Because they were reapers, too.
And not just any reapers. With their hoods blown back by the wind, it was all too easy to recognize Reeve, Sage, and Ardin.
They weren’t abducting the children—they were fightingagainstthe abductors.
Viri had no time to make sense of what she was seeing, not when one of the reapers who had been tugging at a line of kids released his rope and charged her way. She acted on instinct, ducking as his fist flew at her face, then leaping backward when he slashed a dagger toward her abdomen. She didn’t have any of Wynter’s impedidust on her, nor any other handy alchemical experiments, just her weapons and her wits—but that was enough. Because when the reaper came at her again, instead of avoiding his attack, she rushed forward and pivoted at the last second, hissing when his dagger sliced through her cloak and grazed her forearm—a calculated sacrifice that allowed her to grab his arm and yank him off-balance. The slick, wet ground did the rest, his slipping feet giving her an opening to slap her fillium around his wrist, instantly incapacitating him. With a swift kick to his torso, she sent him crumpling to the side of the alley, a moan leaving him as he tried—and failed—to rise again.
Confident he was down for good as long as her golden cord was touching him, Viri whirled to meet her next opponent, frustratingly aware that she had only one fillium, and there were still six reapers left. No—five, she amended, watching as Reeve finished one off and spun in time to meet two others, rain cascading off his sculpted form. For a moment, she could only stare as hebattled in the storm, his sword slashing in one hand and dagger slicing in the other, his midnight hair plastered to his head, his eyes flashing like the lightning overhead. He was death incarnate, parrying and striking against his two opponents at an impossible speed, relentless in his assault. Viri had never seen anything so beautiful, so mesmerizing…so deadly.
With effort, she tore her gaze away, remembering where she was and the threat that remained. Sage was holding her own against a reaper, as was Ardin, but that still left one more, a woman who had been trying to single-handedly haul all twelve children away but had now abandoned them and was lunging for Viri, her dagger raised.
The woman’s speed was alarming—as was the strength of her attack when Viri stopped the blade with her own, every bone in her body jarred by the impact. She forced the weapon back with all her might, gaining just enough space to unsheathe her second dagger and stab it forward, straight after her first. But the reaper merely twisted at the waist before slashing with her own blade again, causing Viri to jump to the side to avoid being gutted.
“Not so powerful without your shiny little cord, are you?” the reaper sneered, her eyes dark with malice. “Let’s see how long you last without it.”
And then she lunged again—or tried to. But before she could make it one step, she gasped and stumbled, looking down incredulously at the black blade piercing her chest from behind.
Reapers could heal fast, especially when they were full of ellixen, but all the stolen magic in the world couldn’t save them from a death blow. There was nothing this woman could do against the sword spearing her heart, and the light quickly faded from her eyes as she crumpled to the ground—revealing the furious formof Reeve standing in her place, his weapon dripping blood, his thunderous gaze pinned on Viri.
“What thehellare you doing here?” he demanded over the torrential rain, stomping forward. It was only then that she realized the sounds of crashing steel had faded, with all seven reapers down for the count.
“Me?”she cried, panting hard and swiping wet hair out of her eyes. It was almost cathartic, having to shout to be heard. “What areyoudoing here? Why are you fighting your own kind?”
“You’re meant to be unconscious!” he returned angrily. “And I told you I’d explain everything when I got back!”
Viri’s knuckles tightened around her daggers, her anger easily as strong as his. “Because you’ve donesucha great job of explaining things so far! Did you really think I’d just twiddle my thumbs with your babysitter until you returned?”
His gaze slitted. “If you’d justwaited—”
“REEVE!”Sage screamed over the rain, her voice full of warning.
But his widening eyes revealed he’d already seen what she had, and he was instantly in motion, leaping toward Viri as eight new reapers appeared out of the shadows, one of whom flung an eerie red dagger with impossible speed—
Straight at Viri’s heart.
13
Reeve tackled Viri just in time, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her with bruising force. His weight pushed all the air from her lungs, but it was his pained groan that kept her from shoving him away and instead made her freeze beneath him.
“Reeve?” she wheezed out, then gasped when she caught sight of the red dagger embedded in his side—the dagger that had been meant forher. “You’re hurt!”
“Get your ass up or we’ll both be dead,” he grunted, rising to his feet and yanking the blade from his body with a sickeningsquelch.
Viri’s stomach roiled at the sound, then roiled again when she saw the amount of blood gushing from his wound. But the renewed clashing of steel told her Reeve hadn’t been exaggerating—Sage and Ardin were holding back the reapers, but there were too many for them to handle alone. Reeve was already rushing forward to help, and Viri didn’t delay in leaping up after him, automatically moving into position at his back. They were immediately targeted by four of the reapers, their blades slashing hardand fast, while three others continued their assault on Sage and Ardin. Where the eighth was, Viri couldn’t see, the chaos of the fight and the violence of the storm making it impossible for her to focus on anything other than trying to stay alive.
“Duck!”Reeve bellowed, and she instantly dropped, feeling thewhooshof his sword overhead as he spun in a circle, slicing straight through the middle of one of the reapers.
“Look out!”Viri shouted, and jumped back up to block a different reaper whose blade was on a trajectory for Reeve’s neck. She staggered against his strength, but it didn’t stop her from bringing her knee up to strike him in the groin, and when he doubled over, she sent her dagger straight into his chest.
“On your left!”Reeve yelled, but Viri was already being tackled to the ground for the second time that night, this time by a woman who snapped her teeth like a feral beast and clawed at Viri’s face with long fingernails.
Viri hissed as her cheek tore open, the rain adding to the sting, but she ignored the pain and bucked violently until the woman lost her grip and slipped off to the side. Shifting quickly, Viri only just managed to get one of her daggers up between them before the reaper was upon her again, not seeing the weapon until it was too late.
A gargled sound left the woman’s lips as she impaled herself on the blade, leaving Viri to crawl out from under her dying body while swallowing the urge to be sick. She was no stranger to death—she’d killed before while hunting, but when possible, she always tried to bring reapers in alive. Tonight, she’d already taken two lives…and those were just two of the many bodies surrounding her, lying in puddles of blood.
As much as Viri longed for a moment to catch her breath andcenter herself after what had just happened, the fight wasn’t over yet, so she forced herself back to her feet, tugged her final dagger from her boot to replace the one trapped beneath the woman, and reentered the fray.
The storm raged on above them, as merciless as the reapers, but Viri, Reeve, Sage, and Ardin were just as fierce, battling side by side and back-to-back as if they’d been fighting together for years. They began to take ground, the monsters falling one by one, until, finally, only the four of them remained standing, panting hard over the slain bodies and covered in so much blood and mud that not even the rain could wash it all away.
