Page 17 of Our Vicious Descent
Elise stilled and shadows darkened her face. “The lotus flower left behind, painted in the blood.” The pain in her shaky voice hadLayla moving forward without realizing it. Right as she made it close enough to touch Elise, Layla stopped, her hand outstretched as far as it could go with the chains, her fingers inches away from Elise. Her previous words still played in Layla’s mind, along with the warnings from Karine and Julius. Despite all that they had been through together, Layla was still the very thing Elise’s family sought to destroy.
“All that blood for nothing. My mother died for nothing.” Elise’s voice broke. She turned away from Layla and faced the window, her shoulders trembling.
Reapers stirred in their positions. Their blood had not even dried before Elise began weeping over Saint blood being spilled.
Layla had never been one to rationalize other reapers’ behavior, but hearing Elise try to find some semblance of control made her think about her own mother’s death. It had been five years ago now, but Layla still heard the screams as freshly as the day she’d lost her. Losing both her parents at the same time had been devastating, but she’d had no time to grieve because her own body—her very being—had been irrevocably altered with her newfound reaperhood, and she’d had to navigate that almost on her own. The only thing she remembered thinking in that moment was how much she wanted everyone else to hurt just like her. How much she wanted to see Elise share her misery. A life for a life. Elise had ruined hers, so Layla found it fit to do the same back to the Saint heiress.
Now all Layla wanted to do was show Elise a future version of herself, where the grief came in weaker waves and the pain felt lesssuffocating. But something bothered her about the description of the attack.
“I think you’re right,” Layla said quietly.
Elise faced her again. The golden evening light illuminated the tearstains on her cheeks like shimmering dew on a flower petal. “About what?”
“The attack being wasteful. Clearly someone wanted to leave a message, but if it were a reaper with a vendetta against your family, a simple kill would have sufficed.” Layla ran a hand over her hair, wincing as the Saint steel dug into her burning flesh. In her stress, a few curls had come loose, springing back to frame her face even when she tried to tuck them behind her ears. “I truly do not know what would possess a reaper to brutalize someone in that way—unless they were overly passionate. Perhaps with a complicated emotional connection to…your mother. And the lotus symbol drawn in her blood,” Layla swallowed, her mind racing as Elise’s eyes narrowed. “What if this wasn’t an attack by a reaper, but an attack by…a Saint?”
The Saint heiress reeled back like she had been slapped. Her eyes went wide, and she nearly shrieked, “Why would my father do this?”
Layla winced and contemplated whether she should speak her next words at all. They came out slowly, with deliberate carefulness. “Not your father. Your sister.”
10
Elise’s entire world might as well have come crashing down. For a long time, she could only stare at Layla and repeat one thing in her head over and over again:Not Josephine. Not Josephine. Not Josephine. Not Josephine—
“My sister is ten years old,” Elise said in a voice so quiet, she was certain only Layla could hear it. By now she had forgotten that reapers and Saints were watching them nearby, though many carried on with their operations and ignored Layla and Elise entirely.
Layla shook her head. “The last time we saw her, Valeriya’s venom had changed her. Reaperhood does not discriminate in its cruelty—”
“And what? My sister has turned into a monster capable of murdering her own mother?” Elise demanded. Her voice had returned, and this time, she put anger behind it with enough force to burn. “She would never do something like this; she could never be like…”Her lip curled. It did not matter if she spoke the words—Elise knew Layla would hear them anyway. The absence of an explicit accusation seemed sting enough for Layla.
She dropped her hand and stepped back, her throat bobbing. “You need to find her before she hurts someone else or gets someone else in trouble.”
Elise shot her a dangerous glare. “You cannot prove that this was her.”
“And your people cannot prove that it was my clan either. I guess we both understand how unfair this system is now. If you do not find her, then I will go after her myself,” Layla spat back.
With all her misery, Elise had hoped she would at least be able to take time to remember her mother and grieve her, but instead, her death had pulled Elise in even more directions.
“You should go home and clean up,” Sterling said with a heavy sigh. He was finished gathering the reapers for interrogations. “You’ve done too much today.”
Elise wanted to snap at him, but an older reaper lifted his head nearby, his lips baring to reveal a devilish smile. “You should have been nicer to Layla. It takes a reaper to understand reaper actions. Now how are you going to find your sister?”
A wave of profound sadness and rage began to break in Elise. She met Sterling’s gaze and found reassurance in the way his expression seemed to wilt at her storminess. Facing the reaper again, she set her jaw. “I know my sister. She’s still out there. I do not need a reaper’s help to save her.”
A rotten stench filled the air. Elise wrinkled her nose as she moved back, drawing closer to Sterling. “What is that?”
“Whatever they’re hiding here. We’ve found bodies in reaper lairs before. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was—”
The electric lights in the hotel winked out, throwing everything into an impenetrable darkness. There were a few murmurs of surprise, and Elise could hear the Saints discussing if they should investigate or remain guarding the reapers.
Elise tried not to let the thick tension get to her. She reached for the rifle Sterling had given her and lifted it. Even though she couldn’t see through the dark, she still tracked the shifting shadows throughout the room.
“We should fall back,” Sterling announced. “This feels like a trap.”
A protest immediately landed on Elise’s tongue. “No. They’ll use this time to escape. We cannot let them go.”
Sterling let out a frustrated huff. “And what? Let all my men die? Absolutely not. Let’s go!”
Something creaked at the edge of the foyer. Elise’s breath hitched as the familiar scent of a bittersweet poison crossed her senses. “Wait—”
