“Oh, right. I remember now.” He pulled the cloak off Agwusi and tossed it to me.
I caught it and folded it over my arm to stroke the feathers. “Freya is going to be so happy to have this back. This cloak is beautiful.”
Ty propped Agwusi against the wall, just as she'd done to me, and stood up. “Try it on.”
“Oh, no, thank you.” I shook my head. “I know better than to put on another god's cloak. Some of these things have safeguards.”
“She was wearing it.” He motioned at Agwusi.
“Yeah, but who knows what kind of magic she has? Maybe she's got something that protects her.”
“True. I didn't think of that.” He looked from me to Agwusi. “Now what?”
“Now, we wait for her to wake up.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I tried to text my family to let them know I was all right, but my text wouldn't go through.
“We are in Ala Mmuo.” Ty motioned at a window. “You won't get through. There's no line of Internet here.”
“What's Ala Mmuo?” I shoved my phone back in my jacket.
“The Igbo afterlife. They believe that the afterlife mirrors the living world.”
We were in Agwusi's living room. Ty had dragged her out with us and propped her in a chair. Against the sedate decor, she was a wild spot of color. I stepped up beside Ty and looked out the window. A territory reminiscent of mine spread as far as I could see. Except here, there were buildings in the distance. Even further off was a smudge that could be a city. People moved in the landscape—the souls of the dead.
“The Igbo believe in reincarnation,” Ty went on. “So they cycle through.”
“Is this where she's been sending the souls?”
“No, that was the last territory you found us in. The machine created it.”
“How does a machine create a territory?”
“Agwusi said it claimed small pieces of god territories and merged them. The pieces were so small that the gods didn't notice.”
“I didn't know you could do that.”
“Neither did I.” He grimaced. “There's a lot she can do that I didn't think was possible.”
Before he could work himself up again, I asked, “Is this a shared territory?”
“Yes, but it's divided into space for the dead and territories for the gods. You won't be able to walk out of here. You'll have to trace.”
“I'm not leaving you alone with her.” I turned back to the room and sat on the couch next to Agwusi's chair. “She's tricky.”
She was also a fast healer. Agwusi's head had already reshaped itself, and her skin was back to a healthy color.
“Hmmm.” Ty took the chair on my right and stared across the coffee table at her. “It's strange, but I don't love her anymore, V. It's gone. Just like that.”
“Ty.” I chewed my lower lip. “It's because of me.”
He looked over at me. “What is?”
“Your lack of love for her. You didn't just fall out of love. I took it. I'm so sorry. It's a betrayal of your trust, but I promised Trevor I would free you from her, and seeing you with her made me realize it was for the best. She was destroying your life. Setting you against everyone you love.”
For a few tense moments, Ty just stared at me. Then he nodded. “I agree. Thank you, V. I wish I'd had the strength to ask you to do it sooner.”
