Page 55 of Veil of Death and Shadow

Then again, I rarely spent my vacation time chasing after people I’d encountered before.

I always wanted something fresh, something new. I didn’t like lingering in the past.

Of course, when I saw her that night, tangled up between those two lusty twats, I couldn’t keep away. Couldn’t let them have her.

“Mareena.” I whispered her name, just so that I could taste its shape on my tongue again. She was just a girl, but something about her lured me in, turned me stupid. I made bad choices around her. Dangerous choices.

I still had no idea why I’d saved her the day of The Undoing. But I was damn glad I had. Maybe, on some level, I’d sensed what was coming, the strangeness in the world. The fabric of the shadow realm coming apart at the seams.

Whatever it was, it happened. Maybe some spark of the shadow magic had lodged itself inside of her that day, gave her a bit of a safeguard against the memory tug. Weirder iterations of the power had grabbed hold of the mortal world.

It hardly mattered. I’d never see her again.

The stranger, more annoying part of it all was that I wanted to. Desperately.

Futile as it was, I’d already done the math, thought about how long it might be before I’d earn another traipse in her world. It’d probably be at least a year, maybe two. Still, the brief moments of reprieve between the hangover and wanking at the memory of her taste were spent plotting and daydreaming about my next vacation. That, and trying to contrive opportunities to steal some extra power—rush the process along faster.

Of course, with the trials coming up, I wouldn’t have quite so many opportunities.

Maybe I could convince Rafi to get me out of it. He’d be glad for an excuse to get me out of his hair anyway.

“You look like shit.” Thorne stood at the opening of my little alley, his face etched with its customary look of disdain.

“Morning to you too, sunshine,” I said, forming the words around the cigarette still hanging between my lips.

“Rafi says you have two days to pull your shit together.” Thorne’s lip curled in disgust. “We’ve been summoned for thenew recruits, but if anyone sees you this weak,” he nudged his chin up, “looking like this, you’re fucked.”

So was he, which was what he was really getting at. Thorne hated everything about everyone, but he hated me especially. His fate was tied to mine—a cage. And under his absurd doctrine, he owed me a debt.

Something that only made that hatred flare.

Something I enjoyed lording over him whenever I got bored. Which, in this place, was pretty often.

“New class of the dead.” I inhaled another drag. “How exciting.”

It wasn’t and we both knew it.

Time spent with the Order was dangerous.

Especially now.

If we survived the next month, it’d be a miracle.

Normally, I wouldn’t be fussed—the call of the void wasn’t usually something I feared. But if I was stripped of my power now, then I wouldn’t get another vacation. There’d be no coming back. Which meant no more real cigarettes. No more real booze. No more her.

“Stop fucking around,” he said. “I mean it. What the hell did you do last week? Spend every last ounce?”

Yep. Literally.

I’d never been pulled so violently from a stint before. Supposed I should have been grateful I at least got to finish.

But fuck, what I wouldn’t give for another thirty minutes, or a round two.

The memory of the desire in her dark eyes, hot and hungry, resurfaced.

I exhaled, grinning when the cloud of smoke made him snarl. “Worth it.”

“What happened to showing the kid around, imbibing in something briefer for the holiday, like the rest of us. Exercising fucking restraint.”

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