House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas

Ruhn eyed Ithan. A few years off the sunball field hadn’t gotten rid of the muscles on the male. He’d somehow gotten even bigger since then.

“I hate Ionia anyway,” Dec said. “They’re all swaggering assholes.”

“Pretty much.” Ithan typed in the next line of code that Declan fed him.

Bryce yawned audibly. “Can’t we watch Veiled Love?”

“No,” everyone answered.

Bryce elbowed Hunt. “I thought we were a team.”

Hunt snorted. “Sunball always trumps reality shows.”

“Traitor.”

Ithan snickered. “I remember a time when you knew all the players on the CCU team and their stats, Bryce.”

“If you think that was because I was remotely interested in the actual sunball playing, you’re delusional.”

Hunt laughed, some of the tightness on the angel’s face lightening, and Ruhn smiled, despite the old ache in his heart. He’d missed out on those years with Bryce. They hadn’t been speaking then. Those had been formative, pivotal years. He should have been there.

Ithan flipped Bryce off, but said to Declan, “Okay, I’m in.”

Bryce scanned the screen. “Do you see any Reapers crossing in boats?”

“This is showing nothing landing at the Black Dock at all today. Or last night.”

Athalar asked, “When’s the last time any Reaper docked?”

Ithan kept typing, and they all waited, the only additional sound the swift clack of Declan’s fingers on the keys of his computer. The wolf said, “Yesterday morning.” He grimaced. “These two look familiar?”

Bryce and Ruhn scanned the image Ithan had pulled up. Ruhn had no idea why the fuck he bothered, since he’d been unconscious, but a shiver went down his spine at the sagging, graying faces, the crepe-like skin so at odds with the jagged, sharp teeth that gleamed as the Reapers stepped from the boat. Both had pulled back their veils during the trip across the Istros, but tugged them over their faces as they stepped onto the Black Dock and drifted into the city.

Bryce said hoarsely, “No. Gods, they’re awful. But no—those weren’t the ones who attacked.”

“They might have been hiding out for a few days,” Athalar said. “The Prince of the Pit only threatened us the other night, but he might have had them in place already.”

Ruhn had no idea how the angel spoke so calmly. If the Star-Eater had come to him and wanted to have a one-on-one chat, he’d still be shitting his pants.

“I’m not seeing any kids lurking around the Black Dock, either,” Ithan muttered, scanning the results. He twisted to Bryce. “No sign of Emile at all.”

Ruhn asked, “Possible the kid took another way over? Maybe Danika found some sort of back door into the Bone Quarter.”

“Not possible,” Athalar said. “Only one way in, one way out.”

Ruhn bristled. “That’s what we’ve been taught, but has anyone ever tried to get in some other way?”

Athalar snorted. “Why would they want to?”

Ruhn glared at the angel but said, “Fair enough.”

Ithan stopped on an image. “What about this one? He didn’t take a boat over, just appeared from within the city—”

“That’s the one,” Bryce hissed, her face paling.

They all studied the still—the Reaper was half-turned to the camera as it entered the frame from a street near the Black Dock. He was taller than the others, but had the same grayish, soft face and those terrifying teeth.

Athalar whistled. “You sure know how to pick them, Quinlan.”

She scowled at the angel, but asked Dec, “Where’s it coming from? Can you add its face to the program and run a search on the city’s footage?”

Declan’s brows rose. “You know how long that will take? Every camera in Lunathion? It’s why we’re not even doing it for Emile. It’d take … I can’t even calculate how long we’d need.”

“Okay, okay,” Bryce said. “But can we … track this one for a while?” She directed the last bit at Ithan, but the wolf shook his head.

“There must be a logical reason for this—like a gap in the camera coverage or something—but that Reaper just seems to … appear.”

“Micah had the kristallos stay in known camera gaps,” Hunt said darkly. “These Reapers could know about them, too.”

Ithan pointed to the screen. “Right here is where they first appear. Before that, nothing.”

Ruhn pulled up a map of the city in his Aux app. “There should be a sewer entrance right behind them. Possible they came out of there?”

Ithan moved the footage around. “The cameras don’t cover that sewer entrance.”

Bryce said, “So they probably knew it’d be a good entry point. And it’d make sense, given that they dragged us into the sewers.” Where there were no cameras at all.

“Let me look around a little more,” Ithan offered, and clicked away.

Athalar asked none of them in particular, “You think they were waiting for you, or for Emile?”

“Or both?” Ruhn asked. “Clearly, they wanted to stay hidden.”

“But did the Prince of the Pit send them, or did the Under-King?” Athalar pushed.