Page 124 of Dark Angel

Pulling away, she clears her throat before speaking. “I don’t know, but I need to see Will. He needs to know that his sister is still alive.”

Jordan nods, wiping a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “All right. Let’s go speak with him then.”

42

A Heart Tears Too Easily

Blood.

That’s what she first smells when they enter Will’s property. It’s a sour, coppery scent that stains the stale air. There’s also another pungent smell lingering. It’s musty and vile, almost bringing Kora to tears, it’s that intense.

Kora has been in this house many times throughout her childhood and adolescent years, but she’s never felt this anxious being in here before. Fear flickers deep in her stomach, sparking into flames when she smells the dreadful odours mixing together. Her stomach twisting as her mind races.

“Will!” she calls out, even though she anticipates finding the worst.

She rushes forward, combing through the parlour, the drawing room, the kitchen and the dining room. Will’s not anywhere to be found.

A sudden wave of relief ripples through her veins. Perhaps he managed to get out, and it’s not his gore she’s smelling. Maybe it’s someone else’s or a trick of her nose.

Then her reprieve drains away when Jordan calls her upstairs. Thundering up the staircase, she sees Jordan hovering in the doorway leading to one of the quarters.

Hot, sticky bile forms as a lump in her throat as she pushes past him.

Blood.

Gore.

Festering flesh.

“No.” she breathes out, falling to her knees in front of Will’s perishing body. It reeks of waste and deterioration. Decaying skin peeling back from bones, making her insides roil violently. Something attacked him, but no carvings are etched into his flesh.

“Kora. He’s been dead a while,” Jordan says in his usual calm tone.

“Who would have killed him, though? Who would have done this?”

Jordan rubs his head. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t look to be a sacrifice.”

She hesitates for a moment before reaching out and closing his eyelids with her fingertips. His skin is cold and stiff under her touch. Hazel eyes glazed over, yet dry. Another sob escapes her throat, and Jordan’s hand gently rubs her back.

“We need to tell the other Elders.” He says after she takes a moment to collect herself. Her shoulders shake with each sob. She’s already lost both of her parents and now her uncle. Jordan prays to the Angels that she doesn’t lose Clarence, otherwise she will be completely shattered.

“He’s gone,” she rasps out quietly. “You don’t think he was killed for knowing about Colton, do you?”

Jordan blinks down at her. That’s exactly what he was thinking, but he shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

Once her tears are dry and her sobs are silent, Jordan walks her out of the house, the rotting stench replaced with wintry freshness as soon as they’re outside approaching the carriage.

The coach ride to the Ascendancy is quiet. Kora silently cries as Jordan drives them.

As soon as they halt out the front of the grand building, Jordan helps her down. His hand never leaving her back, he guides her up the stairs towards Robert’s office.

She’s never been up to the top floor before.

The domed roof floods with frosty sunlight. Snow drifts against the glass, collecting and melting above them.

“Kora.” She hears Clarence’s voice.

Her miserable gaze snaps onto his troubled one as he hastily approaches the two of them.

---