Reap the Shadows (Steel & Stone Book 4) by Annette Marie
“Okay, that’s enough!” Melonie said loudly, striding over with the other two right behind her.
“Holy shit, Piper,” Randy wheezed, wincing as he sat up. “Ever hear of pulling your punches?”
“I thought you wanted it to be like a real fight,” she said. “If you’re too stunned by those little punches to defend yourself properly, just wait until a daemon hits you.”
“I would have taken a daemon out with my first magic attack,” he said, half angry, half defensive.
“What if your attack didn’t take him out?” she pressed as he gingerly got to his feet. If that was the best he could do, she was seriously concerned for his safety. “What if the daemon dodged or shielded and got in close like I did? I’m not kidding when I say daemons hit way harder than I do. Can you come up with more magic while taking a beating?”
Randy scowled at her. “How would you know how hard a daemon could hit? No daemon would hit you.”
She stared at him for a second, then laughed. The bitterness in her voice surprised all of them, including her. Memories raced through her mind, from the sphinx at her Consulate, to the Styx ring, to the bastille, to the gorge in the Overworld as golden wings flashed across the sun, griffins closing in on her. What daemon hadn’t tried to hurt her lately?
“We don’t have the protection of the Consul label anymore,” she said coldly. “There’s nothing protecting us from the full brunt of a daemon’s power. Do you even know what that looks like? Have you ever seen a daemon kill someone? Have you ever had a daemon try to kill you?”
None of them answered.
“Tell me you could still cast magic after a daemon rips your hand open to the bone,” she said, raising her hand. The morning sun caught on her scars and they shone white against her skin.
Randy’s eyes widened as he stared at them.
“Tell me you’re ready to take on a ten-foot minotaur once he drops glamour, or a naga daemon that’s twice as fast as you on a bad day, or a reaper that can teleport in an instant so you never know where he’ll reappear. The moment any one of them got their hands on you, you’d be dead.”
She looked between them. “I didn’t have a clue either, not until I got out there and saw what daemons can do when they aren’t on their best behavior—what they can do when they want to kill you. Never assume you can beat a daemon with magic. They will always be the experts. We’re just imitators.”
Randy rubbed his side where she’d hit him and sneered. “Lectures on magic from the only person here who has none?”
With a disgusted huff, she turned away from him and headed back toward the front of the church. Talking to him was like talking to a wall—an obnoxious wall. Had she been that unprepared for the reality of daemons when she’d first gone on the run with Ash and Lyre? Had she been that cocky and overconfident? She hoped not. She’d have to ask Lyre—as soon as she found him. Maybe she owed him and Ash an apology for being horrible company.
Either way, she hoped her fellow apprentices wouldn’t be encountering any daemons in the near future, because she really doubted they would stand half a chance.
CHAPTER 3
PIPER took a deep breath and held it as she stared at the door in front of her. Exhaling, she tapped lightly and swung it open without waiting for a response.
Quinn looked up from the documents he was reading—from their charred state, the documents he’d recovered from the remains of the Consulate ten days ago. When she’d first seen him digging through the ruins that night, she’d wondered if he’d been looking for her body. But no, she’d been presumed dead for a week at that point. Her father had been there to recover documents, not her remains. She couldn’t really blame him though, not with the city in the state it was in.
When she walked in, his brow furrowed briefly before smoothing. The other Consuls had left the meeting about twenty minutes ago. She figured she’d waited long enough.
“Piperel,” he said neutrally.
Pushing the extra seats out of the way, she sat on a rickety wooden chair across from him. She half expected him to tell her to leave until summoned, but instead he set his papers aside. She studied him as he analyzed her with his good eye, the other covered by a simple black patch. He looked gaunter than she remembered. The last couple weeks had taken their toll on him; she’d never seen him sit with his shoulders dipped in a slouch before. He looked exhausted.
“So how did the meeting go?” she asked, trying to match his neutrality.
“Quite well,” he replied, “though we are still developing our strategy with regards to the Gaians. First, however, I would like to discuss your role here.”
She tensed. “My role?”
“You’ve left the grounds alone every day since arriving.”
“You know why. I told you on the first day that I need to find Lyre and Seiya.”
“I was very clear that the situation in the city is too unstable for—”
“I was very clear too,” she interrupted. “And we don’t need to waste time going over it again.”
She and Quinn stared each other down. They’d already spoken at length about her adventures, though she’d left out certain details. He knew she had reclaimed her magic and that she would be searching for Lyre and Seiya, with or without his permission, until she found them. But he knew nothing of her new ability to turn into a literal half-daemon or that she carried the Sahar under her left armguard. As far as he knew, Ash still had it.
He eventually broke the terse silence. “You suspect the Ra family is involved in ... your friends’ ... disappearance, is that correct?”
She bit back a comment about his hesitation over ‘friends.’ “Yes.”
He steepled his fingers. “Ra involvement with your missing companions could create potentially volatile complications for us all.”
“What do you mean?”
