Soul of the Crow: An Epic Dark Fantasy (Reapers of Veltuur Book 1), стр. 19

I reach for the satchel I left on the bed. “I need to finish gathering supplies first—”

Hayliel spins me around, her hands firmly against my back as she nudges me toward the door. “I’ll get them for you. You and Gem have to get out of here, and you have to do it unseen. The guards are looking for you both now.”

Taking Gem’s hand in my own, I twist over my shoulder. “There’s a secret escape chamber. It’s not far from here, next to the Forbidden Garden. You know the painting of—never mind; that’s not what matters. What matters is, it’ll take us to the northern side of the palace, on the other side of the wall. Can you meet us there?”

“Of course,” Hayliel says.

I wince, preparing to ask for the impossible. “Would it be too much to ask for a horse?”

Her confidence wilts like a flower in the sun. “The stableman isn’t going to give me a horse.”

I glance around the room, twisting from Gem’s grasp to scurry to the desk on the other side of my bed. I open a drawer to take out a piece of paper, dab a quill in some ink, and start to write.

“I’ll send you with a request, sealed by the prince himself,” I say with sheepish bravado. When I’m done scribbling a brief note instructing the stableman to provide Hayliel—although in the letter, I just call her my handmaiden—with a saddled horse, I retrieve my seal, melt some wax over the folded edges, and make it official. “Tell him that I’m finally taking my royal duties and image seriously.”

She doesn’t smile in return. She can’t, not when so much worry is straining her muscles instead.

I hand her the letter. “Thank you, Hayliel. You mean—this means more to me than you know.”

She nods, wrapping her fingers around the parchment and clutching it against her chest like she’ll drop it if she doesn’t hold it tighter. “I’ll be seeing you soon, then.”

Together, the three of us exit the room. Hayliel turns down the first hallway we come across, leaving us with one final, “Be careful,” before racing, skirts in hand, out of sight.

Fortunately for Gem’s and my covert escape plan, Aracari Wing is always less populated than the rest of the palace. Not only my chambers, but also my father’s—and my mother’s and brother’s when they were still alive—are situated in this section of the palace, and considering my father and the rest of the royal family spend most of their time in the throne room this time of year, preparing for the festival, none of the usual guards and servants are around, increasing the likeliness that Gem and I will actually be able to escape unnoticed.

We’re just one hallway away from the secret exit when the raspy voice of my father shoots bolts of ice into my heart.

“Tell me, how long have you been a Reaper?”

Before Gem can step past the doorway and inadvertently announce our presence, I grab her shoulders, tucking her against me as I slam us both against the wall.

A Reaper—the Reaper—the one that’s been sent to kill my sister is here, is just on the other side of this wall.

My heart is beating so fast that I think I feel it vibrating my entire body. Gem blinks up at me, her mouth opening like she’s about to ask a question that will surely get us both killed, but thankfully at the frantic shaking of my head, or maybe from the fear bulging in my eyes, she stops herself.

When the Reaper finally responds, I am surprised to hear a feminine, smoky voice. “We don’t have to have a conversation.”

Her voice alone has me inching my head around the corner to catch a better glimpse of her, despite every warning bell in my body telling me to stay put. But I’ve never seen a Reaper before. I didn’t even know they could be girls—although, in retrospect, I guess that was kind of ridiculous of me. Anyone who commits murder becomes a Reaper, and I’m sure, in the entire history of Tayaraan, there have been at least a few women to do so.

But a Reaper’s gender aside, more than anything I just want to see if the depictions were correct. Besides, they sound like they’re halfway through the Hall of Altúyur, which means their backs are probably to us. No one will see me.

Holding my breath, I tilt my head past the marble archway.

It’s my father who comes into view first, and I was wrong, his back is not to me. To my surprise, he’s stopped in the middle of the room, facing the Reaper, like he had been expecting their conversation to carry on longer than it had.

Every one of my muscles tightens, afraid what will happen if he sees me. I keep telling myself that I should turn back, that I should retreat to the other side of this wall where Gem and I can hide until they are gone, but I catch the Reaper’s red cloak just out of view, and I truly can’t help myself.

I lean a little closer. Just a little. Just enough to see…

There are no signs of the talons, beak, or shadowy bodies that were illustrated in Gem’s history book. Instead, I find a girl about my age, in a red tunic that hugs her hips so tightly that I can’t stop staring.

My father shifts uncomfortably, and I can’t help but smirk at the impact this Reaper has on him. He does a good job of hiding it, but it’s so obvious that he is intimidated by her—a girl, someone who might be even less muscular than me.

“Yes. Fine,” my father says, forcing a laugh. “Focused and direct. I can appreciate that. Right this way—” Everything is cut off by his sudden frown. “Acari?”

He turns toward me before I have a chance to slink back behind the doorway, but when he catches my eyes, I throw myself back, nonetheless. My heart pounds in my chest,