But she wasn’t too late to save the two other children, a boy and a girl who were huddled together, the fear on their tear-stained faces indicating they knew exactly what kind of monster they faced.
They hadn’t seen Viri yet. But the man—the reaper—stilled,his neck swiveling her way, a sneer on his lips. With blond hair and blue eyes, he might have been handsome, if not for the fresh, undiluted magic emanating from him, the sacrifice of his young victim revealed in angry black streaks along the veins in his hands and up his bare forearms. Those streaks—visible only to hunters and reapers—would remain painted into his flesh until the power he’d stolen faded, offering irrefutable proof of his wicked crimes.
Crimes for which he was about to pay.
The reaper moved a step toward Viri, his sneer deepening, his eyes glazed as he adjusted to the surge of ellixen—of magic—flooding through him. The amount differed from child to child, but it was always enough to grant reapers increased speed and strength, enhanced senses, and swift healing. In some cases, it even added years to their lives.
Stolenyears.
The price was too high, as was the guilt Viri felt for every person she failed to save. But there would be no more deaths tonight, no more victims for her to mourn. Only justice.
And one day, vengeance.
This soon after siphoning, the reaper would be stronger and faster than anything Viri could hope to match, so she couldn’t let him make the first move and gain the upper hand. Quashing any hesitation, she lunged forward, uncoiling her gold fillium from around her wrist and flicking the whiplike cord through the air. The metallic weapon cleaved the space between them, her aim true if not for the man leaping away at the last second, his gray cloak flapping around him, glass shattering as he slammed into a shelf to avoid her attack. Viri immediately cast her fillium again, causing him to dodge once more—breaking even more glass—but he recovered faster this time and sprang toward her,his black-veined arms outstretched as if to strangle her with his bare hands.
Viri didn’t give him the chance. She spun out of the way and lashed her fillium low, aiming for his ankles to impede his advance. In quick succession, she cast it twice more, but his enhanced speed kept him one step ahead of her attacks.
And then, suddenly, he was right in front of her, his fist flying toward her face. The move was so fast that his arm blurred, and only years of training had her twisting in time to avoid a shattered cheekbone. His knuckles still managed a glancing blow, and she hissed as the ring on his middle finger tore open her flesh. Blood instantly welled from the wound, but Viri ignored the pain and scurried behind a wooden barrel, trying to gain enough distance to cast her fillium again.
Her opponent was no fool—he knew what a single touch of her weapon would do to him, just as he knew its reach was limited at close range, so he rushed forward, not affording her any space, his fist coming at her once more. She ducked and whirled away again, but as she straightened, she heard the children cry out a warning as the man unsheathed a dagger and leapt toward her in a burst of speed, the blade glinting beneath the everbeacons.
Viri had been hunting long enough to have had experience with many kinds of reapers. Some were easy to capture, particularly those new to siphoning and unused to their ellixen-heightened abilities. The same was true for those addicted to the euphoric high that came with a fresh sacrifice, preferring to remain in their druglike state than resist arrest.
The man before Viri was neither a novice nor an addict—he clearly knew how to use his stolen magic, and he’d also had physical training. That made him dangerous.
But not as dangerous as Viri.
She’d noted his dagger the moment she had arrived in the cellar, she’d known he would pull it on her—and she’d been waiting.
The smirk on his lips and the triumph in his eyes as he stabbed his blade forward told her that he was just like every other reaper who was arrogant enough to underestimate her. They all assumed her fillium was the only weapon she carried, or at least the only one that could incapacitate them. Indeed, the man lunging at her was so focused on the threat of her metallic cord that he missed her pulling a vial from her cloak and using her thumb to unstopper it.
But he didn’t miss her blowing the silver powder straight into his face.
The reaper’s eyes rounded as the impedidust took effect, freezing him in place, the lethal strike of his dagger halted in the air between their bodies.
A quick glance down showed Viri how perilously close the blade was to gutting her, but she didn’t waste time dreading what might have happened if the experimental—and highly illegal—powder hadn’t worked, nor did she revel in the reaper’s immobilized state. With so much ellixen coursing through his veins, the impedidust wouldn’t hold him long, so she hastily slapped the dagger from his grip and used one end of her fillium to bind his wrists, nullifying his power. As long as the golden cord touched him, his enhanced abilities would be suppressed, his magic not only inaccessible but actively draining him of energy as it resisted the fillium’s effects, rendering him weak and vulnerable—and completely at Viri’s mercy.
She’d barely stepped back when the impedidust wore off andthe reaper staggered forward, not to continue his attack but to keep himself from falling over.
“What did you do to me?” he rasped, swaying drunkenly and struggling to remain upright.
Viri wasn’t sure if he was asking about the fillium or the impedidust, but regardless, she simply declared, “On behalf of the Hunters’ Guild, you’re under arrest for the unlawful siphoning of ellixen and associated crimes against humanity.”
“I’m innocent,” he spat—or tried to. The words were slurred, his strength swiftly fleeing.
Raising an incredulous eyebrow, Viri glanced at the body of the boy lying mere feet away. But in doing so, she remembered the two other children, who watched with wide-eyed wonder, fear still on their faces but also tentative hope.
“Don’t move,” Viri told the reaper before starting toward the children.
“I don’t take orders from you,” he snarled, lunging after her—only to trip over one of the barrels they’d disturbed during their skirmish, leaving him groaning in a heap on the dusty, glass-strewn floor.
Normally Viri would have felt immense satisfaction in seeinghim so weak—especially considering he’d tried to disembowel her just moments ago—but at the rate the fillium was draining him, it wouldn’t be long before he lost consciousness. No matter how many times she witnessed her weapon in action, she would never get used to how debilitating its effects were. And while that was usually a boon, the last thing she wanted was to drag the reaper’s heavy body all the way back to the Underlock, so they needed to get moving,now.
But first…
“Are either of you hurt?” Viri asked as she approached the children, wincing as broken glass crunched gratingly underfoot. She kept a tight grip on her fillium, with the other end still binding the reaper, who was cursing loudly as he tried to rise on wobbly legs, no longer a threat to any of them.
The children shook their heads and got shakily to their feet, clutching each other with trembling hands.
