Page 17 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
The Reaper tilts his head. I know he understands the translation of my ancient words, but he doesn’t know what theymean. I give him a vicious smile and a crease appears between his brows. “What are you doing out here?” he asks.
I blink in irritated confusion and gesture toward the twitching mass of dead snake behind him with the toe of my blade.Killing your little pet, you moron.
“I told you to stay inside.”
What the fuck are you talking about?I demand, this time backing up my soundless whisper with bits of sign language that I can manage around mykaiken. Even though I know he can’t understand the words I make with my hands, I’m confident he’ll get the point.
“My note.”
As if that makes any more sense to me. My fury ratchets to new heights as I watch Ashen’s brows draw together and his eyes skim over my body. I’m only wearing a thin white tank top that now clings to my torso with sweat and snake blood. My navy sleep shorts leave little to the imagination. My legs are coated with dirt and blood spatter, bruises and cuts. Ashen meets my hard stare again and I see a thin thread of rage brighten the flame in his eyes.
I rise up from the floor, holding my arms out wide. I harpoon the Reaper with my fiercest glare. My hands quake with anger.What is it, Ashen?I whisper. My silent breath spills through my sarcastic smile in a cloud.Don’t you like your masterpiece?
A flash of fury blazes across the Reaper’s face.
No? You don’t like what you made of me? Well, FUCK YOU, Reaper.
“Your journal…” he says, trailing off as his eyes cascade down my body and drop to the floor, scanning the space around us. He finds the book where I left it in the dust by the tires. Ashen pins me with a dark look and strides over to retrieve the journal from the floor. He flips through the pages and looks back to me. “Where is the note?” he asks, his voice low and quiet, as though the resignation I hear within it is weighing down the tone.
Where it belongs,I say, pointing to the door behind me with the dagger.In the fire.
“So... so that’s it? You would believe my sister? Ember, who threatened you? Who took Aglaope from you? Who brought Molpe to you in chains, and dragged her soul down the halls of House Urbigu? Who snatched you from the Living Realm and burnt Ediye’s house to the ground?”
I see the exact moment when all the colors of Ashen’s eyes seem to collapse into an abyss of despairing shadow. The flame in his pupils snuffs out for the instant before he blinks. It’s so fast that I almost doubt it even happened. As soon as his eyes are open again, the fire is back, an impenetrable heat that keeps his secrets safe.
“You never did trust me, did you. You were honest about that,” Ashen says, tossing the journal at my feet. His jaw hardens. “And so was I. It was the truth, Lu. Every word.” I hear his grip tighten across the handle of his sword. My gaze darts to the movement and I notice something new; tattoos across his fingers, black letters outlined with shimmering gold. They are the vertical lines and chevrons and triangles of an ancient language that very few of us still know. Sumerian. They’re dates. Two days ago, specifically. I meet his eyes again, my own narrowing to slits as I run through every idea of what they could possibly mean.
We stand in silence for a moment that feels as long as five thousand years, staring at one another. Between the snake and now this strained encounter with the Reaper, the stress is starting to erode my hold over my broken body. My heart thrums too quickly in my ears. The sweat rolls down my spine. I want him to leave before I can’t keep myself together anymore.
You’re sorry. Good for you. That means nothing to me. Now get the fuck out, I whisper, gesturing to the door again.
My skin feels like a film of fire over a pool of ice water, an impossible, uncomfortable clash of sensations. I resist the urge to press the fingers of my free hand to my temple as needles of pain scratch at my eyes. I don’t want to appear weak. But my palms are starting to numb. I can’t feel my toes. My left eye twitches. And none of this goes unnoticed beneath the veil of Ashen’s gaze.
“Regardless of what you think of me, you need my help,” Ashen says, his voice still low and quiet. He takes a small step forward and I take an unsteady one back. “I can take you now.”
You’re not fucking taking me anywhere, I whisper through pumping breaths. My vision starts to spin. I keep my eyes on Ashen as though he’s a shark circling in a raging surf. There’s no way I’ll be able to fight him off, not even with a blade of poison. Frustrated tears sting at my eyes.Ninmen Elsal,I breathe, trying to restrain the urge to weep.
“Vampire-”
My legs buckle and I fall to one knee, fighting with all my strength against the numbness that’s climbing up my calves. Ashen takes another step forward and I tilt my head back. I press my knife to my neck. Surprise ignites the flame in Ashen’s pupils as his gaze locks on my dagger.
I’m not going back, I mouth, shaking my head. I wish I could scream it. If these are my last words, they would split the night. They would carve the darkness in two and spill a final burst of furious light into the world.
I don’t try to hide the desperation on my face anymore. Tears flow across my cheeks. Ashen leans his weight into another tentative step but I press the dagger into my skin. I smell my blood, as I have so many times in these last days. I keep my eyes on the Reaper and drive the point of thekaikenharder into my flesh.
I know from the look on his face that Ashen cleaned the blade.
There is no Angelwing here. What a fucking master of deception he must think he is. But I am not going to convince myself into falling for lies anymore.
You asshole. I knew it. There is no poison.
“Lu, put it down.”
Go back to Davina. I will not go anywhere with you.
A flash of sparks burst in the flame within his eyes. “Christ, Lu. I am trying to-”
A crack cuts off his words. A pinpoint of light tears time and matter. Lightning crawls away from the center, slow and consuming. It eats through the darkness of the barn and leaves black space behind, as dark and cold as the center of the universe. Distant suns glitter, galaxies spin. Gravity tightens its grip around us. And from the heart of the dark steps Ediye, her eyes a pool of comets and stars. Her midnight skin glows and hums in rage.
