Arbiter (The Arbiter Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

information without offering some of her own.
    “I made a deal,” she finally said, folding her arms and turning towards him. She kept her back to the shelf, putting the most distance possible between the two of them.
    “With whom?” he asked.
    She hesitated for only a moment. “The Grim Reaper.”
    His eyes widened slightly in surprise, and he fell silent. Rae watched him, trying to gauge his reaction. His expression didn't change, he simply stared at her, open surprise on his face. The silence seemed to drag on for hours before Cathel spoke. “You mean to tell me…” he finally said. “…That you made a deal with the Thief of Souls?”
    She glanced away, not wanting to see the accusation in his eyes. She couldn't escape it in his tone, though.
    “Yes,” she said.
    “Are you out of your mind?”
    She chanced a look at him, turning her head slightly and raising her eyes to his face. The mage was staring at her openly, a look of shock and disbelief in his expression. She knew that look well. It was a look she reserved only for complete idiots.
    “Only madmen make a deal with the reaper,” said Cathel.
    “It’s not like I had much of a choice at the time,” said Rae, folding her arms. “It was the deal or someone's life.” 
    “What were the stakes of the deal?” asked Cathel.
    “My life and the life of a friend, or Kaeltharin,” she replied.
    “ Firithain,” muttered Cathel under his breath. She didn't recognize the word, but she recognized its meaning easily enough. “He’s sent you on a fool’s errand.” He exhaled, running a hand through his hair and looking up at the ceiling. He looked back at her. “Did he mark you in any way?” he asked.
    “Mark?” asked Rae.
    “Did he use magic?” asked Cathel. “Did he touch any part of your body. You would have felt it—it would have been a biting sensation, and either extremely warm or extremely cold.”
    Rae paused, thinking back to her last conversation with the Reaper. She forced herself to go through it piece by piece, sorting through the details. “He struck me,” she finally said. “With his scythe.”
    “Where did it hit first?” asked Cathel.
    “My arm,” said Rae. She immediately clamped a hand around the upper part of her left arm. Now that she thought about it, she remembered feeling the scythe slice into it, remembered feeling the immense cold that came afterward, right before everything went numb.
    Cathel studied her, before slowly exhaling, pushing himself off the table and walking towards her. “Can I see it?” she asked.
    Rae hesitated, but nodded once, slowly unwinding her fingers from around her arm and holding it up to him. He grabbed it by the wrist, pulling up her sleeve to see her upper arm. He turned her arm over, his touch surprisingly gentle as his eyes moved over the skin. After a moment, he frowned in thought, holding his hand about an inch from her arm. A shimmering silver light fell from his fingertips, and a twinge of pain surfaced in the arm he was holding. She gasped, and attempted to yank her hand away. Cathel held it firmly in place, staring down at it. 
    A mark had risen to the surface of the skin. Rae ignored the pain, turning to look at it. It was a black mark, a jagged line that looked like it had been made by a curved blade.
    A blade like a scythe.
    Cathel released her hand, running his hand through his hair again. “A geis,” he said. “…That's fantastic.”
    “What?” asked Rae, watching as the mark faded away. She rolled down her sleeve, following him as he walked away from her. “What’s a geis?”
    “It’s like a contract,” said Cathel turning towards her. “It’s the way the Ivali ensure that promises are kept. I’m willing to bet that that thing will allow the Reaper to enter the Twilight Realm once the terms of your contract are up.”
    “Allow?” asked Rae, drawing up beside him.
    Cathel shot her a look that told her he still wasn't sure whether or not he could blame her