nothing to fear from the council.'
I sat back, grasping the seat belts, unwilling to strap myself in just in case I needed to make a fast getaway. 'Just out of morbid curiosity, what exactly is this Moravian Council? And what would happen if I wasn't telling the truth?'
'You will be taken before the council to answer for the seventy-three deaths your people have caused over the last three years,' Kristoff answered in a deep, lyrical voice that would have sent shivers of delight up my back if he hadn't clearly been repulsed by me, and obviously under the delusion that I was someone bad.
'My people?' I asked, running my mind over my immediate family members. 'They run an apple orchard in eastern Washington. I don't think they've conducted any mass executions in, oh, geez, years and years. Although with my brother, you never can tell. He's a Microsoft yuppie.'
My humor, sarcastic as it was, was not wasted on Alec. He chuckled and flashed me a quick grin in the mirror before returning his eyes to the road as we approached the square.
Kristoff grunted and looked out the window.
I figured it would take Alec forever to find a parking spot, but he solved the issue by simply parking sideways across a sidewalk. 'That is the bookstore?' he asked, pointing to the end of the street, where it opened into the pedestrians-only square.
I nodded.
'Let me see the books,' Alec said, opening the door for me and offering his hand to help me out of the car.
I was simultaneously charmed by the gesture and pleased by the warmth in his eyes. 'I'm afraid I only have one of them. I dumped the other one when Mattias started after me.'
'Mattias?' Alec asked, examining the book I held out for him. He riffled the pages but found nothing.
'The sacristan,' Kristoff informed him. He turned a hard gaze on me. 'Why, exactly, were you running from him?'
I was flummoxed for a moment when Alec tucked my hand in the crook of his arm, covering my fingers with his free hand as he led me down the street. It was a surprisingly intimate gesture, one that gave me more pleasure than I wanted to admit.
Part of me, the vindictive, evil part that I really liked to pretend didn't exist, wished that Denise would walk past us at that moment. I wouldn't gloat, I wouldn't preen, I'd simply smile and allow my two incredibly handsome escorts to accompany me.
Fortunately for my ego, she wasn't present in the crowd who now pulsed and bobbed in that odd throbbing fashion large groups of people packed into a small space have when they attempt to dance. The music hit us with the force of a brick wall, and it wasn't until we slipped around to the back of the row of buildings lining that side of the square that I could make myself heard above the noise.
'No answer?' Kristoff said, stopping at a metal door bearing a faded plaque with the name of the shop. One of his chocolatey brown eyebrows rose in mock surprise. I had the worst urge to yank it back down.
'I'm not avoiding the question. I just didn't want to bellow it out in front of everyone,' I said with dignity. 'I was running from him because he was just as mistaken as you two—he thought I was this Zorya person, and wanted to marry me.'
Alec pulled out a large set of keys and started applying them to the door.
Kristoff eyed me from toes to nose. I flushed for the umpteenth time that night and, in order to forestall the obvious comment, said quickly, 'You can stop looking at me like I'm a big, fat liar, because I'm not.'
Kristoff blinked for a moment in surprise; then his face hardened into its familiar suspicious expression.
For some reason, that just seemed to irritate me more than if he'd come out and accused me of trying to pull his leg. 'You can believe what you want, but it's the absolute truth. The lady… what's her name… Kristjana mentioned Mattias and me getting married so he could die in my arms or something like that. So you can just wipe that you're-so-insane-you're-barking look right off your face.'
Behind me, Alec started laughing. Kristoff's eyes lit from within with anger, and for one horrible second, I thought he was going to hit me. But instead he took two steps forward, backing me into the wall of the shop. 'Do you have any idea who I am, woman?'
'I know you don't like me, and I have to say that the feeling is reciprocated,' I told him, my stomach quivering, but whether it was from fear or anger, I wasn't quite sure.
Kristoff wrapped the long fingers of one hand around my throat, tightening them with uncomfortable pressure. 'I could kill you right now.'
Fear won out over the anger, but I wasn't going to let him see that. I clutched the material of my skirt with both hands to keep from grabbing at his wrist. 'If I'm who you say I am, that would defeat your purpose,' I pointed out, ignoring the fact that my voice was quavering. 'You'd have to explain my death to the Brotherhood.'
A slow smile curled the very edges of his mouth, but didn't do much to warm up his icy gaze. 'I believe I would enjoy that.'
My eyes widened at the threat obvious in his voice, but before I could protest, Alec interrupted.
'Stop frightening her, Kris. It serves no purpose.'
His gaze continued to bore into mine for another few seconds, and I felt swamped by the waves of anger and hostility that all but rolled off him. He snarled something under his breath and released me, turning on his heel and stomping off down the alleyway.
I collapsed against the wall, my legs feeling like they were made of tofu. Instantly, Alec was at my side, propping me up, peering down at me with a concerned look. 'Are you all right, Pia?'
'Yeah. Your friend is a bit intense, isn't he? I'm thinking anger management classes might be in order,' I answered, rubbing my neck as I watched the dark silhouette disappear into the shadows.
To my surprise, Alec defended his friend. 'He has no love for the reapers.'
'Reapers?' I pulled my gaze back to him. 'That's what the ghosts kept calling me. Who are they?'
'Reapers were once Ilargi. That is, technically they still are, although they were divided into two types, sun and moon reapers. The former were called Ilargi before they were all but destroyed. The latter… well, that is a long story.'
'Ah. The Brotherhood of the Blessed Light,' I said, nodding.
Alec eyed me for a few minutes before answering. 'You do know of the Brotherhood?'
'No. Not really. I ran into a couple earlier, but that's all.'
I thought he was going to tell me about the organization he and his buddy belonged to, but instead he changed the subject. 'Kristoff had a mate. Not a Beloved, you understand, but a woman whom he considered his mate. Angelica and Kristoff were together for many decades. She was the first, killed three years ago. He has not forgotten her death. It haunts him still.'
'Oh, how awful,' I said, contrite at acting so rudely to a man who was mourning the loss of a loved one. 'Poor man. I had no idea… I'm so sorry.'
'It is no excuse for Kristoff scaring you, but it does, I hope, explain something about his mental state,' he said, opening the door, which he'd managed to get unlocked. He flicked on a tiny penlight, flashing it around the room. 'Let us hope we find something here to explain the unusual situation you say has clasped you in its grip.'
We made a fast search of the bookshop, but there wasn't much to be found. Alec went through the papers stuffed willy-nilly into the drawers of an old rolltop desk that served as the owner's filing cabinet, while I examined each book on the rack where I'd nabbed my two books, flipping through the remainder to see if anything had been tucked inside any of them.
Twenty-five minutes later we returned to the car to find Kristoff leaning against its side, his arms crossed, his expression hard but relatively neutral. He was silent as we approached.
'There was nothing,' Alec admitted with defeat. 'But I do not discount what Pia has told us. I think we should investigate the matter further.'
Kristoff came close to rolling his eyes, I could tell. 'We have wasted enough time, Alec. We have few enough hours before dawn to reach the council as it is—'
Alec interrupted him, speaking in German.
I gnawed on my lower lip for a moment as the two men argued. I had a decision of my own to make—did I want to stick around and try to make them see reason, or did I want to get far, far away from the scary Kristoff?
