Page 163 of Veil of Death and Shadow

“I think I’m good,” Sora whispered, pulling her arm back and quickening her pace up the stairs. She leaned heavily against the arm rail for support but made decent time up to the main floor. “Leg was really stiff, but moving it is helping I think.”

Alarms greeted us when we emerged into the fresh air, and while the echo of fighting surrounded the compound, we had a pretty clear path back. I sent a silent thank you to whoever organized this particular layout, deciding to keep their captives away from most of the House’s chaos. From here, we just had to hope that once we made it back over the fence, the Wrath recruits could restrain some of their bloodlust and stick to the mission. The faster we got out of here, the better. And that wouldn’t happen if they decided to start a full-fledged territory war right now.

Getting over the fence proved to be a bit of a struggle. I did my best to boost Sora up to the ledge as much as possible, and though I could see the pain lining her face as she hopped down over the other side, she didn’t make a sound or protest.

Out of fear of drawing attention to ourselves, we didn’t speak again until we were almost a full block away from the compound, just a few minutes’ walk from the rendezvous where we would meet Rina and the others.

“Thank you,” Sora whispered finally. “I seriously don’t know how you found me, but I’m profoundly fucking glad that you did.” The corner of her lips twisted into a small grin. “Your guardian angel give you a tip or something?”

I grunted. “Turns out he’s actually a reaper.”

Her eyes widened. “As in . . . grim?”

I nodded, shooting Kieran a look from the corner of my eye.

“What? Is he here?” She craned her neck, like she was trying to find him, her gaze hitting everywhere except to my otherside, where Kieran walked silently with Thorne lobbed over his shoulder.

I nodded again.

“Mars,” she shoved my uninjured arm, some of the playful energy I was used to seeping back into her features now that we were almost home free, “you seriously mean to tell me that you’re being stalked by a literal grim reaper and you decided it was a good idea to break into one of the compounds on a rescue mission? Have you lost your mind? Do you have a death wish?”

“You didn’t leave me much of a choice,” I grumbled. “Sometimes, when it comes to the people we love, we make reckless decisions. Like,” I shot her a knowing look, “trusting a smarmy redhead from the market.”

She winced, and her entire face scrunched with the expression. “Fair point.” She smirked. “You know what this means, right?”

“Hm?”

“Now you reallyarebeing haunted by death.” She let out a bemused laugh. “Can’t believe you were right in the end. The curse lives.”

“Me . . . right?” I grinned. “I do like the sound of that, though I would absolutely prefer if it were about something a little less depressing.”

“Hey!” A loud voice barked behind us.

The ease of the last few minutes deflated instantly when we turned towards the voice.

Kieran cursed next to me, adjusting his hold of the unconscious reaper.

There was a woman jogging after us, maybe in her early thirties. She wore a purple silky pajama set, and her blonde hair was crumpled on one side like she’d just been pulled from bed.

Definitely not a member of our rescue party.

“Agony,” Kieran warned, fear riding his voice as he shifted in front of me.

I followed his gaze, and my stomach dropped. Dangling in her right hand was a gun. And when I slowly tugged my focus up, I saw that her eyes were laced with tears and a flaring hatred.

“You need to run,” Kieran said, his voice quiet but firm.

Sora froze next to me, her hands held up in surrender. “Look, we don’t want any trouble. We’re not part of this fight. We just want to go home.”

She was too injured to run, and I didn’t trust that this woman wouldn’t shoot us the instant we tried.

“Mareena,” Kieran begged again, his body fully in front of me now, even though we both knew that wouldn’t do anything.

A few people rounded the corner about two hundred feet away, and I recognized the masked, all-black uniform of the Wrath recruits—Jenson among them. When they spotted us, they took off running in our direction.

“Bit late for that don’t you think?” The woman sneered; her focus locked on Sora. She raised the gun, until it pointed at her head. “I told them to just kill you. Don’t know why they insisted on fucking playing around. Children, all of them.”

“Please, you have to listen to us,” Sora started, but she flinched when the woman’s grip tightened. “Whatever you think I did, I didn’t?—”

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