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“Samjoko!” I gasped, eyes widened with respect and reverence. Hastily, I dropped into a deep bow, surprised by the intrusion. Reaper’s three-legged crow perched precariously on a light fixture above my head.
“Caw!” she squealed.
I whipped my phone out for a photo before I forgot. She didn’t seem to mind and even ruffled out her feathers, posing them just so. “This is not a photo shoot, your highness,” I said disapprovingly, but secretly, I was thrilled. “Did Reaper send you?” I held up my phone, sending photos to The Eternal via Bluetooth without losing sight of her.
Flora:Cute bird. The hell does it have to do with me?
Luna:I saw her with the Reaper! Look at the three legs!
Three dots popped up. Then disappeared, then reappeared, then disappeared again.
Flora:How do you know it’s a her?
“It’s a her,” Gaksi affirmed. I didn’t know how I knew that, though. It just felt right.
Luna:Gaksi said so!
Flora:Eyes on the other demon, fish. Unless you want to end up sleeping with the fishes.
What in the Beyond was it doing here? I glanced back up at where she sat. The crow focused her eyes on me like a smirk. With a tap, itspastel pinktalons rapped against the light fixture. I choked.
“Thief!”
Forget respect. How did it get access to my limited edition Chanel polish? I’d been missing it since recruitment started!
“How did you get into my room? What do you want?” I demanded. The bird fluffed her wings, unperturbed.
“Where’s my nail polish?”
No response.
“You’re suspicious.” The crow blinked in affirmation.
What do I do about this? I couldn’t kill it. And the portal to the Beyond was so far away. And it had been in my room! My safe space! How did it even get in? My hands clenched into fists. Why did I even bother trying to study when I had to deal with nonsense like this?
Having Reaper in and out of my room was enough!
“How did you allow this, Gaksi?”
“She asked so nicely. We demons have little options in the way of accessorizing.” His tone was amused, as usual.
“This isn’t over.” I threatened the sun god with a wag of my finger.
Without a further word, I fled.
* * *
In the Barren Fields,Reaper set up an obstacle course. I scaled fake cliffs, landed on my shadows as a cushion, then jumped between moving obstacles.
When I called him nearly as evil as Lukas, he added fire to the mix.
“I didn’t injure him badly enough,” Reaper said, hurling ebony fire at me. “He was only leaning on you after our first encounter because he enjoyed being touched and cared for by a pretty woman.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I responded. “He was bleeding all over that time!” I dodged a blast of flame. “And how did you even see that? I thought you disappeared?”
A ghost of a smile lined Reaper’s stern features. “He could have healed himself. Sirens possess mending magic.”
“That’s something an abuser would say.” I retorted. “‘Yeah, it doesn’t matter that I hit her. She can heal herself.” As I spoke, I made finger quotes with my hands, and he narrowed his eyes.
