Page 30 of A Shadow in the Reaping
"We did. But that's not what I meant."
We don't talk or write anymore. We just walk. Ashen's hand drifts back down to the center of my back. I wonder if it's less for my benefit than it is to catch me if I run.
There is mostly silence as we travel the road, which has its own eeriness in the twilight. But sometimes there are sounds in the mist. Scuttling. Shuffling. At one point, a keening wail that sounds like a bird, but I don't think it is. The sorrowful cry carves an indelible memory in my heart.
A looming black shadow emerges ahead from the curl of the fog. A building comes into view. The stone is matte black, unpolished and ominous. A row of doric columns holds up the sharp peak of the roof.GIRGINAKKU, it says along the top of the facade.Library. Two souls stand guard beside the entrance, looking out upon the fog. They are chained by the wrists to the iron handles of the doors.
They won't let me in. I don't have a library card. Maybe we should go back, I write, holding it up to Ashen's face.
"They will let you in, not to worry," he says, his hand steady and strong on my back against the resistance of my slowing steps.
Nah, I think I'm good. If you take me back to your room I can just chill there. I'll watch something on Netflix.
"I don't have Netflix."
YOU ARE A MONSTER.
The puff of air from an almost-laugh escapes from Ashen's lungs. "Might I suggest a book for entertainment? I know where we can get one."
No it's fine, I'll do some yoga instead. Or I'll find the spa for a massage. Or maybe just stare at the wall.The world is my oyster in your fucked-up Shadow Realm.
"Now might be a good time to let you know that Urtur enjoys showing up to my room unannounced and he does not take kindly to visitors," Ashen says, looking down with a faint smile lifting one corner of his lips.
...the library of horrors it is, I write, and I heave a heavy sigh.
We ascend the steps and the souls grip the handles and open the doors for us to pass. Their chains clank as the links roll against one another. I fix my gaze to the spectre closest to me as I pass, forcing myself not to look away. His face is somehow empty of defining features. Thin lips, papery skin. A small nose that could be anyone's. Whispers of flowing gray hair on a round head. But the eyes are electric blue beneath a swirling cloud of grey. They land on me and seem to find focus. They follow me over the threshold as I pass, watching until the crack between the door closes shut behind us.
An Alpha werewolf, I write, holding the note up for Ashen.
"Yes," he says as we continue through a dark foyer, the low ceiling pressing the weight of its darkness upon us.
What did he do? What was his crime?
"I don't know."
I stop abruptly, Ashen halting at my side as I turn to face him.
So he has been chained there, opening the door for you Reapers for who-knows-how-long and you don't know what he did?
Ashen looks back toward the closed door for a long and quiet moment. The only sound is the ripple of candle flame trapped behind the black glass of the sconces on the walls. "No, I don't," he says as he turns his gaze down to me. His hand falls away from my back. I feel the tension in my brows as my eyes bounce between his. I'm looking for a reason to be angry with him. But all I see is sorrow and guilt, buried beneath the strata of time. And all I feel is sadness.
I turn away and continue to a set of interior doors whose smoky grey glass obscures the sanctum beyond. I'm eager to get this done, to be out of this place. I want to be anywhere but here.
I open the door and lurch to a halt. I feel like my veins have been seared with lightning. It's not the expanse of the room that steals the breath from my chest. It's not the rows and rows of ancient texts, lining three floors of shelves to the ceiling. It's not even the souls that wander in the shadows, listless and alone.
It's the three black marble slabs before me, inscribed with names in shimmering filaments of gold.
The one in the center is for House Urbigu.
Beneath the house name:The Reaping.
The first name on the list is Ember's.
The fifth name beneath hers is Aglaope.
Ember was the one who reaped my sister's soul.
And I killed the wrong Reaper.
