“What will you do? Leave her here?”
She exhales heavily. “I mean…she’s not in danger. She’s made a home for herself here, and removing her from it while I’m still restructuring the spirit realms might prove more damaging than helpful.” She nods to herself. “Yes. Best to leave her here for now. Tonight we rest, and tomorrow we continue our journey.”
Our journey out of this in-between place. To the land of the living. I still can’t believe it.
What if it’s not real?
A block of ice forms in my belly.
What if I’m still in the hollow?
“You’re not,” Priti says. “This is real.”
I stare at her wide-eyed. “You read my mind?”
“I didn’t mean to.” She looks sheepish. “You were thinking very loudly.” She pours more tea into her cup and sets the pot down between us. “Pashim, you’re here with me, not stuck in the hollow. Trust me. Besides, if you were dreaming, why havemeplay death?”
She has a point. Why would my mind associate her with death? No. This is real. I am here. I am not in the hollow. I relaxinto my seat with an exhale. “How much further do we have to go?”
“Distance and time have little meaning here. But we will get to where we need to be when the time is right.”
“What does that mean?”
She smiles, her brow pinching as she tips her head to the side. “I’m not entirely sure.”
“All right, we get to where we’re going, out of this in-between place and into the land of the living, but I’ll still be dead. How can Ipossiblybe of any assistance to Leela and…Does this mean she’s in trouble?”
Her expression sobers, and she presses her lips together. “The dead have more power than they realize,especiallywhen they choose to work together, but spirits…the souls of the departed are mostly egotistical. So focused on their own pain, on their own stories, that they end up isolating themselves. They find themselves alone even when they’re surrounded by others like them. The souls that make it to the in-between will either crawl into a hollow and go dormant or find a waystation and live, in the only way the dead can, by mimicking life. And those that remain earthbound…well, there’s little to be done for those souls until they choose to cross.”
“I didn’t get a choice.”
“No, you didn’t. You were killed by a pishachas, and anyone killed by them is sent straight here.” She chews on her cheek, her eyes narrowing as if she’s just thought of something.
“What is it? What are you thinking?”
She smiles brightly. “Nothing important. Eat up and then we can get some rest.”
“Rest? I’m dead. How much rest do I need?”
“You didn’t think you needed food and yet here you are, consuming it.”
I look down at my empty plate. “You have a point.”
“Even the dead need sustenance, Pashim. They need sleep. Trust me on this.”
Trust…Yes, I trust her. And yet I know she’s keeping something from me. Something vital. I suppose I’ll have totrustthat she’ll share it with me when the time is right.
Chapter 16
I THINK IT’S STORY TIME AGAIN
LEELA
Sleep was being elusive. Again. I could just lie here and wait until my body finally decided to shut down, or I could wake up Keyton and ask him to keep me company. But drohi, as powerful as they were, still needed sleep. And tomorrow was a big day.
There was only one thing to do.
I dressed and crossed to the bells by my bedchamber door, pausing, suddenly unsure. If I summoned him tonight, that would bethreetimes this week. But he said he didn’t mind, and he didn’t sleep much, so…Fuck it. I yanked on the bell and headed to the sitting area to wait by the Karom board set up on the coffee table.
