Page 27 of TBR: Dead But Well Read

“What were you thinking?” I paced the length of the dining hall, too angry at Zacharias to sit.

My muscles flexed and the need to do something, anything, to burn off the rage that was consuming me from the inside out.

“Calm down. You’re acting like I was trying to kill off all the collectors, rather than deal with three troublesome collectors who were sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.” Zacharias lifted his wineglass and sipped the burgundy liquid.

His nonchalance fanned the flames of my wrath.

“Troublesome collectors? Have you lost your mind?” I strode to the table to stand in front of him. Leaning down, I flattened my palms on the table. “Do you know who they are?”

Zacharias swirled the wine in his glass. “No. Should I?”

“They are the Knights Baudelaire,” I hissed.

A perverse part of me enjoyed watching the blood drain from Zacharias’ face as he realized how far the repercussions for his actions might travel.

Grabbing the wine bottle off the table, I lifted it to my lips and took a long drink. It was rare that I drank, but if anyone deserved a drink, it was me.

“Do you know if he survived?” Zacharias asked, voice tight.

Good. He finally understood the depth of the dung he’d dove headfirst into.

I shrugged, dropping into a chair at the far end of the table. “How many do you know that survive having their chest sliced open like they were being autopsied?”

The man had lived, but I wasn’t going to let Zacharias off the hook so easily. Reapers formed families just like collectors—close-knit teams that worked well together and watched each other’s backs.

Zacharias, my brother, and I had been a team. Then Philetus was murdered, and the reapers had refused to aid us in the hunt for his killer.

They claimed reapers weren’t meant to be the judges of right or wrong, and we definitely didn’t go around enacting justice. Our job was simply to collect souls and escort them to the beyond.

Unwilling to give up, I’d petitioned the court to make an exception more times than I could count, but they had denied the request every single time.

After their last refusal, I’d forced myself to accept the decision and do my job. My loyalty to my species drove me forward, helping me to survive the loss of my brother.

That loyalty vanished the instant I’d learned the truth. The reaper court knew who my brother’s killer was, and they had sealed the record away to ensure no one avenged Philetus’ death.

I’d been furious, yet no one had listened to me.

No one except Zacharias. And it was Zacharias who’d come up with a plan for us to get that file.

No one could visit the court or enter the coliseum without a summons. And even if you had a summons, you were only permitted entrance if you had an escort at your side.

But once a year, the court threw an extravagant feast and sent invitations to every reaper. For one hour, we sat and ate, strengthening the bonds between us. It was a unique experience since reapers were reclusive by nature.

This was only possible thanks to an ancient agreement with the collectors. For one night, they made sure most of their collectors were out scouring the earth for stray souls, picking up the slack while the reapers were MIA. With the collectors’ help, and long overtime hours, we could enjoy our feast and maintain order.

Zacharias had located a warlock who’d given him the recipe to make an energy explosive similar to the fireworks humans loved to include in their celebrations. It wasn’t powerful enough to harm, but it would provide the perfect distraction.

It was timed to go off during the feast, and we could sneak into the records room without an escort, because all the reapers would be at the feast or investigating the explosion.

Zacharias was risking punishment to help me obtain the files on my brother’s murder. He hadn’t given up on doing right by Philetus, and for that, he had my unquestioning loyalty.

At least I’d never had a reason to question it until today.

The Zacharias I’d watched in that chamber was one I didn’t recognize. He’d almost seemed to enjoy the violence.

Reapers had been created to be powerful. We could focus all our attention on our job because we knew no other paranormal could compete with our abilities. The reapers who had died throughout history were almost always due to freak accidents.

Our abilities were only supposed to be used for defense on the rare occasion that the need arose. Zacharias claimed he was only defending himself, but I knew what I’d witnessed. He didn’t have a ghost with him, so he could have stepped into the reaper realm and he would have been out of their reach.

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