Chapter 11 #3
The walls were covered in shelves filled with bottles and jars.
Wooden tables clustered in the middle; some were covered in glass cases.
No. Not cases. Vivariums. All but one of them were full of salamanders, who scampered in and out on their way to or from the fireplace in the corner.
My heart squeezed. The organized chaos reminded me of my father’s office.
I helped Death into a chair by the fire and placed the kettle over it to boil at her direction.
“The jar with the yellow top,” Death said. “Second shelf in the middle. Put three spoonfuls of the leaves into a cup.”
I took down the jar, removed the top, grabbed an empty cup, and spooned dried leaves from the jar into it.
In my haste, I spilled some on an open notebook on the counter.
The writing was in a language that I couldn’t read but the open page seemed to show a recipe for something, with quantities listed next to ingredients.
There was also a drawing of something that looked like the anchor I’d swallowed in the Ritual.
I brushed the leaves off, hoping Death wouldn’t notice.
I expected Death to chastise me for my clumsiness, but she said nothing. Merely stared into the fire.
When I moved back to the kettle, a salamander crawled up Death’s leg. The movement made me freeze. I’d never seen a salamander touch someone before. Star never came that close to me.
“They are my companions,” Death said, noticing my shock. She stroked the salamander who was now crouched on her shoulder, a gentle smile on her face.
It seemed content to sit there, watching me with its beady eyes, so I pulled myself together and finished making the tea.
Death gulped the tea down as soon I put the cup in her hands, heedless of how hot it was. It seemed to restore a little of the color that had drained from her cheeks. “Are you feeling better?” she asked as I put the jar back.
My shoulders tensed. “Yes, thank you, my goddess.” I could feel her watching my back.
“What happened?”
I briefly considered lying, but she’d know. “A sudden headache, my—”
“Not to you. To the bridge.” I’d never been so grateful to be beneath Death’s notice.
I settled with the worktable at my back, my hands gripping the edge. “I’m not sure, my goddess. I was walking across when cracks started appearing in the ceiling, walls, and floor. Then it started to shake.”
She nodded, her expression one of resignation. “The imbalance is accelerating.”
“Is that what caused it?”
“Yes. The In Between needs to be balanced. With the… increase in the Devil’s power, the realm is strained. And it’s only a matter of time before strained things crack.”
The bridge hadn’t just cracked. If they hadn’t intervened, it would have been destroyed.
“Can anything be done to stop it?” I asked.
“I’m working on something that should rebalance things, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish. We’re running out of time, much faster than I thought.” She scrubbed her face with her hands, the most human gesture I’d seen her make.
I felt the blood drain from my face. “What do you mean?”
“Cracks have been appearing around the castles for decades, slowly increasing in frequency and size, but this is the first time the realm has threatened to come apart. The bridge is more than a passageway between buildings. It links our purposes. If that link were to be severed, the realm could shatter. That didn’t happen because the Devil’s power increased again.
Something has changed and thrown the realm more out of balance.
” She fixed her gaze on me. “Something new.”
It took everything I had not to freeze or blanch, to keep my expression the right blend of horrified, curious, and confused. Even as I wanted to sink into the ground.
I was something new. Me and my curse. Or powers.
I couldn’t deny the possibility that that was what they were after how they’d responded on the bridge.
Because a human soul with the powers of a god should not exist. If that’s what I was, it made sense that I could tip the scales of the In Between even further out of balance. Enough to almost destroy it.
Except, the idea that I could have something like Death’s powers seemed so far-fetched.
I’d never heard of such a thing. Maybe I didn’t have powers, and my curse was something else entirely, and it was just a coincidence that this was happening not long after I’d arrived in the In Between.
Doubt wormed its way in, and I seized it.
I didn’t want to be the problem. I wanted there to be another explanation.
The Devil knew something. I was sure of it. Tonight, I’d demand he tell me. And pray there was a way to fix it.
Death’s gaze on me didn’t falter, and my already shaky confidence wavered. Did she think it was me? The Devil was sure she didn’t know about my curse, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Do you know what it is? What’s new?” My mouth was dry as a desert.
“No.”
My hand gripped the counter behind me to keep me upright.
“I will find out. And I will take care of it. I will see the In Between balanced again, no matter what it takes.” The finality in her tone made me shiver.