Page 9 of This Ravenous Fate
“Some Saint men stopped by,” she said. “There was a reaper attack a few days ago in the Heights and they think we had something to do with it. Unsurprisingly, they had nothing to say aboutthe Diamond Dealers.”
“No one cares about gangsters,” Layla muttered.
Valeriya looked at Layla, and her perfume, the haunting scent of crushed roses, filled the room. “I’m sure you are to thank for keeping that bloodbath mostly quiet.”
Layla accepted the gratitude with a careful nod. “Did the Saints make any threats?” Giana had never returned to the lair, and Layla tried not to think about her going into a starved, murderous rampage just like Mei had.
“A threat, a promise…” Valeriya held up a letter, sighing. “They will remove this hotel from our possession if the attacks continue. This agreement is hardly a year old, Layla. We cannot afford to ruin it so soon. If we lose this lair, I’m finished. No more managing human-reaper affairs. I’ve had it with this hell.”
Layla flinched. “But the Diamond Dealer territory is open now—”
“Not the point,” Valeriya snapped. “There are plenty of animals to feed on, even in the city. No hunting humans as long as we are in agreement with the Saints. We are not rogue reapers.”
Layla swallowed. “About that… I have news.”
“Speak.” Valeria reached for the crystal glass at her side and took a sip. Blood coated her lips as she lowered it.
Layla pressed her palms against the desk so her hands wouldn’t shake. “Elise Saint is back. The Saints are having a ten-year anniversary celebration, and there is no way she would miss that,” Layla said.
Valeriya lifted a brow. The darkness made it hard to read her face,but the small quirk of her lips told Layla she was rather impressed with the news. “You’re sure?”
“Positive.” Layla slid the Saint invitation from Jamie onto the desk between them.
Layla still didn’t know for sure, but Elise was eighteen now, and she would have graduated from her fancy Paris school. And there was no way she would stay away from her younger sister for this long. If Elise wasn’t back in New York by now, then she might as well be dead.
“Do you still want to lie low?” Layla grumbled. “The Saints have been running this city for the past ten years and whatever they are planning now can only make things worse for us. You hate living under their rule just as much as I hate Elise.”
Valeriya released a sharp breath. “I know you want to hurt Elise—”
“I want her dead. For what she did, she deserves death,” Layla seethed. Before becoming a reaper, such words never would have left her mouth. But after a night that left ghosts terrorizing her dreams, a winter full of blood, and a cracked heart, Layla was no longer the forgiving young girl the Saints had known her to be. And she was tired of letting them run the city while everyone suffered at their hands.
“I never should have told you it was the Saints who caused your ruination,” Valeriya said. “You’re absolutely vexed by them now.” Layla’s eyes rolled and Valeriya sighed. “Yes, we need to destabilize the Saints. But, Layla, there is no room for mistakes here. We do notneed a repeat of last time.”
Layla felt the years of built-up fury finally settling in, ready to be released. She flashed her mentor a bitter smile. “This time I won’t fail.”
4
“Do you think Layla knows you’re back?” Sterling asked.
Chills traversed Elise’s spine at the sound of that name. She glanced in the mirror at her friend, who leaned back in her vanity chair. His tie was undone and his jacket open, but the relaxed energy he radiated did not reach Elise.
Elise sighed. “If she did, she would have made it known by now. I’ve been home for five days.”
Sterling pulled a fan from Elise’s vanity drawer and opened it with a snap of his wrist. “I don’t know… Reapers are good at sneaking.”
Elise turned and snatched the fan from him. “I don’t want to talk about her. Tonight is our last night together; let’s make the most of it.” She adjusted her silver hairpiece for the fourth time.
“Nervous?” Sterling asked.
“Always.” Elise pursed her lips. “My father expects my performance to be perfect, and he wants a ten-year-old to be a perfectrepresentative for the future of the empire. It’s a lot.”
“Elise.” Suddenly, Sterling was in front of her, lifting her chin with gentle fingers.
He was the one who had pulled Layla off a bleeding and traumatized Elise five years ago in the middle of the night. Elise owed him her life, but the best she could give him was her friendship.
Now his hazel eyes met her brown ones, and a dimple creased in his cheek with his smile. “You’re a piano prodigy. You will be perfect tonight; you always are.”
Elise wished she could tell him she was not perfect. And everyone expected her to be. The expectations weighed her down, her self-worth bending beneath the pressure. Still, Elise nodded at her friend. “Sure, but the reapers—”