He tapped his fingers against his chin. “My removal as Head Consul was in the works for over a decade. Early in my career, I became aware of corruption among the ranks of Consuls, but it took Calder and I many years to unearth the truth. I don’t know when it began, but it predates my induction as Head Consul.”
He leveled her with his most serious look. It used to make her squirm, but after staring down the likes of Samael, her father’s glare just didn’t seem to have the same power.
“Over the last decade,” he said, “the Ra family has engineered an infiltration of the Consulate system. My deposition was the final step.”
“An infiltration?” she repeated, aghast.
He nodded bleakly. “We believe they have gone as far as preparing haemons as agents and inserting them into the apprentice program, and they have influenced or bought the loyalties of others over the years. The majority of Consuls are unaware of the infiltration, and many more are unwitting pawns, but there are enough of these Ra-loyal Consuls to entirely undermine the system. It wasn’t until I was unseated as Head Consul that I knew how many were in positions of power. Over half the Board of Directors is susceptible to leverage from the Ra family.”
Piper leaned back in her seat, lips pressed together as she absorbed the gravity of the situation. “That completely changes the balance of power between not just the daemon families, but also between the Consulates, prefects, and human police and government.”
Quinn nodded again. “With that control, the Ra family will have an unfair advantage in regulations, sanctions, the import of magical goods, the criminal system ... We also suspect the prefects have been heavily compromised by the Ra family, the Hades family, and other Underworld factions.”
“With the prefects’ ‘shoot first’ approach,” she said, “daemon corruption will only make them more dangerous as the situation in the city gets worse. Are you going to let the government know what’s happened?”
“I have been thoroughly discredited, and I’m sure the Ras have put a very large bounty on my head. Furthermore, there is little the government can do at this point to improve the situation.” He paused
She tensed at the unwelcome reminder. “Various involved daemons” probably meant Miysis, since she didn’t see how Ash, Seiya, or Lyre had anything to do with the Ra infiltration. Quinn had still done everything he could to keep her away from them all.
She rubbed a hand over her face. “So what do we do?”
“The Ras have, for the time being, the support of the prefects and they are using that influence to attempt to quell the Gaians’ terrorism by force. Too many daemons are unwilling to leave peacefully, and human lives matter little to either side. As you’ve seen, the violence in the city escalates every day. Therefore, our immediate goals are to convince as many daemons as possible to temporarily leave, and in the meantime, alert as many uncorrupted Consuls as possible to the truth.”
She frowned. “If you want to alert other Consuls, how will you know who’s safe to talk to? How will you communicate with them? You can’t just call them up one by one and say, ‘Hey, just so you know, Ra daemons have taken over the Consulate system. Watch your back.’”
“That is one of the items still under discussion.” He steepled his fingers on the desk again. “I’m sure you understand the dangers surrounding the Ra family right now, particularly on a personal level. So you must realize that your excursions to their embassy to search for missing daemons is extremely irresponsible.”
She pressed her fists against her knees. So that was why he’d confided this secret information to her—to convince her to stop searching for Lyre and Seiya. If not for that, would he have ever told her? Her thoughts went to Vejovis, her grandfather, though she hadn’t known it until after his death. He’d risked everything and in the end had lost his life because he’d helped her.
“I’m being careful,” she said. “And once Lyre and Seiya are safe, I will be one hundred percent available to assist however I can with the other Consuls.”
As she’d expected, Quinn’s expression hardened immediately.
“With our position so precarious and with so many lives in danger,” he said, his gravelly voice stern, “our top priority is deescalating the violence and reclaiming control of the Consulates from the Ras. By putting yourself in a position where you could be captured, you are endangering—”
Piper stood. “If I’m captured, that will be my problem. Your top priority is getting the Consulates back. So you keep working on that, and I’ll worry about my friends.”
Quinn stood too, his single green eye glaring at her and his mouth opening to argue, but she didn’t wait to hear his rebuttal. She simply turned and walked out of the room.
. . .
“Piper!”
She paused mid-step, glancing back toward the entrance to the sanctuary. She’d just come down from the bell tower, where she’d been cooling down after her meeting with her father and contemplating her next move. With the new information about the Ra family, she wasn’t sure what to do next for Lyre and Seiya.
Melonie waved from the threshold of the church. “Piper, we’ve been looking for you. Come on!”
“Come where?” she muttered as she started down the aisle.
“This way,” Melonie said cheerfully. “We’re getting an assignment.”
“What kind of assignment?” she asked doubtfully, following Melonie down the steps and around to the rear of the church.
The boys were already waiting in a half circle around two Consuls. Drew was a lanky man in his early thirties who looked like a stiff shove would knock him over, but he was tough as nails. Lexa, who managed her own Consulate in another city—or had, before she’d left it to support Quinn—was a tiny Asian lady, forty years old but ten years younger in appearance, who could probably take Drew in a fight with one hand tied behind her back. Her black hair was cut short and styled in a spikey, messy ‘do that made her look like a troublemaker.
