Chapter 31 #2
“I confirmed they haven’t been returned to the World of the Living, but that was as far as I got. Anything else required access to Death’s castle, and that ended when she attacked you and you fled.”
I nodded. Not only did we not have access, I had no idea how to trace a soul here in the In Between. “What do you think happened to them?”
“They could still be in the In Between,” Daphne said. “There are plenty of places they could be hidden.”
“For what purpose?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t know.” She frowned.
“They could have moved on to the After,” Fen said. “Though I don’t know why Death wouldn’t just say so.”
“Do you think their souls could have been shredded?” I asked.
Bea looked on the edge of tears. “What? Why? How?”
I regretted having suggested it, but no one answered her. “Death is the only one who could shred a soul. If they saw something—”
“That’s not true,” Fen said, his expression tight. “A soul can also shred itself.”
I froze in horror. There was only one reason I could think of that they knew that.
“It’s not that common,” he said.
“It didn’t used to be that common,” Daphne said, her voice hard. “We’ve lost four souls that way this month. They come to us broken by the weight of their sentence and there’s nothing we can do to give them back hope.”
Marcus and Titus looked grim.
“Gods,” Bea said, a tear slipping down her cheek.
Daphne’s words sat heavy in my chest. I’d been so focused on the realm falling apart I hadn’t thought about the impact on the souls traveling through. “Do you think that’s what happened to them?”
“No,” Fen said. “It’s not something that would go unnoticed.”
My shoulders slumped in relief.
“Nor do I think Death shredded them,” he continued. “She might be unhinged, but she’s not stupid. Going around shredding souls would attract attention. I think it more likely they’re hidden somewhere, though I have no idea why.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“You could sneak us over there so we can search for them,” Titus said.
“Too risky,” Fen said.
“I can search,” Bea said.
“No,” Fen and I said at the same time.
Bea looked at me in surprise.
“You might arouse suspicion if you poke around anymore,” I said. The idea of her disappearing next or Death realizing she was a spy wasn’t something I could stomach.
“Maeve’s right,” Fen said. “We need to focus on ending Death’s rule once and for all. The best way to stop it from happening is to get Maeve ready to challenge Death.”
All eyes turned to me. It made me want to run and hide. There was already so much riding on the outcome of the challenge.
“The Guardian said the second trial would happen when you were ready, right?” Daphne asked.
I’d told them at breakfast, and Daphne must have told Bea because she looked unsurprised by Daphne’s comment.
“Yes.”
“Then we concentrate on getting you ready,” Titus said.
The weight on my chest grew heavier, but I nodded. What else was I going to do?
“I need to get back,” Bea said. She and Daphne headed for the portal to the next room.
I took a step forward to intercept her, my feet moving of their own accord.
She looked at me, her expression wary.
The distance between us felt wrong. It wasn’t that I trusted her. Truthfully, I didn’t know how I felt about her, but I didn’t like that she was hurting. “I’m sorry about your friend.” I swallowed as her face softened, her eyes growing glassy.
“Thanks.”
“Be careful.” It came out harder than I intended, and she stiffened.
“I’m always careful.” Brushing past me, she disappeared through the portal into the next room.
Daphne raised her eyebrows at me in exasperation before following.
I wanted to call after them, to clarify what I meant, but they were already gone.
* * *
The next few days flew by. I spent every waking minute training, either with the others or by myself, and my nights tangled up with Fen.
During training, he taught me how to light-step, tricky at first to get the feel of, and to create illusions—small ones that only one person could see, and larger ones that engulfed a whole room of people.
Unlike creating something tangible, it involved creating a shell to encase people in with a few concrete things inside and enough detail to fool someone into thinking it was real.
It reminded me of my time in the Pool of Memory, and I was surprisingly good at it, which should have tipped me off that things were about to go pear-shaped.
One morning, Fen excused himself from my training, telling me I needed to learn to pull power without him present since he wouldn’t be able to be in the Challenge with me. He had a point, and it wasn’t difficult; I had to concentrate a little bit more than usual, but I missed his steady presence.
