Page 12 of Temple of Magic and Bone

Isaac came back with their drinks and looked between them. "Everything okay here?"

"I'm going to need three shots of tequila in a glass, no ice," Elektra said, rubbing her temples.

"Vanth, are you giving this nice lady a nervous breakdown already?"

Vanth gave him a smile. "She's no lady." Elektra stuck her middle finger up at him, making Vanth laugh. "You see? Get her the tequila."

Isaac gave him a salute and headed back to the bar.

"So what order or whatever are you a part of?" Vanth said. Clearly, the subject of his father was something she was going to have to work up to.

"I'm a reaper with the Temple of Magic and Bone. The same one that your mother was a member of. She told you that, at least?" Elektra asked.

Vanth shook his head. She let out a long breath of expletives.

"None of those better be aimed at my mother," he said and drained his espresso.

Elektra rubbed at her temples again and ignored his threat. "Let me eat something first, and I will try and explain things the best way I can. Where is your mother?"

"Somewhere safe. I'm not going to tell you until I can trust you," Vanth replied. He gave her a wry smile. "You charge in and say that people want to kill me, and it's got something to do with my father and a temple my mother used to be a part of. I'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to tell you where she is, darling."

"I suppose that's fair." Elektra's eyes narrowed. "And stop calling me darling."

Vanth's smile only widened. Oh, he was going to enjoy playing with this one. She was feisty, and he liked it. Paired with the death magic humming around her, he couldn't help but want to press all her buttons and see what made her work. He had never met anyone who could get through his wards or scare his ghosts, for that matter.

He was going to find out exactly what she was because she might very well be the one person in Inferno who could kill him.

7

By the time their food arrived, Vanth was ravenous. Isaac looked between him and Elektra and the mountain of food that was between them. They must have looked insane, but Vanth was too hungry to care. Isaac could tease him later about it.

Elektra all but fell on her food. She must have been starving the last three days. That protective urge welled up inside him again, but Vanth ignored it.

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked as she picked up bacon with her fingers and stuffed it into her mouth.

"It was dinner time about three days ago," Elektra said. She swallowed her bacon and stared at her plate. "They attacked the temple that night."

"Who arethey?" Vanth asked, putting down his burger. She seemed to hesitate, so he added, "Come on, I need to know everything if I'm going to trust you. I need to know what I'm getting myself into and who exactly is after me and how the fuck my father fits into all of this."

"They once lived with us at the Temple of Magic and Bone. It exists in a place that is neither the Veil nor this world. It isan in-between place where very few can enter." Elektra picked up her beer and drained half of it. "Your mother was a reaper for over two hundred years. The main purpose of our temple is to protect the Veil and to ensure that its power isn't abused by people with our special abilities. Our members all have a form of necromancy power. They are reapers who assist in sending lost souls through the Veil and make sure that no creatures or malicious spirits come through it from the other side. Did you never wonder where your powers came from?"

Vanth pushed a chip around his plate and tried to process what she was telling him. "To be honest, I always thought that I was probably cursed. My mother taught me how to handle most of my power when I was a boy, and then mages in the city taught me the rest until they realized the connection that I had with the dead, and that scared them. I left them without completing my studies." Vanth ate his chip. "My mother never told me any of this. Her magic is different from mine. She has abilities to see the dead and to feel them, but she can't control them like I can. She also has gifts of foresight that I don't. I don't know why she would never tell me she was a part of some special temple of reapers that looks after the dead."

Elektra pushed aside her plate just in time for Isaac to bring out their steaks. "That is because it is a secret. Only a select number of people know that we exist because people fear necromancy so much. Usually, if any children present abilities like ours, we will recruit them. That's why there's so few necromancers wandering around."

Vanth knew necromancy was an unusual ability, but maybe it wasn't as rare as he thought. "So why didn't one of you come and try and recruit me when I was a kid? Don't like half-breeds?"

Elektra's eyes narrowed. "We don't care what you are or where you come from. By the time that we knew you existed, you were too old to be recruited. Your mother was pregnant whenshe left us, but only our high priestess knew about it. They were both determined to keep you a secret in order to keep you safe."

"If that's true, how do you know about me now?"Vanth asked.

Elektra cut her steak into precise pieces that told Vanth she also had a lot of experience with daggers and other bladed weapons.

"I don't really know where to begin this story," she said, stabbing one of the pieces with her fork. "I expected you to know most of this. Why hasn't your mother told you? According to our high priestess, Eiline was meant to tell you when you came of age."

Vanth hesitated and then said, "My mother is unwell." He didn't want to tell her much more than that. Her curse made her too vulnerable. "Why don't you start by telling me who attacked your temple? And why do you think that they want me?"

"They call themselves the Cult of Shadows and Blood." Elektra's lip lifted in a sneer. "They have styled themselves as the opposite of the reapers and the Temple of Magic and Bone."

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