Unfortunately, my coordination wasn’t quite up to the task. I ended up under the gryphon as its talons pierced the couch. The sharp claws on its back feet were dangerously close to my face, but the position did give me an unobstructed view of its bel y.
The dagger in my hand buzzed, urging me to move, and I thrust the enchanted blade into the soft skin under the gryphon’s rib cage. A shock ran up my arm as I encountered muscles harder to pierce than I’d expected, but the dagger sank to the hilt. “You don’t exist,” I told it, twisting the dagger to drive the blade deeper.
The gryphon exploded into a cloud of shimmery soul mist.
The gryphon exploded into a cloud of shimmery soul mist.
A copper disk the size of a dinner plate dropped onto my chest, knocking what little air I had left from my lungs.
Coughing, I let my arm drop, barely managing to hold on to the dagger as my hand hit the carpet. Too close. Way too close.
I rol ed to my knees. My whole body felt like jel y as the spike of adrenaline drained from my muscles. It took me two tries to climb to my feet. I closed my shields.
Nothing changed.
I blinked. I’d expected to go blind again, but the Aetheric stil swirled around me, the land of the dead showing me the world as ruins. But I wasn’t touching those worlds. The wind from the land of the dead had stopped cutting across my skin and whipping my hair into a frenzy and I couldn’t feel the Aetheric energy I saw swirling through the air.
Okay, so I push my magic and I go blind and I push it more and I end up seeing but not touching other planes. I think I prefer it this way. Though as I looked around I realized I wasn’t seeing the mortal realm at al . I was only seeing how it reflected in other planes of existence. That could get confusing.
I brushed my hands against my rotted pants—I seriously hoped they weren’t that way in reality—and resheathed my dagger. When I looked up, the cloud of souls around me had thinned. The raver-col ector moved silently across the room, gathering souls and sending them on their way.
“I could have seriously used your help earlier.” Like ten minutes earlier. Before the gryphon had almost taken me apart.
She shrugged and tossed her bright orange dreadlocks over her shoulder as she snatched the soul of the woman I’d pul ed free of the gryphon. “Didn’t know they were here earlier.” She grabbed the skimmer. With a flick of her hand, he vanished. He’d been the last lingering soul.
“Wait!”
She glanced at me, lifting one arched eyebrow.
She glanced at me, lifting one arched eyebrow.
“Can you tel Death I need to talk to him?”
“Death?” She gave me a genuinely confused look.
I cringed. Of course she wouldn’t know my nickname for Death. Damn him not telling me anything, not even his name. “You know, smoking-hot col ector. Dreamy eyes.
Easy smile. Favors faded jeans and tight black shirts.”
“And you cal him Death?” She snorted a laugh, and the dreads snaking over her shoulders quivered as she shook her head. “Girl, you real y are special.”
“Wil you tel him I need to see him or not?”
She cocked a hip forward, placing her hand on it. “I’m not a messenger.” Her fingernails made soft thudding sounds as she drummed them against the bright orange PVC
material. “And I’d rather he stay away. There are reasons for our laws.”
Laws? “Fine, then I’l talk to you.” I pushed myself upright.
At my ful height I was tal er than she was, even with her wearing platform boots, but she didn’t look impressed. I hoped I was about to change that. “You have a rogue reaper on your hands. He’s jerking souls out of people who aren’t dying, and those same souls are showing up powering magical constructs. I want to know how to stop him.”
The haughty expression dropped off her face. Then, without a word, she vanished.
Well, that could have gone better. I looked around at the destruction that was Falin’s apartment. The couch was shredded, the TV was overturned and smashed, the iron supports in the wal s were visible behind busted drywal , and glass shards littered the carpet. Oh, yeah, and then there was the fist-sized hole into the Aetheric. So much for Falin’s security deposit.
Sirens sounded in the distance, drawing nearer. Damn. I couldn’t stay here. Once the cops got to the scene, the FIB
wouldn’t be far behind. There was no way a giant gryphon flying around downtown Nekros had gone unnoticed, but I flying around downtown Nekros had gone unnoticed, but I needed to.
Chapter 25
I managed to hail a cab as soon as I reached street level, which I took as a good sign that I was supposed to get the hel away from the scene. I wished I could have left a message for Falin, to let him know I was al right, but I had no idea who else might find it first. He would know by the disk and the hole into the Aetheric—which I was leaving around like cal ing cards these days—that a construct had attacked and that I’d dispel ed it. Hopeful y I’d be able to let him know I was okay once I got, wel , wherever I was going.