I frown.
Then scrunch harder because I canfeelmy forehead furrow.Like flesh and brow and body.
I reach for my face, touch it, and freeze.Despite the tears, my cheeks are warm.
Firm.
I sit bolt upright.My insides fill with something new, unknown, wrong.It’s hungry and yearning.Thrumming and vibrating to the point that what’s inside me is glowing.Like it’s impatient to be used.
What am I even saying?I was reaped.I’m dead.
And yet, this is not what dead looks like.Not in the library books or contract footnotes.Not in any reaping or realm I’ve ever studied.But if I’m not dead, then what the hell am I?My heart rate climbs, my limbs tingle.I can’t tell whether it’s blood flowing into them or panic.I thought Iwasthe contract?
That’s what Architecti said.It’s why she made me see the final rune because I am…wasthe contract, the only way to free myself from what he made me was to break it—break me.
If I—as the contract—broke, then what’s left?Nothing… well, nothing but magic, I guess.But that sounds ridiculous, even to me.
What I need to do is follow logical conclusions.If I was a contract, then I need to think like a contract:
Clause 1: I made Midnight reap me.
Therefore, I should be dead.
Shouldbeing the operative word because there’s no part of me that feels dead.But if I’m no longer the contract, then what the hell am I?I thought the puzzles would be over after we broke the contract.I thought I’d be free.
A scratch akin to sandpaper that smells like old meat and unwashed butt scrapes across my cheek.There’s a huff of air and then fur tickles my chin.“Mortem?”
“Obviously.”
“Where am I?”
“I’d think that was also obvious.”
“The underworld?”
“Mmm,” he says, swiping his tongue over my neck this time and a second, more intense waft of fish and cat arse drifts up my nose.
I swat at him.“Do you mind?”
“I don’t, as it happens.You’re different.You taste of tingles.”
Tingles?Is that the thrumming I can feel?My heart rate kicks up another notch.I don’t like this.Not one bit.I’m used to contract law and magical rules.Not this… this unknown.
I glance at my arms, but I can’t see a damn thing in the darkness.
“Where are the lights?”I say.
“Don’t need them.I can see in the dark.”
I roll my eyes.“Well, in case it evaded your notice, I’m not a cat.So for the sake of my sanity, where exactly is here?And where the fuck are the lights?”
“The Tower of Prima.”
The Tower of Prima.The gate, the entrance.The start of it all.
I’m right below Finis, in our tower’s inverted twin.
Two paws knead on my thigh and a low purr rumbles out.
