Page 32 of Architecti
Silence.
Lex is still bouncing on her toes, like this is exciting and not bonkers.Verrill turns to us, flustered, her severe demeanour bent and misshapen.We peer around her stiff form.Hanging at head height is the silvery thread that peeled off the building behind her.Only now it’s stitched like a dress hem.As we stare, the thread fades and the strips of air either side undulate like a pregnant belly.
“Wh… What is that…?”Lex asks.
Verrill bristles and kicks the desiccating limb behind her into a bush.
“Off you go,” she says, making it clear it wasn’t a request.I swallow hard and drag Lex away, though her gaze never leaves the bush.
“I think it was a wraith, or maybe ashspawn,” Lex says.
“I thought those things were tucked safely inside the Veil,” I say as I park my bike in a bay, lift the keys and hoist my bag onto my shoulder.
“So did I,” Lex mutters.“But I guess this is the gateway between realms for a reason.”
“Mercedes Midnight,” an all too familiar voice says.His caramel-coal tone slices through what was turning out to be a good day.
“Ignatius…” I say.
Lex hovers, reluctant to leave.
“It’s okay, I’ll catch you up,” I say.
She hovers a moment longer and then heads for the cloisters, though she checks over her shoulder twice before disappearing.
“I think it’s time we had a talk, don’t you?”Ignatius says.
12
Midnight
Ignatius pulls me aside.“You can’t attend the Academy.”
I snort at him.“My invitation says otherwise.”
His expression darkens; a simmering violence oscillates beneath the surface of his jaw.
“It was you, wasn’t it?All nine times?”
His nose flares.
“You bastard.”
His hand jumps to my throat.But I have spent too long with this motherfucker not to anticipate his moves.My scythe is buried an inch deep in his side.
“Try it,” I choke out against his grip.
He breathes heavy and footsteps rap against the cobbles behind us.He releases me and brushes down my jacket.
“The answer is no.”
I smile, a brief twitch of a thing.“I figured you might say that, but once upon a time, you bent the rules of our deal and forced me to become a reaper.”
He wavers, realisation washing through his features.Fuck, it’s delicious beating a demon.
“Your IOU?”he growls.
I nod.“You gave me an IOU in exchange for being your reaper.I’m calling it in.”
