Maddox grunted in agreement. Though his eyes were on the food being prepared behind the counter, I could tell that he was thinking the same thing.
“This guy is strong,” I said. “He’s stronger than me, at least.”
Maddox’s lips twisted to the side. “I’m not sure about that.”
“You didn’t feel the force of his arcana.” I kept my voice low because we weren’t in Lakesedge. “I felt like a wave to his tsunami. It was overwhelming.”
“I can’t quite catch his scent. I thought that was because of how new this all is to me. I just didn’t have a good handle on it.” Maddox fell silent for a moment, like he was collecting his thoughts. His eyes slid over to lock with mine. “When he pulls on more power, I think…I think he smells like multiple people. You said there are no ghosts left behind when he kills. Right?”
The spirits in the room lifted their brows. They were all eagerly listening to our conversation. Would any of them have information? Would they willingly share it if they did? I was tempted to ask if they’d met anyone else like me recently. If I could find other Reapers, then we would have a suspect pool.
“What if he’s keeping the souls?” Maddox asked without waiting for my response. “You said the last woman he killed was like you. He could be using her soul somehow. That might be magnifying his power.”
I reached into my pocket and fidgeted with the rosary. Pulling the beads between my fingers calmed and grounded me until I remembered something. With a flash of clarity, I yanked the rosary from my pocket.
The tiny sparks of light within the beads glinted under the dining room’s fluorescent bulbs.
Before I could speak, a man behind the counter rang the bell to signal that our food was ready. Maddox practically launched himself from his seat to retrieve the tray.
While he was gone, I stared at the rosary in my hand and considered the gravity of my realization. Guilt gnawed at me. Knowing what those illuminated beads could be, I almost wanted to fling the rosary away from me.
I never asked to be a Reaper. This was thrust on me by my blood, blood that abandoned me—at least, as far as I knew. Mom could have come back as a ghost, but she hadn’t.
Maddox returned and gently placed my plate in front of me. “Eat.”
My stomach churned, but I picked up a fry and brought it to my lips, nonetheless. Though these were my favorite kind of fry, I couldn’t taste them tonight. My head swam with the implications of what was in my rosary.
“He’s capturing souls.”
Maddox’s head snapped up. Cheese hung between his lips and the slice of pizza in his hand, but he paid no attention to it. He blinked, perhaps processing what I’d said.
Finally, he let the slice of pizza fall back to his plate. His expression turned grim. Shadows covered his eyes.
“You’re blaming yourself,” I said out loud once I realized.
He said nothing, but I heard the soft growl deep in his throat.
“This isn’t your fault.” It wasn’t mine, either, no matter how I wanted to blame myself.
He slammed his tightened fist onto the table. “I could be out there, doing something about this, though.”
When he shoved his plate aside and moved to stand, I lurched to grab his sleeve. I just barely caught him, but it was enough to keep him from storming out the door. With pleading eyes, I begged him to sit back down and eat.
He couldn’t keep going on like this. His body needed food now more than ever. He’d already faced the killer twice today.
Realization slammed through me like a bolt of lightning.
“He’s panicking,” I said. I lifted my eyes up to Maddox’s. “The ki—this man, he’s rushing for some reason. It won’t be long until he comes for us…I mean, me. He’ll be back. We won’t have to find him.”
But I would have to find a source of arcana that could overpower this man’s. He had several Reapers trapped in his rosary. When we fought, he had a great wealth of power because he was drawing on the other Reapers.
And he wanted to add mine to his rosary. That’s why he was hunting me. My power was valuable to him. If he could take it from me, then he would be able to fight whatever was making him panic.
And if we could figure out what had him so scared, then maybe we could use that to our advantage. That meant dedicating time to research.
“Sit. Eat. We’ll deal with this tomorrow, after we’re refreshed.”
Maddox snorted, but he flopped back down into his seat anyway. I understood. We weren’t going to feel refreshed in the morning. There was too much on our shoulders now. We were caught in the middle of an unfinished battle, waiting for the next bomb to fall.