Page 67 of Reaper’s Curse

I lifted my fork and began to eat. The rich aroma tickled my senses and set my stomach to growl. Seasoned vegetables on a bed of rice, garlic-butter steak, a green soup of sorts, one itsy-bitsy chocolate cake bite, hot tea, and a glass of amber poison.

Liquor, actually, but I would be forgoing any spirits in present company. Enough surprises had already packed my day. And Winter, more than ever, was primed for foolish surprises.

I pierced a slice of meat with my fork and lifted it to my lips. Paused. “So, I think it’s fair to say that the queen will soon know of your presence in my rooms.”

He dismissed the comment with a wave.

“This is serious. She’s the queen, and she doesn’t want you in here. In fact, she doesn’t want you anywhere around me.” I popped the meat into my mouth and chewed.

I probably shouldn’t have let those exact words slip. They went against my original plan on how best to distance myself from him, but today my focus had been a little less than sharp. And, well, I was slightly less concerned with the queen’s deal than I was about the Killian wanting me dead.

I swallowed hard.

Only, what if the Killian wanted me dead because I was failing to uphold my deal with the queen? Well, reaping hell. At least the stipulation regarding Winter had been more of a request and wasn’t actually written into the contract. If it had been, I probably would have been dead on day one of the deal.

“Her not wanting me to see you is bullocks.” He stretched his arm across the table, angling for my liquored drink.

For a flash of a second, I considered allowing the prince to push himself deeper into the depths of intoxication, but instead I gently pulled the glass out of his reach. His fingers dropped onto the table and stayed where they fell.

With a sigh, he continued, “There are larger issues at hand than her management of my social life.”

I bit down on my lip, fighting the grin that wanted to find life. The issues the queen had with our fraternizing likely had to do more with my reaper status than anything else. The queen saw me as a potential threat, and she was looking out for the prince. Couldn’t blame the matriarch for protecting her family.

“What larger issues?” I took another bite, savoring the delicious flavors as they caressed my tongue and tantalized my tastebuds.

Staring at me with a lazy gaze, Winter huffed and drew his hand back to his lap, his demeanor sobering. “Valen, for one,” he deadpanned.

I choked on my food.

“What happened today, Raven?”

What indeed.

Winter might be a relative stranger, and he definitely wasn’t a reaper, so not privy to my task, but he had saved my life, and I his. When I’d been shot, he’d cared for my wounds and subsequent fever.

And after the incident with specters in the underground tunnels, I had experienced his magicked frozen cocoon, pulled him free, and returned him to the living. Our experiences bonded us on a unique, and hopefully trustworthy, level, so I told him.

I told him about my outing with Valen and the guards. About Valen’s crabby mood and how I was swept from their company by something other. I omitted any information about Chace and our…ah, exchange.

And I didn’t elaborate on what the something other was. Only that it was something that poked Valen’s bundle of unease. Winter didn’t need to know the name or purpose of the Killian.

I explained my visit to the infirmary, the vitals taken, and samples collected. They’d gathered swabs of my mucus and sweat, as well as a small vial of blood. Pumped me up with a vat of fluids for hydration.

“I don’t like it.” He squeezed his hand against the top of his head. “How do you know any of that was safe?”

“I’m not dead, am I?” I countered with a playful grin. “In fact, I feel better now than when I started the day.”

Something I believed Chace was responsible for, with his implementation of the collector’s eye on me…and his kiss.

Ugh. I needed to stop dwelling on that spontaneous exchange.

Winter shoved back from the table, his chair screeching against the floor. “But Valen⁠—”

“Valen and I spoke after my visit to the infirmary,” I interrupted.

Since he was once a reaper, I suspected Valen was now many things. The kinds of things I didn’t want Winter digging deeper into. More so for Winter’s safety and not so much for the secrecy of reaper kind.

Shock lit his features. “You did? And…what was his reasoning for the bad attitude?” He leaned in as if to better hear my response. “Did he have any information on this thing that tried to take you?” He hiccupped but forged forward. “Did he give any indication that he may have created this thing, this monster that put you in danger?”