Page 71 of Reap the Night
“Show her,” Hemlock pressed.
Ordell reluctantly lifted his shirt and revealed his torso. Not a rash but beast skin, gray and hairy.
“Oh…” I reached out to touch it, but he stepped back and dropped the hem, covering up the gray expanse.
“It’s the curse,” Hemlock said. “It’s punishing him for not consummating.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” Ordell said.
Hemlock made a sound of exasperation. “What else could it be?”
“If it is the curse, then all the more reason to allow Orina to focus on breaking it,” Ordell snapped. “Once it’s lifted, then all this”—he indicated his torso—“will be gone too.”
The pressure was even higher now. “Then we should get started. Send a Raven to the chapter house to let them know I won’t be back until Ezekiel wakes from his nightmare.”
“What about keeping up appearances?” Ordell asked. “Whoever sent Ruby will be expecting it to be business as usual for you.”
“Ruby could have sent a message to them for all we know,” Hemlock said. “Everything she told us could have been a lie, from how she came to have a glamoured face to how she infiltrated the veins that Christian sent us.”
“Are you saying the House of Spirit could be involved in this?” Ordell said. “That Ezekiel’s own bloodline could be working against him?”
“Anything is possible.”
I didn’t believe that the head of the House of Spirit could have anything to do with this. I’d seen how awed he’d been in Ezekiel’s presence. No one was that good an actor. “Christian worships Ezekiel. He built a church for him, but that doesn’tmean there isn’t someone in his house who might be working against him.”
“We’ll have to be wary,” Hemlock said. “In the meantime, you’re safest here with us. If Ruby did get a message out before she killed herself, then whoever sent her will be looking for another way to get you out of the picture.”
Shit, I hadn’t thought of that.
“Hemlock is right,” Ordell said. “And so are you, Orina.” He smiled tightly. “Best you stay here until Ezekiel regains his senses.”
“And after that? I can’t abandon my team. There are things happening in this territory that make no sense, and I need to figure out the big picture.”
“We can worry about that when Ezekiel comes out of his nightmare,” Ordell said.
“And Kaster?” Hemlock asked with narrowed eyes. “He’ll have questions. Orina is dating him now, after all.”
Shit.
“Then we tell him the truth,” Ordell said. “Lauden knows anyway, and now his son will also. Besides, he has connections, the power of the Sangualex. He could be useful in helping us locate the person who sent Ruby.”
My stomach trembled because telling him the truth meant revealing my feelings for Ezekiel. Would that change how Kaster felt about me?
If it did, then it was best to know now before…before I fell too deep.
“Do it. Send a Raven to my team and speak to Kaster.”
“I’ll go,” Ordell said. “You stay with Orina.”
“The staff will need guidance,” Daisy said, reminding me that she was still in the room. “With Ingrid gone, they’ll work in a daze, moving through chores in sequence with no autonomy. When we crossed paths in the spirit trap, Ingrid asked me towatch over them. To guide them until she returns. I won’t let her down.”
It looked like we all had a job to do, and it was time to get started.
Chapter 26
PADMA
The last lead on our list, the white van sits atop a pile of dented and torn-apart vehicles waiting to be crushed at the scrapyard.
