Page 3 of Light Locked
“She’ll die anyway.”
He turned to leave, but from this angle, the girl’s extended wrist caught his attention. Beneath the ashes and mud was a black tattoo of a crown and a familiar crest of a lion, swan and shield.
Ryson stilled, unsure if the image was real or if he was simply haunted by it.
Kill her.The figure whispered now from beside him. It awakened a bloodthirsty ache in his bones, compelling him toward her.
The reapers’ wide eyes blinked as they drifted closer to the clearing.
They wanted the girl just as he did. He pitied the wretches.
She bears the Lodain family crest. Killing her would be perfect poetry.The figure sauntered behind his back and stopped at his other side. In contrast, the dying reaper’s words still burned in his mind.
A royal, delivered to him on a full moon, sprawled out in the snow. A Veilin. In previous versions of his life, this would have been a stroke of exceptional luck, but not any longer.
“What an exhausting night,” he whispered as he rubbed his face.
He’d forgotten how much commotion life caused simply by being alive, and tomorrow he’d have to cross the gates of a human city. He already missed the forest’s silence.
Peering through a bandaged hand, he looked back down at the girl.
She was already so close to death, likely wrought with anxiety and fear long before tonight’s hunt. Maybe she would be happy to die. He’d long outgrown the notion that life was innately some kind of gift. Maybe by leaving her, he’d be doing her a favor.
On the other hand, taking her would hardly be a risk. The faded luminance of her skin was a clear indication that the energy in her blood was nearly gone. Even if she woke up,she’d be too weak to sense what he was. Not that it mattered. His own kind wouldn’t even recognize him now. He was basically a human too.
One of the reapers inched into the light of the campfire, a slender hand extended toward the girl.
All Ryson needed was to go to Virday and find that wretched beast Alina. He had enough trouble simply anticipating Alina’s reaction after he’d disappeared for so many years. This girl was an added inconvenience, wasn’t she?
Ryson released a heavy sigh, and the reaper startled at the sound. He ran a hand through his hair as the beast clamored into the forest, stumbling over itself in fright. The dark replica of himself vanished as he settled firmly upon a decision.
“Cursed fate,” he muttered before returning to treat the girl’s wounds.
He’d take her back to Virday and then be done with her for good.
Alina might be more inclined to let him past her threshold if he brought her something anyway.
Chapter 2
Virday
RYSON WATCHED AS Alina flattened her hand against the door outside her cottage, facing the road behind her with a mischievous smile. She gripped the brown sackcloth she wore, the fabric a perfect complement to her tanned skin and dark hair. With her back pressed against the door, she slid down into a sitting position. It was as if she were guarding the exit, the Veilin asleep inside. Alina said nothing to Ryson but made the silence painful as she picked away at the long locks of matted hair resting over her shoulders.
Ryson hadn’t seen her in decades, and she’d said little when he’d appeared at her doorstep at sunrise, a bloodied Veilin slung over his shoulders. Alina had first thought that the girl was a peace offering, and despite him telling her otherwise, she had become transfixed with her anyway.
“This is interesting.” Alina’s words brimmed with a level of speculation that was unbecoming of the child she appeared to be. Of all the forms she could’ve possessed, she had the nerve to stuff all her guiles and scheming into something so small. Alina preferred children. They were more malleable, lasted longer, and the streets of Virday were rife with young faces that wouldn’t be missed.
“Not as interesting as you think, I’m sure,” Ryson replied from beside her. He rested against the outer wall of Alina’s clay cottage, his arms folded. From such a point, one could look outat the destitute city and its dry, crumbling walls. Huts of the homeless and impoverished huddled close. Alina had no doubt chosen this cottage for its proximity to pain and desolation.
Of the three human cities spanning across the continent of Shambelin, Virday had experienced the most decline. Decline seemed to be everywhere these days, so much so that it was often simply referred to as The Decline by the collective population. Humanity was gasping for its last breaths, dying for some glimpse of a brighter future. It was a long death, two centuries in the making since the forest beasts had first appeared. There was perhaps another century before extinction, but all living things seemed to sense its approach, like the earth was tilting down under their feet.
“Judging from the crest on her wrist, she’s the last princess of Loda,” Alina said. “She’s in the wrong city. Better yet, she was running away from this city—from humans who should have been protecting her. Something is wrong.”
“There could be a thousand explanations, none of them scandalous,” Ryson lied almost on reflex. The last thing he wanted was for her to latch on to a scandal. She’d never let go until she unraveled it. The cost never mattered.
“Of course not,” Alina replied, rolling her eyes as she threw her arms out. “She was escaping back to Loda! It’s obvious!”
“She was disoriented. The forest does that to people. She probably thought she was running toward this city,” he argued back, stiffly. He had to admit that he was at a disadvantage in reasoning out her intentions. Not only had he been dormantand likely presumed dead for the last several decades, but he’d never cared for idle gossip about the royal families anyway. Alina may very well know this girl better than she knew herself.
