Silver Reaper (Reaper Series Book 3)

by Shelley Russell Nolan

  ‘We find another way.’ I swallowed down the lump that appeared in my throat. Killian had already called my bluff. But no matter how outnumbered we were, I would not condone murder. There had to be another way to resolve the coming conflict without killing. I just had to find it.

  First though, I had to get back to Easton.

  ‘Go say your goodbyes,’ I said to Talaom. ‘I’m going to make sure I can open the portal.’

  I spread my wings wide and launched into the air, euphoria filling me at the sensations flooding my body. Flight, true flight, was incredible. Wind whipped my hair every which way, covering my eyes, and I happily let it. I felt so powerful, free. I revelled in the moment. This was so unlike flying in astral form. This was real, every sweep of my wings carrying me higher and higher, until I was at the top of the tower.

  I ran my hands through the aether clinging to the spire at the very top, setting it ringing with a joyful tone that rang out though the sky. A shimmer appeared in the air above the spire and I could glimpse thunder clouds within it, a stark contrast to the cloudless blue skies I was currently suspended in.

  The portal.

  I had found the way home.

  I returned to the square, hope brimming in my chest.

  I could do this. I would take my family home to Easton and be reunited with Sam.

  Then, together, we would find a way to stop Cade and free Chris and Rebecca.

  Optimism kept me going as I created a cage out of aether and directed Rhonda, Connor and Talaom into it. Not even the sour look on Rhonda’s face as she stepped inside could dampen my good spirits. While she might have doubts about my ability to transport them all safely to Easton, I knew I could do it.

  Within seconds I approached the portal for the second time and slipped from one plane to the next, emerging in the astral plane to the north of Easton. The dark clouds I had glimpsed before were all around us, sheets of rain falling, and I kept us in the astral plane as I surveyed the land far below me.

  Off to my left, I could just make out the compound, lights blazing to ward off the darkness of the storm raging around it. With luck, all of Cade’s Tr’lirians were inside, keeping out of the elements, and there was no one to spot us as I flew towards home. Sam would be going out of his mind, with no idea where I was or what Cade had done to me. I had to find him, reassure him I was okay.

  I was so focused on going home, on getting to Sam, it wasn’t until Rhonda called my name, her voice filled with alarm, that I looked down.

  We were passing over the northern outskirts of Easton and the streets leading to the highway were filled with cars. But none of them was going anywhere.

  A roadblock had been constructed across the highway heading north, two lines of pylons several feet apart. Between the pylons stood soldiers decked out in black uniforms, rifles at the ready as they surveyed the traffic waiting on either side of the roadblock, making it clear no one was getting in or out of Easton.

  I flew higher, in case some of those soldiers were Tr’lirians who would be able to see into the astral plane. As I looked for landmarks that would lead me home, I saw hundreds more soldiers on foot, patrolling the streets and turning back any pedestrians or traffic they encountered. I didn’t need to fly to the other side of town to realise Easton was now under martial law.

  Cade had wasted no time in staking his claim.

  Easton now belonged to him, and I feared freeing my hometown could be an impossible task.

  29

  Sam’s car was parked in the driveway of our house when I lowered the aether cage to the front lawn. I shifted us all back to the physical plane before releasing the aether.

  Rain pelted me, big fat drops that made my silver feathers sparkle. I flexed my wings, amazed I felt no strain from the flight as I wished them away. Rhonda and the others were already heading for the front door. I raced after them, heartened by the glow from the lights blazing through the windows.

  Sam had to be inside. I couldn’t wait to see him, to wrap my arms around him and know I was well and truly home.

  But no one answered when Connor knocked on the door.

  I pushed past him and grasped the handle. It turned easily, setting my stomach churning. Sam would never leave the door unlocked. He was a cop, well aware of the many bad things that could happen in a town the size of Easton. I glanced at the keypad for the security system. It flashed green. Unarmed.

  My unease grew. Something was seriously wrong.

  Where was Sam?

  If anything had happened to him…

  I strode into the house, stifling the urge to call out his name as I began to search as quickly and quietly as I could.