“Make those spheres bigger and keep them spinning,” Titus said, looking up at the hundreds of balls of lights I’d conjured that hung above our heads.
We were working on splitting my focus between as many tasks as I could manage.
I’d already conjured a sound bubble for the room, areas of sand in the corners for softer landings, a sword for Titus, and a staff for Marcus.
Rather than transforming or creating the items and leaving them, I maintained a continuous connection with each of them to stretch how much power I could draw.
I did as Titus asked with the lights, manipulating them with ease even while keeping everything else in place.
Power flowed easily through my connection with Fen, more than I’d ever channeled before.
My capacity had been growing with every session.
“Now create something for Marcus to fight.”
A quiet curse from Marcus made me smile.
The last time we’d done this, I’d created a giant salamander that chased him around the room, occasionally spouting fire, but I’d manipulated the salamander myself.
With the number of things I was trying to learn to juggle, I needed to do something different.
Something that didn’t require so much continuous attention.
With a flick of my hand, a human body took shape.
The curse from Marcus this time was louder and longer. I’d created a reflection of him, one that would mirror or counter his every movement. He lifted his staff and his twin easily blocked it.
“Clever,” Titus said with a chuckle. “Now weave an illusion around me.”
I cast my mind around for one I hadn’t used yet. I’d created the Soul Library, the Pool of Memory, a desolate plain, and my father’s office thus far. It didn’t need to be horrific, just something I could create in detail, like the kitchen where Titus had made me Minnog.
Picturing it in my mind, I let myself sink into the memory. Then I drew on Fen’s power and… hit a wall. It was so unexpected and abrupt that my magic faltered. Fake Marcus dissolved right as real Marcus swiped down with his staff, and the spheres above our heads winked out.
“Maeve?” Titus asked as Marcus staggered, nearly falling from the force of his swing and the disappearance of his staff.
“I—” I looked at my hands in confusion. “I don’t know what happened. I went to draw more power from Fen and I couldn’t.”
“What do you mean, you couldn’t?” Marcus asked.
“It was like I’d reached the bottom of whatever there was to draw.” I didn’t know that was possible. Fen seemed to have an unlimited amount of power.
“You’ve created more things at one time before,” Titus said with a frown.
“I’ve never done it while creating an illusion, though. Those require quite a bit more than creating something tangible.” My stomach felt like I’d swallowed lead. I didn’t know how I was going to defeat Death, but I imagined it was going to take a lot of power.
“Maybe Fen used a lot today,” Marcus said.
Or maybe there was something wrong with our Death Chord, maybe it wasn’t strong enough. Or maybe it was me. Had I reached my own limits in some way? I swallowed.
“Hey,” Titus said. “Talk to Fen. See what he thinks. And we’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe things will be different. You’ve been making a lot of progress.”
My smile was tight as I nodded, but I had to admit he was right. I was so wound up about the challenge that even small obstacles felt huge. I was probably blowing it out of proportion.
* * *
Except Fen wasn’t any help. He was in the Dungeon until late and when he finally did come to bed, talking was the last thing on his mind.
“I ran into a problem during training today,” I said breathlessly as Fen kissed his way down one side of my neck.
The sight of him at the bedroom door, eyes nearly black with heat and hunger for me, had almost made me forget what I’d wanted to talk to him about. I was in his arms and already wet before I remembered.
“Mmm. What kind of…” he scraped his teeth against my skin in the way that I loved, making my knees weak, “problem?”
“I stopped being able to pull power after a certain point.” I gasped as he nipped the top of my breast before working his way across my chest to do the same on the other side. “Like I’d drawn all there was.”
“Oh, is that what I felt?” He kissed his way up the other side of my neck. “You must have been doing quite a lot.”
“I was but—oh.” He’d reached the spot behind my ear that made me go molten.
“I need to be able to…” He yanked my shirt—actually his shirt which I’d been wearing to bed—over my head and dipped down to suck on one of my nipples.
“To p-pull more.” His hands slid down to cup my ass.
His palms were large enough to cover most of each cheek, despite my ample assets.
It made me feel owned in the best way. “Fen, please. I can’t concentrate when you do that. ”