Page 160 of Veil of Death and Shadow

“What?” I asked, fighting to keep my surprise contained to a whisper. “You’re not coming with me? You’re going with them?”

Sora was her twin for fuck’s sake. Why the hell would she trust two randos with her safe retrieval? Especially when the members of Wrath were not known for their discretion or compassion.

Her face contorted with indecision before she shook her head. “I think it’s best to save the reunion with my sister until after we’re done here. Don’t want the . . . shock of it all to add an extra layer of unknown to how this all might unfold. There are too many contingencies already.” She nodded to two dark figures at my back. They’d both been packed into our car on the way over, but neither had uttered a word the entire trip. “Ben and Jason will go with you. If things go bad and you run into anyone on your way in, they’ll take care of them. I don’t want you or my sister to get involved in a fight. The boys are trained for this shit.” She gave my arm a gentle squeeze, before adding, “It’sbetter this way. Just get in, get out, and don’t get distracted by the chaos we’ll be causing on our end of the compound, okay?”

I nodded, biting back my disappointment that I’d have to rely on two strangers to help me find and break Sora out safely.

After a moment of hesitation, she handed me the switchblade she’d been fidgeting with earlier. “You know how to use one of these?”

“Stabby end into flesh.” I deadpanned.

With a wry grin, her eyes cut to mine, a flash of the old her peeking through again. “Be careful, Mareena.” Then the corner of her lips dipped, small lines of tension forming around all of the things still unspoken between us. “Get her out, okay? She’s there because of me, and if something happens to her, I . . .” She shook her head, her teeth tugging on her bottom lip. “I won’t forgive myself.”

Sensing that no words could ease her fear, I only nodded once before we parted ways.

Ben and Jason were silent as we started on the route Rina and the others had laid out for us. It was perhaps unadvisable, but I kept closer to my reapers than the human boys, feeling oddly safer with them nearby . . . even though they were technically here for my death.

Maybe, after all these years, I was simply more comfortable with Death. My entire life was measured through the moments that he pierced into my world. I hated him, but the devil you know, I supposed. Ben and Jason were strangers.

Lust’s compound was fenced in, but it wasn’t as heavily guarded as Wrath’s. Danvers’s information pointed to a weak point in the perimeter, and when the shouts of conflict echoed from the opposite end—no doubt part of the recruits’ ruse—we climbed and made it over the fence with relative ease.

Thorne and Kieran, of course, simply walked through the brick wall.

The politics of the Seven Sons never made much sense to me, but it was strange to think that House of Lust was the strongest rival of the militant group I’d spent the last few hours with. Everything I’d learned about this compound had been centered around hedonism and freedom—a less intentional or safe version of Incendiary in some ways. Hard to see how their strength could match up to a house like Wrath. Or why Wrath would even be interested in picking a fight with them of all the Sons.

Then again, maybe a perceived lack of security was its own power move; the illusion of confidence did wonders sometimes.

Our path to the building where they kept their prisoners was quick and vacant. Rina was right—other than the distraction playing out on the other side of the compound, the entire place seemed to be mostly asleep, and the building where Sora was likely being kept was isolated far from the rest of the buildings on their grounds, which meant that we didn’t run into anyone on our hike towards it.

When we reached the main door, it was locked. Ben, or maybe Jason, I honestly wasn’t sure who was who—got to work picking it, but after a few seconds, Kieran shot them a tired look and passed through the door.

There was a soft click, and the door swung open.

It was Kieran’s doing, of course, but one of the boys congratulated the other on a new personal record, by roughly punching his shoulder.

We made our way through the corridor, eyes peeled for the staircase from Danvers’s notes.

Strangely, navigating our way through the building in the dark was the most difficult part so far. We didn’t want to use a solar flashlight on the off chance that it would draw attention to our presence. When I tripped over a worn area of carpet, Kieran caught me before I fell on my ass. Wordlessly, he grabbed myhand, guiding me through the labyrinth with comparative ease, leaving Ben and Jason to scramble after us in a hushed rush. Apparently, reapers could see in the dark no problem.

Clinging to him, I did my best to ignore the fact that I still felt safe with him. He wasn’t my guardian, but he still felt like it. Which meant that, once again, my brain wasn’t on my side. The bitch was allergic to logic and reason.

But as angry as I was about, well, everything, I couldn’t shake Thorne’s words.

This situation we were in—none of it was Kieran’s fault. And, if I was honest with myself, most of the anger I’d been taking out on him was probably just my way of edging out the blazing fear that had been clawing at my lungs since the second reaper’s arrival. Hell, since Sora’s disappearance. Kieran was an easy punching bag through which to filter it all.

“I don’t like this,” he whispered, even though Thorne and I were the only ones who could hear him. “This is too easy.”

I didn’t respond, because unlike the reapers, my voice could actually be heard, but I held onto the hope that maybe this would actually turn out okay—end well, even. It had been a long ass night. The last twelve hours truly felt like twelve years. Maybe we’d earned easy at this point.

We’d get Sora, we’d all survive to see her reunite with her twin, and we’d go from there. Wilder things had happened. Tonight, alone.

“On the plus side,” Thorne said, shooting an annoyed look at the two recruits we’d been saddled with for help, “demons don’t particularly like fraternizing with the Seven Sons. If these dimwits were the best the girl’s friends could spare, I assume we won’t be contending with any particularly impressive sheep here either.”

“This is it,” I said, squeezing Kieran’s hand to get him to stop.

We were in the basement, and a single lightbulb illuminated the otherwise vacant hallway. We stood outside of a giant room, the walls surrounding it made up of giant windows. And inside the windowed room was a winding labyrinth of cages where they used to keep animals up for adoption in the Before.

There, in the far corner, was a small, curled up lump.

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