Page 124 of Reaper’s Curse

“What?” I scrutinized Winter. Scrutinized everyone in the room. “What’s going on here?”

Winter took a seat at Raven’s side and whispered, “This is to help you. Understand?”

Panic, fear, resolution. I could have sworn all those emotions and more flashed across Raven’s eyes. I wanted to rip Winter away and toss him across the room, but before I flinched a single muscle, Winter’s lips touched Raven’s, and he was…sucking! Sucking her very essence. Tiny particles of who and what she was visibly slipped through space from her to Winter.

Her body jolted, her back arched, and my world bled red.

I lurched, grabbed Winter, and yanked him away. The prince’s eyes shone brightly with Raven’s power. I released a roar and slammed the pad of my heel into Winter’s chest, sending him crashing into the far wall.

“Don’t ever touch her again,” I seethed.

Kira skidded to Winter’s side, and…what the fuck was I seeing? Ignoring the screams of her mother in the hall, Kira pressed her mouth to Winter’s, and Raven’s essence changed hands. Kira rose to her feet, the new vessel of my Black Bird’s power.

Kira stepped toward Raven. “Ready to do this.”

I didn’t move, my body feeling oddly trapped in tar. My desire to stop Kira from using Raven’s essence warred with my want for the girl to heal my fellow reaper. My Black Bird.

“Here goes nothing,” Kira quipped, then placed her hand on Raven’s sedate form.

Light radiated from the girl’s hands, and Raven’s coloring began to brighten.

“Hey.”

I turned to the sound of Winter’s voice. The prince stood beside me, his eyebrows flattened, his gaze narrowed and stormy.

When did he move so close, and why didn’t I hear him?

“I owe you something,” he said.

A moment flashed before his fist, powered with ice and blizzard magic, slammed into my face.

The world exploded into a kaleidoscope of color married with Camilla’s screams. Then everything fell silent and black.

31

My nerves spat and sparked like a box of mini fireworks ignited all at once.

Physically, I was better than I’d been in over a week, maybe longer, my body ache- and blemish-free. Mentally, emotionally…I didn’t know where I stood. On edge mostly?

I only remembered bits and pieces of yesterday’s visit to the pub. And from what I did recall, what I’d heard from others, the information left me jumbled and confused.

I’d healed Earl, and everybody was happy… There was that. But I held fragments of a fight between Chace and Winter. According to Camilla, Winter knocked Chace out cold, after Chace had thrust Winter across the room in a valiant attempt to protect me from magic imbibing.

Imbibing was how Camilla described what Winter did when he’d sucked the power out from beneath my skin.

But he’d already removed his magic, so what had he imbibed? Mine?

At the thought, my heart turned into a too-fast battering ram.

I pressed a hand to my chest. Whatever he did, he did it to help me. He’d retrieved Kira, empowered her with what she needed to heal me. And she’d done exactly that.

“Arms out and turn around,” Camilla said. “I need to tighten the back.”

I spun a half turn. I stood to the side of my room, and Camilla fussed over the fit of the creation I wore. The gown for the big birthday event that evening.

I closed my eyes and breathed in and out. In. Out. My mind wandered to yesterday’s quiet moments with Chace. How he’d lain beside me. Wrapped around me. The tip of his nose drawing gentle lines across my jawbone. Behind my ear and along my neck.

Camilla tapped my upper arm. “All set. The dress is well fitted. Now let’s go join the party.”