Page 63 of A Vow of Shadows

Katrin

Iawoke in a bed with no recollection of how I’d gotten there. My stomach roiled, and I groaned, draping an arm across my face. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to rid it of the taste of stale paper. My head pounded, but the throbbing in my ankle had receded. Slowly, the events of the day before returned to me.

I remembered Evander leaving, drinking with Sam, the words we’d shared. I felt better staying here knowing he harbored no ill will toward me.

Weak sunlight filtered in through the single window, and I wondered if it was later that day or if I’d slept through the night. I rolled over and blinked to clear my vision. Beside me, the bed was empty. Not surprising even if Evander had returned, but it didn’t answer the question of if he had. Pushing myself into a sitting position, I rubbed the remaining sleep from my eyes. Blinking them again, I tried to look around and froze.

“Evander!” I cried.

There was commotion in the next room then a wild frenzy of beads exploding as Evander ran in, closely followed by Sam.

Sam gasped, but Evander’s solemn face told me everything I needed to know.

“I can’t see out of my left eye.” The mark had been spreading. Over the last several weeks, it had overtaken more of my face. I never dreamed this would be the result.

Evander rushed to my side. My body tipped as he sat on the edge of the bed, taking my face in his hands.

“You can’t see anything out of it?”

I closed my good eye and shook my head, Evander’s hands sliding to my shoulders. “It’s just black.” When I opened again, his face blurred through my tears. I tipped my head down as they fell, leaving tiny dots across the blanket.

With sure fingers, Evander tilted my chin up, dragging his knuckles over my tear-stained cheeks. I willed my gaze up to his and inhaled sharply at the strength radiating from his eyes. There was no condemnation in the grim set of his features, only concern and an edge of what I dared to call protectiveness.

Sam approached with the same casual air he always projected. “You look half demon now, Kitty Kat.”

Catching Evander’s hands in mine, I searched his face as though I would find Death’s plan written upon it. “Is that what he’s doing?” I asked, voice so high it squeaked. “Is he turning me into one of them?”

Evander’s mouth formed a hard line. “There’s no way of knowing what his plan is or what is within his power to do. We can only keep searching for a solution and hope that our luck does not run out.”

“Is this the luck you are referring to?” I gestured to my mark.

“I’m referring to the luck that brought you to perhaps the one reaper who has as much to gain from opposing Death as you do. I’m referring to the fact that up until now, you’ve managed to evade Death, a feat very few people have ever done.”

Sam nodded, and I bit my cheeks to keep from making a face.

Evander’s thumb absently stroked the back of my hand. “There are fresh clothes and food for you when you’re ready.”

At the mention of food my nausea returned. I pushed the blankets away, seized by a desperate urge to visit the outhouse. The reapers wisely moved out of my way as I half ran, half hobbled into the main room. I made it out the front door before the afternoon’s festivities caught up to me.

Kneeling at the bank of the swamp, I heaved into the dark waters until there was nothing more. With a final spit, I sat back on the mossy ground, wiping my sleeve roughly across my face.

“How charming,” hissed a voice from behind me.

I screamed, every nerve screaming at me to run.

Evander burst through the door before the echo of the sound fully faded, Sam on his heels. I rolled to face whatever demon had spoken and froze, mouth agape as I took in the creature before me.

“Ani.” Sam’s usually jovial voice was laced with confusion. “I don’t recall ever seeing you in my neck of the woods.”

The Ani in question may have stood on two legs like a person, but that was where the similarities ended. Standing a full head and shoulders over Evander, the demon towered over me where I remained on the ground. Black skin gleamed over a lean but muscular form with matching claws that looked like they could rip me open with a moment’s notice. To top it all, a face that was more canine than human. Not quite the dogs that Death’s Fangs were, but something clearlyother.

“It has been an age since I’ve deigned to stoop so low.” She—and it was female upon closer inspection—spoke with a mouth unaccustomed to speaking our language, her enunciation clumsy and full of teeth.

“And to what do we owe the pleasure now?” Sam asked. A black cane appeared in his hand, seemingly from nowhere. He twirled it absently as he took a casual step forward, placinghimself in the center of the triangle created by Evander, myself, and the newcomer.

It was an effort to keep her within the sightline of my good eye. I scrambled to my feet, still dwarfed by her sheer size. Her focus found me over Sam’s head, and she bared her teeth. Even between the two reapers, I was prey before a predator.

“There’s a lot of talk around The Between. Rumors claim a reaper brought over a human, but this—” Those inhuman eyes saw everything. “This is really something, Evander.”