My arms buckle, and I press myself back against the headboard, wood creaking. “Where am I?”
He chuckles, something wet gurgling in his half-exposed throat. “Let’s just say I gave you ourspecialroom. Where we put all the livings when we get one, which is far and few between, mind you.” He points to the darkness beyond the bed. “There’s a door there. You can’t see it now, but it’s there.”
I scratch at the sheets and say a quick prayer that the bell is still within reach. “Where are my friends?”
My body is ringing with terror. I could reach beneath my pillow, use the bell, and go home. But what if this man followed me? And what of Bram?
The innkeeper’s jaw cracks with the force of his smile. “Let’s talk about you first, my dear. Call this place a cage of sorts. A trap.” He leans in against the light, shadows dancing across his corpse. “Tell me, would you like to make a deal?”
My stomach fizzes. Bram’s words echo in my ear.Don’t make deals with these people.
I lift my chin. “Tell me where my friends are.”
The innkeeper drops to a chair. “You know, pretty little thing, I was told by someone very important to send all living souls to them if I ever ran across any. I would be paid in redemption, my own soul taken back home, where I could live forever. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
I fight to spit a laugh. No one can live forever. “You aren’t answering my question.”
He raises a brow, his bones crackling beneath his skin. “One of yourfriends is already gone. Made his deal early this morning. I can tell you where he went, or I can sell you…but for the right price, I could tell you where your friend wentandlet you go.” He slides his chair closer to the bed. A stink comes off him, like spoiled meat. “Want to make a deal?”
Before I can answer, before I can ask who has already left, something stirs in the corner.
“Ah,” the innkeeper says, rising from his chair. “The dead one.”
The lantern illuminates another corner, where Bram and Rascal are tied to the floor. Rascal’s lips peel back, revealing sharp white teeth. I scramble in the sheets, my chest skimming with sweat. No.
The innkeeper laughs.
“Won’t catch a price for these two, them being dead and all. But you—” He turns to me.
“Adelaide.” Bram’s voice is weak. “Don’t do it.”
In the shadows, I slip my hand below my pillow, fist the bell. But I can’t bring myself to ring it, not without Mother. And not without Bram.
“Name your price.”
The innkeeper smiles. “I will set you loose and tell you where your friend went, but you must do something for me in return.”
“Anything.”
“Addie—” Bram’s voice is cut short with a growl from Rascal’s throat.
The man laughs. “The girl seems to know what she wants, man. Let her make her deal.” He inches closer to the bed. “I’ll make this easy for you. I’ll tell you what you want to know, and if you get back to the land of the living, you send someone here.”
My heartbeat thuds in my ears when I realize the meaning behind his words. “You want me to kill someone?” Dread coils in my stomach, and I think I might get sick.
Bram’s presence is steady in the corner.
“I’m asking exactly that, pretty little thing.”
Cold seeps into my bones. What will this make of me? A murderer, just as everyone already believes? I steal a glimpse of Bram from the corner of my eye.
If I can’t uphold my promise to him, that makes me something worse. A liar.
I concentrate on the bell in my hand, run my thumb along the brass. It is like a rifle in my hands, aimed at some target I cannot see. I draw a deep breath, hold it, steady my aim, no longer able to hear the sound of my own heart.
My mind goes blank, eyes training distantly on the man before me. The dead man.
He tips back and folds his arms, like someone who already knows he has won.
