Relic and Ruin

CHAPTER ONE

COULROPHOBIA – FEAR OF CLOWNS

The pendant rested warm and pulsing against the hollow of Nyx Lahey's throat. It flashed every few steps to assure her she was going in the right direction.

Detectors were rare and extremely valuable but also stubborn, and they didn't always work. When she was seven, Nyx found the plump ruby—a priceless gem the size of her eyeball—in the trunk of a dead tree behind her grandmother's house. She had discovered it while landscape workers were on break after cutting down the tree.

Her father, a Reaper who specialized in the study of detector stones, fashioned a golden, braided chain for it, and encased the ruby in a matching frame. He'd trained the stone to flash when its wearer approached their prey, the stone pulsing faster and faster the closer they got.

The pendant threw off another beam of light as Nyx continued walking. It had been taught to flash in the presence not only of zombies and Necromancers, but also creatures that belonged to the Inbetween: things neither zombie nor human.

The detector flashed again.

Sickly yellow, artificial light poured from the deteriorating carnival stalls to either side of her. Which would have been fine had this place actually had any power. But the park had been abandoned for years. Something, or someone, was causing this.

She climbed into an abandoned ice-cream van and checked the cupboards and drawers, even behind the door, searching for anything that might give her an idea of what they were up against.

On their way in, before they split up, her father had outlined everything from the academy's email: five girls had been found murdered in the park—gutted, actually, some with the backs of their heads caved in, others wrapped tightly with barbed wire. Some even had limbs sewn to different parts of their bodies. Each was found hanging from the park's entrance, their mouths sliced into long, bloody grins.

The police had found nothing—no motives, no suspects, not a trace of evidence. Meaning the crime was likely supernatural in nature. It was then that the Misten Academy stepped in and took matters into their own hands. They sent Reapers to hunt down whatever had killed those girls.

They sent the Laheys.

The Laheys weren't actually Reapers—not technically. They were an old family of Necromancers caught up in a never-ending war between Necroes and Reapers. Hundreds of years ago, their ancestors had switched sides. Lahey children were sent to the Reaper Academy, where they were given scythes and taught to handle items meant only for Reapers. All while dealing with their necromantic powers, and the social pressure of being "the enemy."

The ruby flashed again, illuminating the inside of the ice-cream truck. Nyx covered the stone with her hand and jumped to the crunchy, trash-covered ground outside.

One of the stalls cast a golden square on the ground—lit from within. Nyx blew the black hair away from her face. They always did this to try and scare you off—a flickering light, something thrown at you from across an empty room. A single light shining in a house filled with broken bulbs. A whisper from above.

Each Inbetweener had their signature. They were smart like that.

A row of painted porcelain clown heads hung inside the stall, their mouths open midlaugh, heads swinging from left to right. Some had been smashed or spray-painted. Glitchy, repetitive carnival music screeched from a busted speaker above the awning.

To her left stood the entrance to the rides—a huge black tunnel guarded by a mechanized clown statue in a multicolored jumpsuit, bolted to the ground. One side of its face was smashed in, revealing broken shards of porcelain, metal, and exposed wiring. Its remaining face, scratched and faded by the sun, showed rosy cheeks, exaggerated blue eyes, and full red lips.