“Why are youhere, Little Ghost?”
“I don’t know!”The distraught wail made Saer flinch.
“How did you find me?”
“It’s a pull.I don’t know.It led me here.”
Saer didn’t know what to do with it.Old thoughts and feelings he’d buried tumbled around in his stomach and heart, emotions he’d ignored for decades.Humanemotions he fought to unlearn.
Ruki’s spirit reached for him.“Please, you have to help me.”The soul’s hand passed straight through Saer’s arm, even as he stepped back.
It had to go away.Heneededit to go away.“You’re dead.There’s nothing I can help you with.”
“Where do I go?What do I do?”
“That’s not my problem.”Saer resumed the unthreading of his cloak with shaking fingers, shrugging it off his shoulders.
The instant Saer turned his back on the soul, its tone shifted from pleading to incredulous.“You did this to me!”
The accusation sent another roiling through Saer’s insides, unpleasant and sickening all at once.He paused at the bed’s edge, staring at the threadbare quilt, and swallowed.“I did.”
A clamor and another riotous voice lifted outside the room.“What do you mean?I can sense the old bastard’s heat through here.”An insistent knock rang on Saer’s door, piercing the tense atmosphere of the room.“Hey, big guy!Lady Terror says it’s our turn to play.”
“Frenzied Hells.”Saer glanced at Ruki’s despairing spirit, then went to the door and jerked it open.
Gluttony himself—Alus—whooped and all but tackled Saer with a hug.“Record time in tracking you down.My better half owes me the fanciest dinner this place has.”He pulled back and beamed at him.“Ney also made us promise to send her regards.”
Ney—one of Alus’s nicknames for Neyu.She sent communications with the Twins more often than anyone else.Always vague, always lukewarm.Never enough.
Arek scoffed from the doorway as Saer pushed Alus off, ignoring the familiar pang her messages always brought.He never returned them.If he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from indulging in more.
He refused to put her at risk.
Ruki’s soul watched it all with dumbfounded eyes.“They’re your—?”
“Brothers,” Saer growled.
“That’s us.”Alus grinned and punched Saer’s shoulder, but paid no mind to Ruki’s spirit.His usually gray eyes reflected the color of the pale-yellow tunic he wore with startling uncanniness in a trait specific to Gluttony.No matter what color shirt he wore, his steely eyes absorbed and displayed the hue.“One of these days, we’re going to drag you further south.These northern climes you insist upon are too damned cold.”
“Cantheyhear me?”Ruki’s soul asked.
Greed—Arek—stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.“Much easier to show warmer places to you if you came back with us.”
It wasn’t the first time any of his kin tried to get Saer to transport to the Hells so he could relocate to a different locale.He passed over it—just as he did all the other times—and instead answered Ruki’s question.“They can’t, no.”
Alus’s smile faltered.“We can’t?”
Saer waved a hand in a dismissive gesture.“A soul.It speaks to me.”
Arek’s brows lifted with mild interest.“You’ve got one already?We can take it—”
“No.”
“Just hand it over to us, Boss,” Alus tried to elaborate.“Soon as you say the word, we’ll see it, snag it, and transport it back to Fath—”
“No.”
The vehemence with which Saer uttered the word earned Alus’s hands raising in mock surrender.“Are you taking it yourself then?”
