Reckoning Read Online Free PDF

I’d never been someone to stare at a mirror for too long but weeks had gone by without a single glance at myself. With my focus so entirely on hunting and destroying I couldn’t have cared less about my appearance. I could have hair growing out of my ears and I wouldn’t have realized it. A dresser stood off to the left, just beyond the closet door, cluttered with magazines, knick knacks, lotions, pens and pencils, jewelry – which rarely found its way on to my body. An old wingback chair sat in the corner with a throw blanket draped over one side. Next to my bed were two nightstands each with matching lamps. A clock, a vase, a ceramic sculpture were all items that still sat next to the lamp bases as if I was never gone.
    I had left behind a life of normalcy…forgone to find and execute those who made the world unsafe…who endangered my loved ones. And now I was back, a changed person, and nothing seemed to fit right in this surreal, parallel world.
    I shook my head just as Eran came up behind me.
    “ We can live on so much less,” I mused.
    “ And we have,” he replied. “But since it’s all here now, we might as well use it.”
    “ It just seems so odd,” I said not bothering to turn from my room and face him. “I really thought I wouldn’t come back here until…”
    “ Until you’d annihilated the Fallen Ones?” His hands slipped over my shoulders, rubbing gently.
    I nodded. “Until I knew you were all safe again.”
    “ That time will come, Magdalene. Until then, take it from someone with a little experience in this area…” He was understating himself and I knew it so I listened. “You’ll recuperate faster if you fall in to your old routine.”
    That sounded like excellent advice. The faster I recuperated, the faster I could get back to hunting. “Then I’ll see you downstairs in twenty,” I replied, heading for my closet.
    “ Well…all right then…” Eran replied with the same amount of surprise and relief.
    His footsteps told me that he was heading back to his room directly across the hall as I pulled jeans and a t-shirt from my closet. Placing the t-shirt on my bed, I stood back.
    Having slept on just about every surface over the last few weeks made me exulted in knowing this bed awaited me at the end of today, and it would be far more comfortable than a discarded, sunken mattress or the rocky dirt surface of the Arizona desert or a pile of leaves behind a vacant warehouse. Tomorrow might be the first time in weeks that I wake up without any muscle aches.
    Slowly, I felt my face soften. Eran had been right. I did need a little time to revive myself…but just a little.
    I showered slowly, enjoying the feeling of cleanliness as the hot water rushed over my body. Bruises still showed along my limbs and torso but they were turning yellow and would soon heal. A few scrapes down my waist told me that Claden had done a good job at defending himself and it only reinforced Eran’s message to me that the Fallen Ones I was beginning to encounter were stronger, faster, and more skilled.
    That thought hovered in the back of my mind like a pesky fly as I headed back to my room.
    I stopped at the edge of my bed and realized that something was off, not quite right. Then it occurred to me what it was and what I needed to do. I took the scissors from a drawer in my dresser and cut two long holes in the back of my t-shirt, directly between the shoulder blades. After I dressed, I did the same to every other shirt I owned. There was no way I would allow a need for my wings only to have them extend and rip my shirt off.
    Feeling more at home with this small modification, I headed downstairs where I found Eran waiting in the kitchen. He gave me a half-smile and said, “You look more rested already.”
    “ I’m finding ways to mold my current life alongside my old one…”
    “ Speaking of, are you ready to get back to delivering messages?” His eyes were eager, almost seeming to sparkle.
    “ Eager