The Reaper's Curse #1 - Complete

Constant

Far in the east of Muovea, nestled between a cluster of trees and a slow moving creek, is a farm. Whoever once owned it has long since abandoned it, leaving the homestead to creak in the breeze and slowly degrade under the rain. This is where the exiles hide. Barely an hour's ride away sits her mother's grand manor in the hills.

Alicia has no intention of ever returning to it, no matter how close she is.

Within the smell of must and the chatter that trickles through the walls, Alicia slumps in a chair, rubbing her eyes with her palms. Not only did she fail again, but on her tongue rests a plan so ludicrous that not even she wants to voice it.

Around the table she sits at, their ragtag group of exiles and rebels argue again. No one can admit defeat, but nor can they agree on how to save Muovea.

"I have an idea," Alicia finally says, lifting her chin as they all look to her once again. "But none of you are going to like it." Glancing at Oliver who stands by a window with his arms crossed, Alicia searches within his eyes the strength she needs to say what she must.

They're out of options and they're out of time. None of them have slept. They've barely even had time to eat. Desperation claws at her gut and she knows it claws at theirs' too.

"We use the Ghuls."

"How?" Lena asks, tapping her fingers on the table, the only one that isn't staring at her like she's lost her damned mind. And maybe she has. Maybe she left it beyond the walls, out in the wild where nothing made sense but everything was so, so simple. It's simple again; they use the tools they have at their disposal or they die.

"The duke was looking for a way to control them. So, we just have to instead."

"The duke hasn't been able to find a way to control them."

Alicia swallows and glances at Sam who sits in a chair by the table, glaring at the wood like it offends her. "Maybe because he threw away his key before he knew what it was."

Lena follows Alicia's gaze. "You're speaking from a hunch."

"The Faceless Queen was able to control the Ghuls and Samantha is a direct descendant of the woman."

The princess finally lifts her gaze, narrowed and cold as she looks at Alicia. "So is my brother."

"The duke already has him, yet for whatever reason he's trying to find you. He's already realised you're the answer to his question."

Kieran barks out a laugh. "So, let me get this straight," he says, shaking his head. "You want to form a plan off Traveller tales like they're all real?"

Spine straightening, Alicia glares at her brother. "Six years ago, Ghuls weren't real," she tells him before turning her gaze to the others in the room. Sam with fire in her eyes, Galya with her lips pinched together, Lena and Oliver both observing her as their minds turn like cogs in a clock, and her brother who was raised as she was but never wanted anything to do with the Travellers. "Six years ago the dead didn't walk. Six years ago Muovea was whole and those myths and legends were just stories."

"You're right," Lena says. "They were just stories, but people heeded them for a reason. Because in every myth, there is a seed of truth. We need an army, and we have one right beneath our feet. All we need is you." Lena settles her gaze on the princess.

Alicia holds her breath, watching an array of emotions pass across Sam's face. Her full lips twist, her nostrils flare, then she stands, her chair scraping against the floor. She looks at all of them, fists clenched at her sides. Then she looks at Alicia. "You want me to follow in the footsteps of a queen that drenched this land in blood just so she could build walls so high no one can climb them? Walls she could hide her monsters behind, monsters you're telling me to control?"