Page 53 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
“Yeah. Forgot it was Thane’s scythe. It’s fucking heavy,” I said as I bent down to pick it up. Stupid fucking scythe. As soon as I wrapped my hand around it, I felt my death magic burst to life in my veins. Power hummed through me, and I felt ready to take on anything this forest threw at me. “Come on. Let’s go see what we can find.”
Then the four of us stepped into the darkness and into the unknown.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rafe
RouxlookedgloriouswithThane’s scythe casually resting over her shoulder. Like a total badass. I think all the black leather helped too. And the killer boots. Chunky black things that wrapped halfway up her slender legs with laces and buckles from the base to the top. She was in a fucking sexy get up and I both hated and loved that I got to see her in it most days. I just wish I could peel her out of it too.
Rayne grunted in agreement next to me, understanding the desires I was thinking about. We couldn’t talk telepathically, like some people often thought, but we could pick up on each other’s emotions and guess what the other was thinking with surprising accuracy.
Rayne threw a glance at Atticus who was currently trailing behind Roux. The forest had gotten thicker the deeper we went, and it forced us to walk single file.
“What do you make of the demon?” my brother asked.
I shrugged. Whether I liked it or not, he was mated to Roux. That made him part of our family. There was something about him that set me on edge. I knew my twin could feel it too. Like the guy was too powerful for his own good. It scared me a little to be honest. Kind of wanted to make me run as far away from him as possible. But that thought also made my blood run a little hotter. There was something about fear and danger that made my dick hard. I wanted to run, just to see if he’d chase me. I’d never felt that kind of primal urge before, the need to feel like prey. Perhaps that was what was drawing me to him. That he made me feel powerless. Hell Hounds were powerful creatures and there wasn’t much that would be able to take us down, other than ancient beings, so the fact that he’d managed to knock me and my twin out with a mere flick of his hand had been quite something.
I’d been pissed when I’d woken and seen the two of them together, then I’d had to calm my twin down before he decimated a number of damned souls. I am happy for her, after everything with Magnus she needed something like this. Especially since she often felt vulnerable over not knowing her history. She was a mystery, but that didn’t stop me wanting or loving her.
“I think he’ll be good for her,” I said to my twin.
“Hmm,” he replied with a tight press of his lips.
“What is it?”
“He intrigues me.”
“He does me.”
Rayne stopped and let his gaze linger on the man. “There’s something about him I find fascinating.”
As if he could feel our gaze upon him, Atticus glanced over his shoulder at us. He cocked his head to one side and his eyebrows squished together. He was striking to look at. Mildly terrifying too with those bottomless eyes that drew you in and held you captive.
“I think he’s intrigued by us too,” I said slowly, not removing my gaze from Atticus. His lips quirked up at my words, and he gave a slight nod as if agreeing with me.
“Think he’d let us play with him?” Rayne asked, excitement tinging his tone.
Atticus’ grin turned savage before he turned back to watching Roux’s back.
I slapped Rayne on the back. “I don’t think we’d be the ones playing, brother.”
I felt the shiver that ran through Rayne as if it were my own. Seemed as if he liked that idea.
“Come on you two,” Roux shouted. “I think we’re nearly there.”
If only we knew where ‘there’ was. We’d been traipsing through this fucking forest for ages with no sign of any life other than a weird sense of being watched. But none of us could see anything in the trees. Roux just kept walking, following whatever that feeling was in her chest. I just hoped it wasn’t leading us to our death. If I died in this forest, I was going to—
A sharp sting cut across my face, and I put my hand up to my cheek. When I pulled my hand away blood coated my fingertips. “What the hell?”
I looked behind me and there was a thin arrow sticking out of the tree. Something shot me. With a fucking arrow.
Then all Hell broke loose.
Roux started yelling and attacking whatever was in front of her, but the forest was still too dense to see clearly what it was.
“Run!” I shouted. We needed to get out of here. We were practically sitting ducks because the trees were so thick here. Everyone started running. Branches cut my skin as we ran past, the cuts healing quickly but still stinging like a bitch.
Before too long we fell into a clearing. A wide-open space beneath a canopy of branches. It was so dark here, the leaves blocking the sun from reaching the undergrowth. The life around us couldn’t be good if it thrived in the shadows.
