Page 95 of Reaper’s Curse

I shifted to partially face him. He’d mentioned his partner before, in a far less friendly manner. Neither Valen nor I had been friendly, and now I wondered if we were both suffering from the same thing.

“What happened to your partner?”

“Chiara?” He grimaced. “She’s still around, if you can find her.”

“So, what? Is she hiding or something?”

My thoughts flew to the female I’d encountered in the underground tunnels. The one doing something I didn’t understand to one of Camilla’s twins.

“Most of the time, yes.” He glanced sideways at me. “But if you can find her, you stand a chance of making good on your deal with the queen.”

“How?” My voice jumped an octave.

Valen dropped a gentle hand upon mine and raised a finger to his lips. We fell quiet to the sound of fabric dragging across the grass. Three people approached along the path, two servants guiding an afflicted royal. Daughter to the queen, mother to Winter. The same female who had hugged me and sent images of me leaving the citadel.

That exchange felt like forever ago, and yet I hadn’t left, and I had no idea when I ever would.

The royal and her two helpers moved silently past as Valen and I sat quiet and still.

“I don’t think she cares much for me,” I said, when the royal was out of hearing range.

Valen raised a brow. “You think the afflicted have thoughts and feelings?”

I thought about Earl at the pub and the twin Myla, and an organic smile curved my lips. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then you would be correct.” He turned his gaze in the direction of the disappearing royal. “And that one there will not be your ally in fixing what is broken. She realizes that should the curse be lifted, there’s a good chance her soul will be transitioned, and she’ll fight against that inevitability.”

I leaned forward and gazed down the earthen path. “You know that because?”

“Because I was once tasked her name.”

I gasped and sat straight, ogling him. “Do you still receive tasks?”

He shook his head. “Not in eighty years or more.”

He glanced at my arm, likely recalling the task he’d witnessed marring my skin the other day. He’d asked who my assignment was, and I hadn’t recognized the name, but I knew the soul to be one of the servants passing by in the hall at the time.

“If you’re trapped here long enough, you’ll stop receiving them as well.” He said it matter-of-factly, but I had no intention of getting trapped for a long stretch of time.

In order to make sure that didn’t happen, I needed to know everything Valen did.

“You said that if I could find your old partner, I could fix this broken place?” I asked.

“I said you stood a chance.”

“Okay, I’ll accept those odds. How do I find her?”

His chest rose and fell with a large breath. “She summoned the specters in order to change what was predestined. Find her, dispel the specters, and the queen should no longer have a reason to keep the magical barrier in place. Life and death can return to the balance it craves and deserves.”

“That’s it?” Sounded too simple, but that didn’t mean it was so.

He shrugged.

“Why haven’t you taken care of this partner-specter issue long ago?”

“My relationship with Chiara is complicated, and despite my desire, I have not been able to accomplish the task because of our relationship.”

I considered my working relationship with Chace, thought about how things could be changing. Had something similar transpired between Valen and Chiara only to turn horribly wrong? Could things turn nearly as bad between me and Chace?