My Tethered Soul: Volume 2 (Reaper's Rite) by Dorothy Dreyer Read Free Book Online

guess. Anyway, a couple nights ago, I wandered off in my sleep. I don’t know where I went, but when Mara woke me in the morning—in my bed—my feet were covered in mud.”
    He fixed his gaze on me, but I knew the gears in his mind were turning, trying to make sense of what I’d just told him. “And last night?”
    I shook my head. “Nothing. At least, I don’t think so.”
    He scratched his brow. “All right. It could be nothing. But we’ll talk to Lilura when she’s up.”
    “Do you have some kind of anti-sleepwalking potion you can make me?”
    “If it’s just sleepwalking, yes. If it’s something else…” He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.
    “Okay.” I stood and lifted the bow. “We’ll talk to Lilura. Is she okay? Hunter said you were making some kind of medicine for her. Did it work?”
    “Yeah, yeah.” He waved a hand at me in dismissal, reminding me of his grandmother. “She just needs a little more time to get over a cold, that’s all. Older people aren’t as resilient as we are. Enjoy being young while we can, I guess.”
    “I guess.” I ran my hand over the bow. “All right. Let’s practice.”
    I stood in my usual spot, focusing on my aim. At least here, doing what I always did after school, I felt normal. The arrow made a sharp zinging noise as it shot through the air at the target. I smiled when it hit the exact center of the bull’s-eye.
    After a round of perfect hits, Chase held out a dagger to me.
    “Ready to try these?”
    I’d been practicing with the daggers for a month now at Lilura’s suggestion that I should be ready, just in case. Though I totally sucked at first, I was beginning to get the hang of it. I lifted my arm and swung it down, flicking my wrist at the proper moment. The dagger zipped toward the target, stabbing into the bottom left corner. Far from center, but at least I was hitting the target at all.
    Chase stood beside me with his arms crossed. “I’ve improved the tincture coating on the weapons to what I hope will be more lethal to a Reaper. Of course, there’s no way for me to test it. But based on the information we have, I’m hopeful it’ll work better. And faster.”
    “Sounds great.”
    “I’m also trying to figure a way to get the poison inside the daggers.”
    I stopped mid-throw and turned to Chase. “Inside?”
    “Yeah. To put some kind of mechanism in the handle so that when the blade hits its target, the poison is injected into whatever it penetrates.”
    “You can do that?”
    He shrugged. “I can try.”
    I shouldn’t have questioned his ability. After all, he did construct the crossbow I used with his very own hands.
    “Cool.” I faced the bull’s-eye again and threw the next dagger, hitting bottom center this time.
    “I have an idea,” Chase said. “Turn around.”
    I blinked. “What? Why?”
    “Just do it.”
    I sighed and did as he said, not knowing what to expect. A piece of black cloth came down in front of my face. Everything went dark as he secured a blindfold around my head. I could hear his breathing at the back of my ear as he tightened the knot.
    “What exactly do you have in mind, Chase?”
    He laughed, his breath tickling my hair. “Give me your hand.”
    I held my hand out and felt cold metal resting in my palm. I carefully wrapped my fingers around the handle of the dagger.
    “What do you want me to do?”
    Chase took me by the shoulders and turned me slightly. “I want you to try to hit the bull’s-eye again.”
    “You’re kidding, right? There’s no way I can do that.”
    “Zadie, one of the things you need to learn is to feel your magic. You can’t always rely on your eyes. But your instincts will lead you the right way. Feel it in your blood. Vila have a great sense of… well, sense.”
    I took a deep breath. If it was a trait of a Vila, then it should come easy to me. At least, that was the theory.
    “Okay, you’re facing the target. I’m pretty sure you remember where it is. Trust