Page 137 of Architecti
“A favour?”
“Cute, but no.It’s just an IOU.I suggest you use it wisely.”
That was a mistake.I will find a way to use the favour against him.If he thinks I’m going to bend over and accept the loss of my soul, he’s wrong.I don’t care what he makes me do, I will never give up.
I smile, big, bold and toothy.“I’ll use it now.Break my contract and let me out of it.”
His expression turns cold.“Sass wears thin.Nine years, as many souls as I desire, and a single IOU in exchange.Now, choose your scythe and get the hell out of my office.”
He jerks his head in the direction of the shelves of blades.He flicks his hand, and three dark ribbons of shadowy magic materialise, projecting out from the wall and coalescing in the corner.
“The shadows will take you home.”
I reluctantly head to the shelves, always keeping the shadows in my periphery.My fingers skim across the rows of blades, trailing over the hilts.The ribs, grooves and gilded handles are all as stunning as the intricate detailing on their curved blades.
But none of them call to me.I don’t just want a blade.I want a weapon I can use on a demon.
I dismiss a dozen in rapid succession.Too heavy, too small, too dirty, too old.
My eyes catch on a bone on the shelf above; it’s locked in a glass case, lain on a silky bed.But I swear it shimmers, almost as if it’s made of stars.
My fingers fumble over the latch and push the lid up.I need to choose a scythe, not a bone, but I feel like it’s calling to me anyway.
I hover just above the bone.It’s a finger, but the bone doesn’t look like any I’ve seen before, it shines like the deepest night sky.
I stroke the bone, and it trembles.When I pull away, there, laid on the silk fabric, is a scythe.The hilt is still curved and ridged, the bulbous knuckle forming the tip.But protruding out is a silvery-white blade made of bone.
This is the one.
I can’t explain why, but it calls to me.I need it.
I swipe it, slot it in my pocket.It sits heavy against my thigh, unnaturally warm as if it hungers for the souls I’ll reap.Or maybe it remembers the soul of the titan who once wielded it.It’s special, that much I recognise.I lower the glass case and glance at Ignatius.He doesn’t bother to look at me, his head buried deep in scrolls.
When I look back at the silk bed, another bone has appeared.I squint down only to realise it’s not really there.A ghost of a bone, but you could only tell if you knew to look closer.
I step into the shadows, the oddest sensation settling in my gut.Warmth that spreads to my chest, setting my heart to racing.
Even as I disappear into darkness and Ignatius fades, I feel like I’ve won.Like I took something of his, and he doesn’t even know it yet.
42
Lucy
Someone knocks softly at my apartment door, and I know before I even get out of my chair who it is.
It’s been ten days since we resurrected Calyx.
Ten days and no Midnight.She hasn’t come to my classes.We haven’t studied at night.She must be worried about the finals.She came to Finis to win the Demonic Favour, and she won’t if she doesn’t study relentlessly.
If she’s not concerned about it, I certainly am.I’ve tried her apartment every day, left messages with Lex and Bastien and shoved letters under her door.
Nothing.
It also means I am no closer to deciphering my contract, and she knows that.
I don’t want her to put the favour at risk because she’s pissed at me, or worse, use me as an excuse to self-sabotage.
Which is why I pull the door open and I’m instantly cross.Her shoulders are drawn in and tight while furrowed lines darken her blue eyes into swirling pools of rage.
