Slowly, her senses returned.
They had entered a small room containing only a bed, a wooden chair, a washstand, and a fireplace stacked with wood.
Leena jolted up to a sitting position, searching for Bram.
He was on the mattress; Orley must’ve put him there. Leena staggered toward him, emitting a sigh of relief when she saw the ragged rise and fall of Bram’s chest, although he was still unconscious.
A candle was already lit by the bedside, the candelabra cakedwith years of rust. A few art prints hung on the wall, but the glass in their frames was covered by a thick dust.
Orley stood by the window, and Leena was surprised to see tears dotting his eyes.
“I’m home,” he choked out. “You do not know how long—” Another sob tore from him.
Leena peeked through the dirty window. Wherever she was, it was pitch-black outside and she could only see her own horrified expression reflected back, streaks of blood still running down her cheeks. It was dead quiet—no soldiers pounding at the door, no townspeople constructing a doomed barricade.
“We’re in the demon world.” The words felt foreign to Leena’s ears.
“Yes, Bastmore. A safe place, as I promised.” Orley bowed once more. “This is where I used to stay when I came to the island to entertain at the Duke’s court. You are lucky that no traveling minstrel has taken up residence; they come and go as they please. You’ll need to keep a candle lit by the window so that they know the room has been claimed—if that is indeed the way they still do it. It has beenyears.”
Leena stared at him. “I meant a safe place in the human world.”
Orley shrugged. “Then you ought to have specified.”
“Take. Us. Back.” Leena slammed a fist into her thigh with each word.
Orley wagged a finger at her. “That was not part of the agreement.”
It took a long moment for Leena’s tired mind to process this piece of unsettling news. It was another stab wound in a body that had already suffered a hundred.
“My theory was right.” Orley clapped his hands in delight. His eyes roved her body as if she were a feast. There was nothing lecherous in his gaze, only fascination. “Youarea vessel.”
Her head felt heavy. “That means that the only reason I can see spirits is because I’m infected by a…a…parasite?”
“Not a parasite, avessel,” he corrected, chiding her like a schoolteacher. “Who knows how one has got into you?” Orley paused, then looked at her in a faintly pitying manner. “Hmm. You hoped there was a reason for your ability to see the dead? No, my dear, there isn’t. You are nothing—a happenstance, a host.”
Leena swallowed.
The demon sniffed the air. “Is that shame I can taste? Yes. How delicious.”
Leena reared back. “I’m not ashamed.”
“Yes, you are. You are ashamed of your nothingness.”
Leena rose up to her full height. She could not afford to dwell on this now. “Our deal still stands, demon. You’ll fetch me the cure for the poison.”
Orley’s face tightened with distaste. He sighed, then headed for the door. “Once I fetch you the cure, we will be free of each other.”
Leena watched him go, then she quickly turned to check on Bram.
The pulse in his neck pounded rapidly against her finger. His eyelids remained closed, his skin an unnaturally high color, and when she pressed a hand to his cheek he still felt warm.
Leena wanted to check his bandages, but didn’t want Orley to come back and see the Saint of Silence in such a vulnerable position. Instead, she brushed a tendril of black hair away from his forehead and turned to investigate the room.
She went to the mirror first, attempting to stretch her fingers through it, but was met only with cool glass. Her reflection showed a wild version of herself, stained with blood. Leena wiped her cheeks until the skin was raw, just to return to a sense of self.
There was also a small room tucked away at the side that Leena hadn’t previously noticed. It held a claw-foot tub with only a curtain to act as a door. The tap creaked when she turned it, then spewed forth rusty water.
Winter bit harder here, and she could see her own breath in the air. Beneath the bed, she found a musty blanket which she used to cover Bram.