“Okay, kids,” she announced as soon as Piper and Melonie joined them, her words sharp and clipped but still light with a touch of humor. “Here’s the deal. As you know, Consul Calder has been working with a few daemon establishments downtown to start funneling daemons out of the city. However, it’s getting too risky down there, so it’s time to extract him. That’s our job tonight.”
Piper straightened. She’d been prepared to walk away from whatever silly, time-wasting task Quinn had thought up to make the apprentices feel useful, but she couldn’t ditch her uncle.
“Why do we need to extract him?” she asked. “Can’t he get out on his own?”
“The Gaians have flooded downtown with small but well-armed squads that are roving the area in search of daemons. They are aggressive, dangerous, and surprisingly competent with their weapons. The prefects are equally present and since Calder, as well as the rest of us, have been branded traitors, they are also a hazard.”
Lexa surveyed the group. “We have a van ready to go. Drew will drive us most of the way there. A vehicle will be too conspicuous with Gaian and prefect patrols everywhere, so we will continue downtown on foot. We’ll collect Calder, return to Drew, and hightail it back here. Any questions?”
“How far do we have to walk?” Lee asked.
“It’s about two miles—less than half an hour if we move quickly. Because of the unpredictable dangers we’ll be facing downtown, if we run into trouble and someone gets separated, we can’t hang around looking for them. I’ll go over the rendezvous points on the way.”
“A large group will attract unwanted attention,” Piper pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be smarter for just three people to go? A driver and a pair to travel on foot?”
“The Head Consul wants you all to go,” she explained. “Traditionally, Consuls work solo, but that will no longer be effective for us. If we want to survive the coming changes, we need to learn how to operate as a cohesive team.”
Raising her eyebrows skeptically, Piper let it drop, overly aware of the guys glaring at her for suggesting they shouldn’t all get to go. She didn’t want to endanger her own chances of participating in the mission, but she didn’t think it was smart to toss four naïve apprentices into the downtown chaos for the sake of exposure. Was it arrogant of her to think she could handle it but they couldn’t?
Then again, the apprentices were all within a year of taking their final tests—or would have been had they still been at their Consulates. To a Consul, they were almost fully trained. Maybe Quinn and the others really did feel they were perfectly capable of positively contributing to the mission, and Piper was being overly critical because she’d been dealing with the most powerful and devious of the daemon castes so much recently.
She flicked a glance at Randy and Jerome. Randy was grinning and prodding his buddy with his elbow; she could practically see his ego muscles flexing. Well, she would find out tonight whether she was underestimating them. She just hoped it wouldn’t be a lesson they’d learn the hard way.
CHAPTER 4
PIPER watched the other apprentices marching ahead of her and sighed. Melonie might have accused Piper of strutting around, but she was certain she’d never walked with so much arrogance spilling out of every movement as Randy and Jerome. They clearly felt badass in their black clothes and abundance of weapons. Lee was more reserved, but even he seemed too confident. Only Melonie moved with caution, her brow wrinkled and her eyes darting toward every shadow.
They headed down yet another dark alley in the heart of the inner city that bordered the slightly more reputable downtown district. Garbage was scattered across their path, the stinking puddles flashing under Lexa’s dim light—a flashlight with a layer of black cloth wrapped over the end. Unintelligible graffiti layered every wall and dumpster. The majority of doors and windows were boarded up.
Piper trailed behind the group, eyes sliding left and right. At irregular intervals, she turned and walked backward for a few steps, checking
It was strange. She felt overwhelmingly responsible for making sure nothing happened to the other apprentices. The feeling was unfamiliar. With Ash and Lyre, she’d only ever had to worry about herself. But with her experience—and, unbeknownst to them, the power of the Sahar at her disposal—she was realistically the most capable of them all and best suited to handle a confrontation.
She grimaced. Ironically, she could empathize with Seiya’s resentment. The draconian girl had probably felt the same way about protecting Piper; everything was so much easier without a weak, inexperienced charge to worry about. Or in this case, four of them.
They had to be close to Calder’s location since, by Piper’s estimation, they’d walked over a mile and a half already. No one was speaking and the sound of their footsteps echoed quietly in the alley, along with the constant drip of water from that afternoon’s rain shower.
The streets and alleys were devoid of life. The inner city was poorly populated to start with, its inhabitants naturally wary of outsiders, and with the recent conflict, no one wanted to be out at night—or out at all—which made their group even more conspicuous. It would take only one Gaian—or one Ra-friendly Consul or prefect—to be in the right spot and they would be in big trouble. There was no help nearby and no easy escape.
At the front of the group, Lexa approached an intersection of alleys and took a left. Each member of the group filed around the bend. As Piper followed Melonie, she glanced back down the alley and spotted a small, dark shape darting across the shimmering surface of a puddle.
She froze, staring. The shape vanished into the darkness. Her skin prickled. It had been small, like a cat. It had to have been a cat. But the shape, the way it had moved ... No, there was no way. It was just a stray cat.