The Reaper's Curse #1 - Complete

A Choice is Made

The horse's hooves clopping on the cobblestone matches the chaotic beat of Alicia's heart as she rides towards the palace.

With the clothes she wore to see Lena stuffed back into her satchel and a pale blue dress as her armour, she tries to convince herself she's ready to face the vultures again.

Alicia is all too aware that she's perhaps already dug her own grave after going to the laboratory and she's only digging it deeper by returning to the palace, but if she doesn't do anything with the information she's found then the queen would have died for nothing. Alicia would have sacrificed the past six years of her life for nothing.

The evidence she has is weak, only proving that the duke is experimenting with Ghuls and that he's searching for a way to control them. But if it gets the council to look at each of his actions with a more critical eye, prove that he's exiling people who haven't been near the Reaper's Curse, then it's worth the risk.

At least, she hopes it is.

"Lady Zalana!" someone shouts.

Alicia yanks the reins and brings the stallion to a skidding stop as she turns. A boy sprints towards her, waving something in the air. He dodges people in the street, ignoring their scathing remarks.

He's out of breath by the time he reaches her. "Lady Nathalia," he gasps, "requests your presence."

"Requests my presence?" Alicia scoffs. "I'm her daughter, not a client."

"She says it's urgent and that you must go to the townhouse."

Alicia reaches down and takes the note, frowning at her mother's neat script. "Damn it. Can't it wait?"

He blanches at her foul language that isn't fitting for a lady, but Alicia can't seem to slip her mask back on fully right now. "I'm afraid not, my lady. She was insistent."

Alicia crumples the note in her fist and gazes towards the palace. She's running out of time. The duke could already be burying his research.

Closing her eyes, Alicia takes a breath. Her family comes first, no matter what. It's a vow she will never break.

"Alright," she says, and nudges her horse towards the townhouse, wondering what could possibly be so urgent.

Alicia and her ma have barely conversed this past year, not since Alicia began getting close to the prince and embarking on her own mission to discover what happened to Samantha Safronov. Alicia can't lie to her ma, it just seemed easier to stop seeing her family so much considering the lies she's had to let fester in her chest.

Alicia reaches the house as quickly as she can and leaps from the saddle. She glances around, frowning when no servant comes to take the horse to the stables. She shakes her head and does it herself, knowing they've already got a lot on their plate having to deal with her ma.

She leaves the animal in the stables, slings her satchel over her head and goes into the house.

"Ma?" she calls as she closes the kitchen door behind her and wanders further into the building. She steps into the foyer and glances up at the landing above, expecting her ma to be floating down the stairs in that elegant way of hers.

But Alicia is alone.

"Your note said it was urgent." Alicia tightens her hand around the strap of her satchel, her gut telling her something isn't right.

"Licia?"

She spins around as he pa exits his office, shrugging into his coat. "Pa."

"I didn't expect you back so soon," he says, moving towards her with a crease between his brows. "Is everything alright?"