Black Bird of the Gallows(76)

“What? Change into a person? It’s excruciating.” Reece rolls his shoulder, unleashing another series of grinding pops. We all groan at the sound. “It’s still the least awful aspect of my curse.” He looks at me, an apology pulling down his brow. “We can’t stay here. Rafette has enlisted the help of a few other Beekeepers who have arrived. It won’t take them long to look for us here.”

“I thought they didn’t work together,” I say.

“They don’t, usually. Maybe they want to see if his plan can work. If there is a way to break the Beekeeper curse,” Reece replies, and for the first time, there’s worry in his eyes. Perhaps he’s no longer certain that Rafette’s scheme is impossible.

My heart drops. “How long?”

He shrugs. “They checked here a few hours ago. They will circle back when they’ve exhausted their efforts elsewhere.”

“Who is coming here?” Lacey asks. “The Beekeepers?”

Reece nods.

“Okay.” Deno scrubs his hands over his face. “What do they want?”

Reece sighs. “Me.”

Deno blinks at him. “You?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Why you?” Deno smirks. “One of them have the hots for you?”

Reece raises his brows to Lacey. “You seem like a smart girl. Are you sure about this guy?”

Lacey bites down on a laugh, but Deno’s face goes red. “Yeah, ha-ha. But it’s a real question. Why are they after you? And what does that mean for us?”

Reece sobers instantly. “Rafette believes his curse is transferrable to harbingers. I have no clue about the mechanics of this, but he’s convinced that if he can force me to accept his curse, his own soul can be set free. It doesn’t mean anything to you and Lacey. You both got caught in the middle.”

“And what’s Angie’s role in all this?” Lacey asks.

Reece’s jaw clenches. “Rafette thinks that if he can get his hands on Angie, I’ll go along with his plan in return for her freedom. Frankly, I’m more worried about him stinging her. I don’t plan to let Rafette anywhere near her. I’ll protect Angie until Rafette leaves—and he’ll have to leave—and then I’ll depart with my harbinger family.”

Deno lets out a breath. “So you didn’t break up because he tried to—”

“No, Deno,” I snap. “Ugh.”

“Tried to what?” Reece’s brows knit in confusion.

“Nothing,” I grind out, sending Deno a killing look.

“That’s just so sad.” Tears brighten Lacey’s eyes. “You really can’t stay, Reece?”

“No,” Reece says. “It’s a struggle to stay in human form as it is. The curse is fighting me, pressing me to fly.”

“That’s terrible.” Lacey frowns at him, as if any of this were his choice. “That’s the most tragic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah. It totally sucks,” Deno says. “But like he said, we’re being hunted by Bee-guys right now, and Lacey and I are not going to let them win here. So how do we defeat them?”

Reece looks amused. “We don’t. They’re more powerful than harbingers. And they’re true immortals. They can’t be killed by any known means.”

“What are their weaknesses?” Deno persists. “Do they have any?”

Reece tilts his head, thinks. “Well, after a disaster, they leave quickly. They can’t tolerate the change in energy. They can’t go underground, either. It bugs them out for some reason. They have no mental abilities that we know of, like telepathy or anything. We can sense when they’re near, but it doesn’t go the other way, as far as we know.” He shrugs. “That’s it, I think.”

“So we wait them out,” Deno says. “All of us. We stick together.”

Reece studies him for a moment, then nods. “But we can’t stay here. If they choose to attack, their bees will find a way inside. I’ll know if Rafette is on his way, but we need to keep moving, find someplace better hidden.”

“No.” I wag my finger between Deno and Lacey. “You two are getting out of here. On the first rescue helicopter we see.”

Lacey’s eyes widen. “We won’t leave you.”

I shake my head firmly. “I appreciate that, but I need you two to be safe. This isn’t your fight.”

Lacey’s eyes narrow. “How exactly is it yours?”

I don’t like this question. I bite my bottom lip and search for a way around it. There isn’t one, and I won’t start lying to my friends now, after all this uncomfortable truthfulness. I won’t insult them that way. “My mother was stung by a Beekeeper.” Breathe. It’s not so bad, saying it out loud. “It’s what killed her, ultimately.”

Deno’s gaze goes sharp. “But she never hurt you. She never acted like the people out there, setting fires and attacking for no reason.”

“She became addicted to opiates.” I rub the dull ache in my ankle. “We lived in a Volkswagen van, and she told fortunes for a living. She died of a drug overdose.”

“But she never hurt you, did she?” He leans forward. “She never beat you or anything.”