Then the forest was gone and we were on the gray fields, and somehow everything seemed brighter, more beautiful, and so damn tranquil that I wanted to cry. It almost seemed like I was seeing it clearer than I ever had before.
And then something happened.
The gray fields shuddered. Shifted. Leaned. As if it were a structure from which one of its main supports had been removed. The brightness flickered briefly then returned, but the tranquility was gone, replaced by a sudden uneasiness.
Then the fields were gone and I was back in my room at the Langham. I pulled away from Azriel, my heart going a million miles an hour as I said, “What the hell just happened?”
“That,” he said grimly, “was the answer to your previous question.”
No, I thought. No. I licked dry lips and said, “And just which question are we talking about?”
And all the while, the litany inside my head was going, No, no, no. Please God no.
“Remember wondering what the thief planned to do with the key?” He thrust a hand through his matted hair, and the sheer depth of the anger and frustration rolling off him just about stole my breath. “Well, that movement we felt in the gray fields was our answer. They’ve forced the first portal open.”
I all but collapsed onto the bed. “Oh, fuck,” I whispered.
“Indeed,” he agreed. “The shit has well and truly hit the fan.”
And it was all our fault, because we’d had the key in our hands and still had managed to lose it.
“We need to stop this, Risa, before it goes any further.”
I raised my gaze to his. “How? We’re doing all that we can right now.”
“But it’s not enough. These people obviously seek the destruction of both our worlds, and they are still out there.”
“That doesn’t answer the question, Azriel.”
“No.” He spun away, walked to the window, every movement screaming of anger. “We do what we have to do—we track down these people by whatever means necessary.”
By whatever means necessary.
I had a bad feeling the days ahead were going to get very long and very dark.
And very fucking bloody.
And if you missed it, be sure to pick up
Darkness Unbound
by
KKERI ARTHUR,
the first exciting installment of Risa’s story.
Available now.
Here’s a special preview:
I’VE ALWAYS SEEN THE REAPERS.
Even as a toddler—with little understanding of spirits, death, or the horrors that lie in the shadows—I’d been aware of them. As I’d gotten older and my knowledge of the mystical had strengthened, I’d begun to call them Death, because the people I’d seen them following had always died within a day or so.
In my teenage years, I learned who and what they really were. They called themselves reapers, and they were collectors of souls. They took the essence—the spirit—of the dying and escorted them onto the next part of their journey, be that heaven or hell.
The reapers weren’t flesh-and-blood beings, although they could attain that form if they wished. They were creatures of light and shadows—and an energy so fierce, their mere presence burned across my skin like flame.