I stabbed the blade into the part of the Reaper closest to me. It sank into the tender space below the armpit, and no obstructions paused my strike. It bit deep into the man’s flesh, until rich red blood leaked around the cut, and his fingers involuntarily uncurled, while a curse left his lips.
I dashed from the stool. Nobody had noticed Dray’s injury yet, and I only needed to escape through the doors and reach a horse. Though I’d ridden as a child, many years had passed since my last mount. But I knew this area better than these men, and it held many hollows for a woman to hide.
Shocked expressions faded behind me as I ran by them. The friendly chatter that tentatively restarted slowed to a murmur in my wake. I wasn’t sure if the townsfolk hushed to witness my flee, or if my ears simply quelled any unnecessary distractions.
A man pulled the door open as I neared. The floral-tinted air kissed my cheeks as it began to slowly close behind him.
So close.
I reached my hand out, looking through the crack to determine which animal would be the easiest to steal.
Commotion broke out behind me. I pushed harder until my lungs screamed for air and my sides burned like a hot poker to the gut.
My fingertips touched the knob.
A rigid line of icy coolness wrapped around my ankle. I didn’t waste a moment to glance down, and jerked the door open.
Silver moonlight smiled at me.
The clasp around my ankle jerked my foot from under me. I reached out to break my fall, and my palms smacked against the tavern floor, mere fingertips from the line of dirt outside. I rose to my elbows and tried to crawl, even as a darkness in my chest said it was impossible.
Whatever wrapped around my ankle began to coil up my legs. Unwillingly, I turned from my last possible escape and looked down.
An intricate silver thread wrapped both my legs together and continued to swirl higher and higher. The unbroken metal spanned across the room, where Dray lounged at the bar with one hand outstretched toward me. The silver wrappings around his leather armor appeared liquified and fluid, reforming to create the metal chain covering my body and binding me to him.
A metal-mover. Dray possessed a rare ability to control a specific type of metal.
The chain snaked up my hips and slipped beneath my shirt. Its icy touch stole my breath in a hiss, and Dray smiled at the sound. The coils came out of my sleeves and bound my wrists together, drew them near my chest, and tightened.
The bindings were more effective than a fish on a hook, and more humiliating. The tavern watched as Dray’s lead flexed again. He called the silver back to his body, drawing me toward him.
I couldn’t move, but I refused to close my eyes. He didn’t deserve that satisfaction. The pace those silver chains drew me across the floor seemed unnecessarily slow. It was likely a punishment of humiliation for causing him pain.
Finally, I stopped beside his black boots, and he used his toe to roll me onto my back. Humor danced in his green gaze, but a more ferocious and angry predator peered from behind.
Dray pulled the blade beneath his arm and let it clatter on the ground beside my head. Blood splattered cool against my face, as the bindings halted my ability to turn away.
“Stupid woman,” he said with a bright smile. “You can’t kill a Reaper.”
Dray bent and wrapped his hand around one of the chains trapping my wrists. He heaved me from the ground as though barely registering my weight. He drew my face close to his, until fire and smoke rolled over me, and set his lips against my ear.
“If you manage to break this curse while you still have breath in your lungs, I’ll make sure my name is the first word from those pretty little lips. And you’ll be screaming it.”
He stuffed a hand into his pocket, then smacked another pile of coins onto the bar.
“Get me a room,” he told the barkeep.
Chapter Two
Dray tossed me onto the bed in the hotel above the tavern. Music and chatter drifted from below.
I dreaded what they were about to hear coming from up here.
The Reaper turned and locked the door. He slipped his cloak off his shoulders, revealing the armor underneath. Silver trimming remained around his torso, but the details that had adorned his breeches were missing.
Because they wrapped around me.
Dray held a hand out from his side and flicked his fingers. The metal binding my legs and torso loosened. It slipped over me, feeling as alive as any scaled creature, and wound back up Dray’s body. Most of it reformed into the detailed patterns of the silver chain, but one long stretch slipped beneath the tunic’s sleeve and disappeared against Dray’s body.
