Page 34 of The Crow Games

For a moment I was too shocked with this show of magic to protest. This was power I’d never seen before in all my centuries. His magic was wintery cold and smooth along the hot surging pulse in my wrists. I struggled briefly against the dark bonds to test their strength, a futile effort. They were as solid as steel. Wasting anymore precious energy on them wouldn’t be prudent.

Based on the vehement way he glowered, shooting him hadn’t been prudent either. It sure sent a clear message, though. I wouldnotbe spied upon.

“I would like my things back,” I said, mustering calm. Hopefully he couldn’t hear the panicked patter of my heart. The organ insisted on giving me away.

“You’ve been a villain,” he tutted, brow wrinkled in pain. “You don’t get to make demands of me now.”

My stomach fluttered with nerves. If he was going to kill me, I’d rather he just got on with it. “You were a villain first, and you were spying on me again.”

He moved in so close I could feel his breath, hot and angry, against my lips. “You’re not turning this around on me, troublemaker. Youshotme, a member of your coven.”

“You’re only a member through deceit and technicality. You tried to have me killed yesterday, you lout!” My vision narrowed on the threat before me, and the pulse in my throat jumped. “I had good cause to shoot you. If you don’t want me to do it again, you should stay far away from me.

“I wasn’t trying to murder you, you little monster,” he rumbled. “I didn’t know how your powers worked—still don’t understand them. That wasn’t sabotage. I’m a ferrier of souls. I deal with death enough as it is. I don’t add to my load by killing people.”

“And Hel is hot,” I said with a laugh that had no humor. “You’re full of it.”

“I admit I attempted to mislead you the first time we spoke. You’re a vicious thing. I didn’t think you’d answer my questions unless you believed I was equally vicious. And then . . .” His words trailed away, and his multicolored eyes sharpened, deep browns and dark blues melting into the black. He chewed at his cheek.

I thought for sure he could hear my heart. It was making such a racket in the quiet. I swallowed. “And then what?”

“And then you just walked away from me. The nerve of you.” His stony expression cracked into a crooked grin that was more appealing than it had any right to be. “No one walks away from me, Trouble. They run. They hide. They don’t walk.”

“If you enjoyed that so much, let me go. I’ll show it to you again.”

“It made me more curious about you than is strictly good for my health. Clearly.” The singed bullet hole continued to leak billowy death magic. He stuck his finger in it, stoppering it. “Now, where is the rest of our coven?”

“Oh, I’m not telling you anything. Did the bullet I put in your chest not make that clear? You’ll get no cooperation from me. You or your god.”

Asher growled something unintelligible under his breath. He pulled me unceremoniously out of the building by the same shadows that bound me, back into smoldering heat and endless sandstone. The soft sand betrayed me. He tracked my boot prints easily.

When I tried to thwart him, he pulled me down to the ground and dragged me behind him through the dirt on my back, my arms and shoulders and hips tethered to him by his cool shadows. Defeated, I warned him when we were coming up on the dead end, but full of reciprocated distrust, he insisted on seeing it for himself.

“This is humiliating,” I grumbled. My shoulders ached, and my bound fingers were starting to go numb.

Asher didn’t slow. “Then maybe you should apologize for shooting me.”

“I’m sorry I shot you,” I said flatly.

He stopped. Turning on me, he looked me over slowly, then one pale brow cocked. “I don’t believe you.”

We continued like that in silence, him towing me behind him like I weighed nothing, retracing my footsteps. I might as well have been a slab of dead venison he was hauling home after a hunt.

My prints led us straight back to the brick building we’d picked to hide in. Nola filled up the doorway. To my great relief, Ruchel was on her feet beside her, worn and rumpled but very much alive. They seemed not to know what to make of the picture we presented: a reaper lugging his coven mate like meat from the butcher.

“She shot me,” Asher proclaimed petulantly, coming to a halt at the bottom of the stone stoop.

“Did you just tattle on me like a child would?” I groused, struggling to sit upright with my hands bound. “How old are you?”

Asher didn’t seem to realize the question was facetious. His brow scrunched. “Does anyone bother to keep track of their age after the first few centuries?”

“I found the well,” I called up to Nola and Ruchel, “but the god spy stole my things from me.”

Asher reached into his cloak and pulled out their water sacks. “I’ve got them here for you.”

Nola helped Ruchel navigate the stairs. At the bottom, she took her sack in both hands and drank greedily.

Asher let me hydrate, but I wasn’t allowed to do it myself. He poured the water directly into my mouth from my canteen, splattering my chin and nose. Like a fool. I needed to remember to mask my irritation better because all evidence of it delighted him.

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