  The others followed my every move, clearly not wanting to be separated.

  After checking each room, and finding nothing, we returned to stand in the middle of the lounge. I moved over to the kitchen counter and picked up the handset for the landline, ready to dial Sam’s mobile.

  Silence greeted me when I put the handset up to my ear. I looked over at the others. ‘There’s no dial tone. The lines are down.’

  They stared back at me, matching expressions of concern on their faces. I heard a noise from the front door, which was still wide open.

  A dark figure stood in the doorway, gun in hand. ‘Freeze.’

  ‘Sam?’ I launched myself forward, tears of relief in my eyes as I hurried to the doorway and threw my arms around him. ‘I thought something bad had happened to you. With the door unlocked and no sign of you…I’m so glad you’re okay.’

  His free arm wrapped around me, hugging me tight. ‘I went next door, to check on Mrs Golinski. Was about to head home when you lot appeared on the front lawn.’ He let go, gently moving me to one side. ‘Got to take care of something,’ he said, leaning down to kiss my forehead. ‘Be right back.’

  Sam stalked over to where Talaom stood watching him with an uneasy look in his eyes. His dark eyes were riveted on the gun still in Sam’s hand, so he missed the fist that came from the right and socked him in the jaw. He dropped to his knees and Sam pressed the tip of the barrel into his left temple.

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.’

  Talaom’s gaze shot to me, a beseeching look in his eyes. ‘Tyler–’

  ‘Don’t look to her for answers.’ Sam gave him a hard shove with his free hand. ‘I’m the one you should be worrying about. You hurt her. You double-crossed her, and you hurt her. That’s not something I’m inclined to forgive or forget, even if it appears as if Tyler has. She would never have brought you to our home if she wasn’t willing to let the matter go.’

  Sam twisted around to look at me, as if checking to see if I was going to interfere. I crossed my arms in front of me, waiting for him to make his next move. I trusted him wholeheartedly, sure he would not kill Talaom, but accepted his need to make his point clear to the Davilian.

  He gave me a quick smile before returning his attention to Talaom. ‘I’m guessing she thinks, given what we’re up against, we need you. But I’m not so sure about that. So, what I need is for you to convince me you’re worth it.’

  ‘Or what, Detective, you’ll kill me? You’re no more a murderer than Tyler is. You don’t have it in you to execute anyone in cold blood.’

  ‘After watching you hit Tyler, thinking for a moment you’d killed her, my blood is far from cold. Don’t you ever doubt I would do whatever it took to protect her.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Talaom put both hands in the air in front of him, a placating expression on his face.

  ‘I’m sorry. I did what I thought was right, but I was wrong. I know that now. I should never have betrayed Tyler, no matter what Cade was offering. I can’t give you a reason not to kill me and be done with it. Any promise I make to you now is not going to hold weight. So, go ahead. Do it. Take me out of the equation and protect Tyler from any future dumb mistakes I might make. It’s the only way you can be sure I won’t betray her or hurt her ever again.’

 
For a long moment Sam stood there, gun pressed into Talaom’s temple. I held my breath, conscious of the wary expressions on Rhonda and Connor’s faces.

  Finally, Sam holstered his gun and stepped away from Talaom. Quick strides brought him to my side. His lips met mine and I clung to him, letting his touch, the taste of him, soothe away the tension in my body. I was home, where I belonged, with Sam.

  The world might be falling down around our ears, but as long as we were together it would be enough.

  ‘Thank God you’re okay. I’ve been having nightmares, thinking of what that arsehole Cade might be doing to you. I went to the station immediately after they threw me out of the compound, looking to get some backup and more firepower so I could storm the place and get you back. Got fired instead, along with a number of my colleagues. Looks like my former boss is in the pay of those winged bastards, and she’s been cleaning house to make sure anyone left is on their side. And she’s not the only one. The Mayor called in a private security team first thing this morning. They’re basically a personal army made up of mercenaries. He declared martial law and got them to set up roadblocks at every access point in or out of Easton.’

