Shadow Reaper (Shadowlands Series) Read Free Page A

into the Cusp, and Clay had customised her to act like a long-range stun gun. I hadn’t used her yet. I was saving her for a special occasion.
    “All set, let’s move out,” George said. Forever the peacemaker, the voice of reason, and a truly stand-up guy. I could imagine that being etched on his gravestone, not that we had those anymore. Cremation was easier, cleaner. Less chance of disease that way.
    We entered the hatch that led to the surface and began to climb. Fred first, then George, Ryder, me, then Bernadette made up the rear. The whirr of the lock disengaging was followed by a gust of air so sweet that it made my head spin.
    It was their air, contaminating ours, seductive and alluring. I shook my head and took Ryder’s hand as he hauled me out of the hatch. My boots touched earth, and I allowed myself a moment to take it in—the greys, browns, and blacks—the heavy dark sky and the shimmering veil less than a mile ahead of us.
    We set off.
    “East quarter, people,” George said. “Been a while since we tapped it. Could have missed something.”
    “Hardly!” Fred said. “We’ve picked the shit outta the Cusp. We need to go farther.”
    He was right; we all knew it, and no one argued.
    Bernadette was the first to break the thoughtful silence. “I spoke to Finn about it. He agrees.”
    My eyes widened in surprise. Finn was one of the senior members of the council. He was older than us all by about ten years and totally aloof and unapproachable.
    “You spoke to Finn? How? When?”
    Bernadette snorted. “With my mouth, and just after we finished fucking for the third time.”
    Wow! What the hell could I say to that?
    Ryder chuckled. “You got balls, Bernadette, I give you that.”
    Bernadette slanted a look in his direction. “Guys are predictable, and we needed someone on the council to listen. Now we got that ear, we should see some action. Looks like Blake’s been keeping secrets too. Finn had no idea about the rise in critter activity.”
    I shuddered. Yep, those suckers were disgusting, all shapes and sizes with only one thing in common: being insectlike. As if summoned by my thought, skitters filled the air to my left.
    “Aw, shit,” Ryder said.
    We pulled out our batons and flicked the switch to light them up. Something dark flew at my head, and I brought my baton up to thwack it, but Ryder got there first, shooting me a cheeky grin over his shoulder.
    My hero.
    Bernadette cursed as she stomped on something over and over. “Why. Won’t. You. Die!”
    Fred laughed and joined her, zapping the critter with his baton. The thing shuddered and lay still. Twelve legs; that was a first.
    Fred was waving his baton in Bernadette’s face. “Use your baton, that’s what it’s for.”
    Stupid idiot, he’d obviously forgotten who he was speaking to.
    Bernadette grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up into the air.
    Fred’s eyes went saucer-wide. Yep, he remembered now.
    “I was saving the charge, you twat,” she said and then dropped him on the critter.
    Fred squealed as Ryder laughed.
    I scanned the earth around us, fractured and dead and empty. No critters, just broken buildings, rusted vehicles, and memories of a lost time.
    “Come on, we got work to do.”
    ***
    We were up close and personal with the Horizon. It rose up into the sky like a wall of static. In the early days, we’d tried to send planes over the top, but none had returned. There’d been speculation; was it a force field of some kind, some sort of alien technology? Was it a portal to another dimension? So many theories and no time to figure it out because they had swept in, killing, raping, taking. What was left of the government had fallen. It became each man for himself.
    I didn’t remember any of this, I was just a baby, but Dad told the story so many times throughout our childhood that sometimes I felt like I’d been there, like I did see it happen. He told us about the Mother sweeping in and leading so many away. He