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    Cleaner of Bones
    Cleaner of Bones
    Cleaner of Bones
    Ebook89 pages1 hour

    Cleaner of Bones

    By Meg Kassel

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    About this ebook

    Reece Fernandez didn’t come to this town to finish high school. He hadn’t planned to stay. Changed against his will into a harbinger of death many years before, Reece has only known a nomadic existence, chasing disasters where mass death occurs and feeding on the energy. But after meeting his new neighbor, he can’t imagine leaving.

    Angie Dovage changes everything. Feelings he thought had died complicate his predictable but gruesome existence, making him want to share his secrets with her. Making him yearn for a different life. Reece is desperate to protect Angie from an impending natural disaster that will decimate her town, and from a sinister creature who sees her as the key to breaking his own tortured curse.

    But one hard lesson Reece has learned: becoming a harbinger of death was easer than unbecoming one…

    Each book in the Black Bird of the Gallows series is STANDALONE:
    * Cleaner of Bones (Prequel)
    * Black Bird of the Gallows
    * Keeper of the Bees

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9781640631694
    Cleaner of Bones

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      Book preview

      Cleaner of Bones - Meg Kassel

      Hunger

      When I’m tired, I sleep. When I’m hungry, I eat. I feel pain and heal as slowly as any human. As years pass, I age. On paper, I could be a normal boy. At first glance, I could pass for one of you.

      But nothing about me is normal.

      I’m a harbinger of death. Food isn’t the only thing I need to survive. That other need is the reason I’m going out tonight. And then there’s my hot, artsy neighbor, Angie Dovage. I’d love to get her off my mind. But that isn’t happening until my group and I fly out of this town. Even now, riding in a car with Cody Knox, a new friend and fellow hockey fan, I can’t get that girl out of my head.

      I listen with as much patience as I can muster as Cody starts in on how he’d like to ask out Ava Chen but is convinced she’ll never say yes. She likes guys smarter than he is, he says. She doesn’t like guys who play sports. I nod at that. It’s a problem I identify with. Angie doesn’t seem the slightest bit interested in sports or the people who play them. I wish I played the bass guitar. Maybe, if I were a musician, she’d be able to overlook my…eccentricities. Not that she should. Even if we got along great, I won’t be in Cadence long enough for a relationship to go anywhere.

      My fingernails scratch at my coat’s arm seam. This ride feels like it’s taking forever.

      Hey, Reece, Cody says. Did you leave a girlfriend in your last school?

      I shrug with a smirk and a snort. No one girl in particular, is my lazy reply. The truth is there was no one at all, but of course, I think of Angie: survivor. Secret musician. Girl of the bright, sad eyes that look like they don’t trust what they see.

      Girl I can’t stop thinking about.

      My ribs squeeze tight around my lungs. The closer we get to town, the stronger the urge to get out of the car. I can’t tell if it’s the curse or the girl that’s making me so unsettled.

      Maybe if I can get the curse’s gnawing ache under control, I’ll get this ache for her under control. Not once during any of my abbreviated lifetimes have I had feelings for a girl like I do for Angie. Like me, she’s lived through horrors. To say I was shocked to see Angie when we settled in the town of Cadence is an understatement. I never expected our paths would cross again. She doesn’t remember our childhood friendship, but I liked her when I was a little boy, and I like her now. In the scant weeks I’ve been here, high school has become a complex beast. This must be what it’s like for normal kids and their normal who-likes-who? problems. Angie’s so far out of my orbit, just thinking about her the way I do is an exercise in futility. I’d stop if I could. I’d leave if I could. Well, I can. I still might.

      After what feels like an eternity, Cody pulls into the Walmart parking lot. Thanks for this, I say to him. I won’t have my car for a few more days.

      Cody nods. No problem, man. Why didn’t you drive it here when you moved?

      I smile, itching to get out of this car, which smells like cheese and the open stick of deodorant rolling around under my feet. Cody’s a sensible guy. He wouldn’t believe the truth, that I flew here in the form of a big, red-eyed crow. Fortunately, I have answers ready for these types of questions. It’s a classic car, I say, which is the truth. I don’t like putting too many miles on her.

      If he were into cars, he’d ask what type of car it is, but Cody isn’t, so he doesn’t. He’s into hockey, and he’s into Ava Chen. Cody and I part ways in the parking lot. I tell him I got a text from my mom that she’s going to pick me up in town. Lucia’s not my mom. She just gets to play one during our brief stay in Cadence.

      He drives away, and I pull in a long, shaky breath. It’s in the air—that sweet, delicious stench that calls to me. Death. It’s the real reason I came to town. An itching on the back of my neck tells me someone will die tonight. I start walking in the direction my instincts pull me. I’m getting closer. I can tell by the sweat on my palms and the tightness in my throat. It’s like being pulled by an invisible string, toward the thing the curse demands. If I move quickly enough, I will get there just before it happens. Not to stop it, of course. Never that. But to feed off it. It’s not much. Just a dribble of water to a thirsty desert traveler. If I get there in time, the energy will be perfectly fresh.

      However, what I’m doing tonight isn’t without risks. Before I left the house tonight, Fiona stopped me in the kitchen to remind me of that.

      Don’t do anything rash. Her six-year-old voice clashed with the wisdom of her much older soul. Her small hand braced the door closed. This town is small. Not small enough for everyone to know everyone, but small enough that we stand out as newcomers.

      I plucked her hand off the door and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I promise I won’t, I said. "I’m

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