  ‘I know about the Mayor and the Superintendent. Cade told me. And we saw the mercenaries.’ With help from the others, I started filling Sam in on what had happened since I’d last seen him.

  ‘He wants to be proclaimed God, rule the whole world, and make us all bow down to him,’ Rhonda said, a sour cast to her features.

  Sam rubbed his chin. ‘That may be his plan, but so far he appears to be playing it low key. I haven’t seen or heard of anyone of the winged variety making an appearance since the shit hit the fan. The official announcement, being broadcast on all local television channels, is that Easton is under quarantine due to a potentially deadly bacterial outbreak. They’ve cut off any outside communications, including phone lines and the internet, and are advising people to stay indoors until the all clear is given.’

  ‘Easton is his base of operations. He’s making sure he has the entire town under control before branching out,’ said Talaom. ‘He doesn’t want to panic the rest of the country before he’s ready to seize control completely. That was Almorthanos’s plan too, although it appears we had nowhere near the amount of pull Godden does. We were planning on our wings and immortality giving us the edge. Never thought to breed ourselves a sleeper army to do all the dirty work and undermine the current government from within.’

  ‘Speaking of wings,’ said Sam, turning to me, ‘How come I could see yours when you lot landed on the front lawn? You’ve never been able to make yourself visible to me while in astral form before.’

  ‘That’s because I wasn’t in astral form,’ I said, a wide smile on my lips as I called my wings forth. ‘These are the real deal.’

  Sam, an incredulous smile on his face, slowly stretched out his hand and stroked the feathers on my right wing. I grinned back at him, somewhat distracted by the sensation rippling through my body when his caress moved up the edge of the wing to my shoulder blade. His touch was like a shiver, something I sensed more than felt, until his hand reached my skin. I let the wings return to wherever they went when not in use, laughing at his startled expression when they vanished.

  ‘Hey, Sam, you got anything to drink?’ Connor asked. ‘It has been a hell of a long day, and Tyler growing wings is only half of it.’

  Sam shook himself out of his daze and looked at Connor. ‘There’s scotch in the cupboard above the fridge. Knock yourself out.’

  Connor happily took himself off to the kitchen, with Rhonda and Talaom close on his heels, giving Sam and me a welcome moment to ourselves.

  Sam wasted no time in taking me in his arms, hugging me tight. ‘Thought I’d lost you for good this time.’

  ‘I’m not so easy to get rid of, especially with a few new tricks up my sleeve,’ I said, making an effort to keep my voice light. Without those new tricks, being able to call on the soul of an immortal Tr’lirian and manifest wings, I would not be standing in Sam’s arms right now. I’d gotten lucky. We all had.

  But luck was not enough to stop Cade.

  He had to be stopped, or the people I cared about would never be safe.

  ‘Cade thinks you’re trapped in Angellin,’ said Sam. ‘You have the chance to walk away from all of this. With your wings, you’d be able to bypass his roadblocks and get far away from Easton, live a normal life.’

  ‘A normal life, huh?’ I huffed out a laugh. ‘I’m a reaper. That’s about as far from normal as you can get.’

  ‘True, but the option is there. You could even take your brother and his mother with you. Not sure how you managed to fly all the way from Angellin to Easton lugging them and that Talaom arsehole around, but you are obviously capable of carrying heavy loads. You could be far from here with no one the wiser.’

  I stretched back until I could see his face. ‘Leaving you behind, right? I know you, Detective Sam Lockwood. Fired or not, there is no way you are leaving town when you know people are in danger.’

  ‘Sweetheart, I would give anything to be able to run off with you. But Cade knows me, knows I wouldn’t be able to get out of Easton without help. I leave and he is bound to send people looking for me. I’m a loose end he can’t afford to lose track of. You and the others, you’re the ones with a real chance of escaping this mess.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m partly responsible for this mess, and I’m not leaving town until I fix it.’

