Page 63 of This Ravenous Fate
“No one touch her! The remaining electricity will hurt you!” Dr. Harding warned nearby. But most people were scattering anyway, taking wide steps to avoid the shattered glass and growing pool of blood.
Something warm dripped onto Layla’s cheek. She switched her gaze back to Elise and noticed the blood dripping from her eyebrow.
“Layla—”
“Shut up,shut up,” Layla hissed and went still.
Elise’s mask was gone. It must have fallen in her rush to get Layla out of the way of the chandelier, but however she lost it didn’t matter. What mattered was how close Layla could hear Tobias Saint’s voice calling out to keep everyone calm while his daughter, who was not supposed to be there at all, straddled a reaper.
People moved quickly around them, some slowing to witness the grotesque chandelier coffin, others running to get away from the blood and destruction. The music had stopped. Elise and Layla were only a couple feet from the catastrophe. Layla felt glass beneath her body and cracks stretched across the marble floor as people continued to stampede around the chandelier. But no one offered her or Elise a hand.
“Please, everyone, exit through the front doors to safety,” Tobias Saint called out nearby. His voice sounded even closer thanbefore.
Layla pushed her hips up to flip the two of them over. With a gasp, Elise fell onto her back. Layla tore off a part of her skirt, then pressed the fabric to Elise’s bloody face. Elise protested when Layla pulled her to her feet.
“I can’t see!” Elise snapped.
“You’re bleeding everywhere. Shut up so I can get us out of here without you being seen,” Layla murmured into her hair. If it wasn’t for the heavy scent of Elise’s blood filling her nose and mouth, she might have gotten closer to whisper in her ear. But it was too risky. Elise’s blood was already seeping through the cloth, staining Layla’s hand. Layla pushed forward hastily, steering Elise clear of any panicked people.
Elise stepped on her feet, which Layla knew was on purpose because how in the world could she be stepping backward while they were moving forward—
“Sure. Let me trust the reaper, who is triggered by blood, to guide me into an area with no one around. No one to witness a murder—”
Layla pushed Elise into an alcove just beyond the roaring ballroom and backed away. Her nose burned at the scent of blood, her chest tightening with the need to feed. Only human blood made her want to feed beyond satiety. Elise’s sweet blood, of course, was no exception.
“Keep talking and I might actually murder you,” Layla snapped.
Elise opened her mouth, but no words came out. She pursed her lips, then brought a hand up to her forehead. When she sawthe amount of blood that came away on her fingers, she trembled slightly. “Father always told me eyebrows bleed a lot…” Elise locked her jaw. “Never mind that—”
“I cannotnever mindthe fact that your blood is spilling at a rapid rate,” Layla muttered. She tossed a scrap of her dress at Elise. “Apply pressure.”
For once, Elise listened. She took the fabric and pressed it onto her forehead. This time when she spoke, her voice was more level, calmer. But Layla could still hear the fear behind her carefully picked words. “That went badly.”
Layla laughed sharply.
“Before the chandelier fell… Didn’t Nellie seem strange to you?” Elise asked.
Layla had only focused on the untamable curiosity that had sprung in her when Nellie turned human. It was as if someone had put a mirror up to Layla’s dreams: a pained reaper turned human, who finally felt the grace of joy in her grasp once again.
Yet, there had been a moment of cruelty between them when Nellie had turned a scowl full of malice toward Layla. It had shocked her, but Layla almost did not want to acknowledge it, much less believe it.
She shook her head. “She looked human.”
Elise narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t notice a single thing off about that woman?” she asked again. “Really? I thought reapers prided themselves on having advanced senses. Even I noticed that woman was deranged—”
“Does it matter? She’s dead. Would it kill you to not be rightabout something for once?” Layla nearly shouted.
Elise finally fell silent. After a few moments, she spoke in a quiet voice. “The purpose of an investigation is to ask questions and search for answers. Even when you meet a dead end.”
“Emphasis on the dead.” Jamie appeared behind them, Sterling’s arm slung around his shoulders.
“Oh my God!” Elise cried. She ran for her friend, abandoning Layla’s dress fabric. Sterling had his hand pressed to his middle, where a bright spot of blood was quickly spreading across his shirtfront. “What happened?”
Sterling lifted his head and grimaced. “I don’t know if you noticed, but a giant chandelier made of glass fell and shattered all over the place.”
Jamie dropped Sterling against the wall. “Someone shot the chandelier down.”
Elise blinked. “But who—”
