Page 6 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
Quick as a flash, I pulled a short knife from my boot and hovered the sharp point over one of his eyes.
“No,” I said shortly. “We might have been good in the bedroom, but you were always too scared to commit. That’s why I found you with another woman sticking her tongue down your throat. You might have been a good fuck, Magnus, but you were never a good man. Now, remove your hands or I’ll remove your eyeball.”
He slowly peeled his hands away from my thighs and held them placatingly in front of me.
“I regret that you had to see that, Red.”
“Why? Because you got caught?”
He let out a deep sigh. “No, because I was a fool.”
Anger burst to life in my chest as the humiliation I suffered reignited. “You got that right,” I spat. “I still can’t believe that I—”
Nope. I wasn’t going there. Gods, I couldn’t believe I’d nearly told him that I’d loved him.
“That you what?” he asked, seeking for me to continue, a spark of something that looked like hope burning in those red eyes.
I jumped up off him and turned my back on him. I couldn’t look at him. Not when he looked at me like that. Like he regretted what had happened between us. He’d always said I’d jumped to conclusions, but I couldn’t deny what I’d seen. What he’d done or how that made me feel.
I heard him pick himself up off the floor and sigh deeply.
I clung on to the anger and the hate and gave him one last look over my shoulder. “Fuck you, Magnus.”
Before he could get another word in, I stormed out of his castle and back into the balmy night air.
I was not going to cry. Not over that asshole. I hated how he made me feel, like I’d meant nothing to him. This was why I never went to see him. It always made me feel like shit. Maybe I should have removed his eyeball. It might have made me feel a little better.
I turned onto the main road and headed back in the direction of the city. I could use my shadows to portal myself, but I wanted the walk to clear my head. My night off was ruined, and Magnus had reminded me of how small and shitty he always made me feel. When I got home, I was throwing a pity party for one.
As I reached Witches Row, a street full of shops and cafes catering for the local magic users, my phone blasted out ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’. Corny, I know, but if I didn’t hold onto the small things that made me laugh, I’d be a miserable fucker like my boss Thane. He wastheGrim Reaper and he seemed to take the grim part literally. I don’t think the guy had cracked a smile in 200 years.
I checked the caller ID and saw it was Lila, my handler and best friend. “Hey babe, what’s up?”
“You need to get back here. Immediately.” She sounded freaked out.
“Why? What’s happened?”
“Thane’s gone missing.”
Well, shit.
Chapter Two
Roux
ImaterialisedbackinMiseriae, the city of the Underworld where the GRIM (General Reaping Inc., Miseriae) headquarters were. Miseriae was one of the biggest cities down here, not quite as big as the capital, Infernium, but it was much better in my opinion. It wasn’t as crowded, and the people were a lot nicer. I say people, but everyone down here was either dead, a demon or somewhere in between, like a vampire. Not quite dead, but not quite alive either. Capital city dwellers tended to be full of themselves and complete assholes. Just like the King of the Dead, Hades. He was a total self-absorbed jackass. I avoided him as much as I possibly could, which was pretty difficult when you were the right hand of the Reaper, but I’d discovered a talent for making up weird and wacky excuses to avoid the guy like the literal plague.
Our building was tall and modern, made from glass and steel that stood out among the surrounding buildings of old stone. We Reapers had moved with the human times and created a building that wouldn’t have looked out of place topside. Although, since supernaturals made themselves known to the humans, topside had changed quite a bit. Midnight, the vamp territory, used to be the London but now it looked completely different. The entire world was different. And it wasn’t always for the best.
“Where have you been?” Lila shouted as I entered the foyer, her silver blonde hair frazzled as if she’d been playing with it to ease her nerves. “The whole place is in uproar.”
“So, Thane really is missing?”
“Yes! He’s not been seen since yesterday.”
“Shit.” That meant no one had processed the souls for today. “Who’s looking after the vault?”
“Rafe and Rayne.”