  ‘And how, exactly, are you planning on doing that?’ Talaom asked from the doorway, generous measure of scotch in the glass in his hand. ‘I’m all for throwing my lot in with a lost cause, but I’m hoping you have something more planned than just you and me threatening to reap all the bad guys’ souls.’

  I grimaced, knowing his scepticism was warranted. We had no weapons, limited numbers and no plan.

  Stopping Cade was going to take a miracle.

  30

  ‘You know, returning to the scene of the crime is what gets most criminals caught,’ said Sam, murmuring in my ear.

  I shrugged. ‘It’s not like we have a lot of options here. We need to free Chris and Rebecca. Not just for their sakes, but so they can’t be used against us. Killian knows me too well. He knows I’d never do anything to jeopardise their safety.’

  ‘Fair enough. Are you going to make another one of those aether baskets to carry us all to the compound so we can break them out?’ Sam asked.

  I squeezed his hand. ‘I’d give anything to be able to take you with me, but to avoid being seen I have to travel through the astral plane. It’s the only way I have any chance of getting close to Chris and Rebecca without being spotted.’

  ‘Tyler’s right,’ said Rhonda. ‘Being able to slip in and out of the astral plane is the only advantage she has. You’d just get in her way. Get her caught.’

  To soften the blow Rhonda had just dealt him, I gave Sam a crooked grin. ‘Besides, it will be much easier for one person to infiltrate the compound.’

  ‘Make that two people doing the infiltrating,’ said Talaom, putting his glass on the coffee table and squaring his shoulders as he faced us. ‘I’ll go with you.’

  Sam stared at him, rubbing his chin, not saying a word.

  Talaom straightened to his full height. ‘Like it or not, Detective, I’m the best backup she’s got. I have full access to the astral plane and I can reap souls. The two of us can be in and out of there with minimum fuss and noise, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she returns to you.’

  Sam still didn’t respond, and Talaom shifted under the weight of his steady regard. Finally, Sam turned back to me. ‘You do whatever it is you have to do, and then you get your arse back here. Got it?’

  ‘Got it.’ I leaned in for a quick goodbye kiss, nerves bubbling.

  I had to sneak into a heavily guarded compound, find Chris and Rebecca, and spirit them out of there without attracting any attention. The only positive about what I was pla
nning was that Cade and Killian had to assume I was dead. I had to act now, to take full advantage of the situation.

  ‘While you’re out rescuing Bradbury and his new girlfriend, I’ll see what kind of support I can drum up. Cade’s Tr’lirians can’t have taken over everything. A buddy of mine is the vice president at the Easton Shooters’ Club. He’s ex-army and knows a thing or two about urban warfare.’

  I winced. ‘Not sure I like the idea of civilians running around the streets with guns. That has the potential to make this situation even messier.’

  ‘If Cade doesn’t give up on his plan to be God, messy will be an understatement. But I’m not looking to start a war. I just want to be prepared, to have a fall-back position, if we can’t come up with a way to neutralise the threat Cade and his goons pose.’

  ‘How are you going to persuade your friend to help you without telling him the truth?’ Connor asked. ‘The more people who find out about the Tr’lirians, the harder this will be to contain. Word spreads that winged people are living amongst us, that’s going to set off a panic for sure.’

  Rhonda shuddered. ‘I’ve seen firsthand what humans can do when they’re riled up about something. Malia took advantage of mob mentality to set her followers on to Liren, and we all know how well that turned out.’

  ‘Relax,’ said Sam. ‘I’ll think of something. Trevor’s a good guy. Steady. I’ll tell him enough to get him on side without revealing the entirety of the shit storm about to rain down on Easton.’

  I heaved a sigh. ‘All right then. But be careful. There is no way to tell who is a Tr’lirian supporter and who isn’t.’

  ‘Rhonda and Connor can come with me. She can be my Tr’lirian detector, and he can be my backup.’

  I gazed at Sam, wishing I could ask him to stay at home and wait for me to return instead of putting himself in potential danger. But that would be just as effectual as him asking me to do the same thing. Besides, his inability to sit back and let bad things happen was one of the reasons I’d fallen in love with him.