors had withered cracked something inside of me. After she’d revealed that, I spent a long time doing nothing more than staring at him or resting my head on his chest so I could feel