Page 74 of Reap the Night
I shake my head, dislodging tears. I don’t know, and I don’t care. He’s alive, and that’s all that matters.
Edwin sips his herbal tea.The cut on his head needed stitches, but aside from that, he’s good. I have him tucked up in bed because I’m not taking any chances. It’s cozy in his room with its bookshelf-lined walls and desk loaded with paper and ink. It smells like sweet candlewax and old paper, a comforting aroma which is all Edwin, and I’m so grateful that he’s alive.
I squeeze his free hand again, and he raises his gaze to mine. There’s concern there for me even though it’s him that almost died.
“How’s your headache?” I ask before he can ask me if I’m all right.
His smile is watery and weak. “Not as bad now. Just a dull throb.”
“The tea will help,” Merry says. She picks a book off the floor and slots it into a space on one of the shelves. “Do you have a system for these?”
“No.”
“Well, I’ll just…” She picks up another book.
“I’m fine,” Edwin says. “Merry, just come sit.”
Her lips trembles and my insides knot. “You almost died,” she says. “There was nothing we could do.”
“Someone or something saved you,” Holly says from her spot perched on the windowsill. Her piercing green eyes seem brighter. “I felt it. Something…other. Felt it just before it ripped off the van door and pulled you out. Never sensed anything like it before.”
“What about the cab?” Merry asks. “Did you feel it there?”
Holly shakes her head. “That was something else. Arcane.” She taps the bracelet on her wrist. “Felt that here.”
I rub at the goosebumps on my arms. “There was an icy gust of wind…a presence just before the van door flew off.”
“I can’t remember much,” Edwin says. “But I think…” He frowns. “I think I found something.” His eyes go round. “Where’s my pack?”
Merry hurries to retrieve it from the dresser and hands it to him. Luckily, it had been attached to his body when he was magically lifted to safety.
I let go of his hand so that he can root around inside. “Here.” He pulls out a rumpled piece of card. It looks like a business card, but it is plain white with nothing written on it. “I dusted it for a print. No print but…” He shines the UV pen light on the card, and a symbol appears. “See?”
We all gather around to look. There’s a circle on the card. A basic circle with two words curving around it:Novos Deos.
“New Gods,” Edwin translates. “It’s a group, a club…something.”
“Well…” Holly says. “That’s certainly a clue we can work with.”
“There was also something odd about the back of the van. A door in the floor, like a hatch, I think. I didn’t get a chance to check it out.”
But my mind is on the strange force that saved Edwin’s life, on the way it felt as it moved past me to get to him.
I remember where I felt that sensation before.
In the office when the being erupted out of the teapot.
It had to be him. The mystery man.
He saved Edwin. But who the fuck, or what the fuck is he?
Chapter 27
ORDELL
The sun has set when I knock on Kaster’s door and tell him Orina sent me.
He lets me in without a flick of the eyebrows, almost as if he’s expecting me.
