Page 42 of In Between Death and the Devil

“A Death Chord would allow power to flow between us, sharing it equally. Providing balance.”

Something like a growl rose in my throat at the idea of him being bonded to Death, taking me by surprise. What was wrong with me? I coughed to cover it. “But you and Death aren’t bonded?”

“No, we aren’t.” Disgust rolled off of him, like the idea was offensive. “We can’t share power, and the realm is out of balance as a result.”

I tasted something sour, because it made sense. Death had told me about the imbalance, and he was far more powerful than she was. A bond between the two of them, in the way he described, would prevent that. My mind spun, searching for an alternate explanation, one that didn’t mean I was the next Death, but the only ones I could imagine meant I was an aberration that needed to be put down to save the realms.

Everything that happened to us was meant to serve us in our journey to the After. There was always another life, another chance to learn from what had come before and do better. What was the purpose of the Guardian giving me a curse that was a dead end? Maybe it made me a coward, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe they would do such a thing.

“We were once human,” the Devil said, seeming to sense my opposition wavering. “Death and me. Just like the ones who came before us. As long as the In Between has existed, Death and Devil have been roles filled by human souls with certain talents. Like your visions.”

I swallowed. He’d said his name was Fen, the first time we met.

“Every couple of centuries, Successors arrive here and a transition takes place. The old Death and Devil move on to the After, and the Successors step into their roles. It keeps things from getting stagnant, from the leaders of the In Between getting too far away from their humanity.

“Or it did, until Death changed it.”

He was an excellent storyteller, his voice soothing and almost hypnotic. His words drew me in, or maybe that was just him. It went against everything I’d been taught as a child about how the realms worked, and yet part of me wanted to believe him.

“When I arrived in the In Between,” he continued, “Death already had a Successor: Sasha. Once it became clear that I was the Devil’s Successor, my predecessor wanted to start the transition, but Death didn’t want to go. She resisted, wanting more time, and they argued until one night when she called us all together.” His jaw worked for a moment. “Death shredded Sasha’s soul and gave her Devil a choice. Him or me. He could agree to stay with her, or she’d shred his soul too.”

I shuddered, both at the pain in his voice, and because it was what I feared she’d do to me if she found out about my powers. “What happened?” I heard myself ask.

“He refused, and she shredded him. I became the Devil. And Death took advantage of the chaos of the transition to establish a new order. She purged any references to the roles of Death and Devil and replaced them with the lie that we are eternal gods.”

I nearly snorted. The idea that Death had managed to throw out millennia of history for her own version was preposterous. It broke the spell he’d woven with his words. “How did she convince everyone that things were suddenly different?” I raised one eyebrow at him.

His expression didn’t change. “She told them I attacked my predecessor, that I killed him for power.” His bitterness was palpable. “Many Tempters elected to go to the After in protest. She encouraged Judges to go, too. Within a decade there were very few left who remembered how it had been, only my inner circle and Talia. It was easy for Death to establish her lie as reality.”

I shook my head. It was well known that Judges and Tempters went to the After when they were finished serving in the In Between, usually after at least a century, but to almost entirely replace the population of both castles within ten years beggared belief.

“In the World of the Living,” he said, “she sent orders for a new paradigm, new teachings, both to her Order, and mine.”

“No one questioned it?”

“Would you have?”

The memory of my Ritual flashed through my mind. I remembered the way the script had appeared on the page, telling us it was time to begin. No one had questioned where it came from, or the truth of it, because we’d been taught not to.

My hands fisted at my sides. Every time I thought for sure he was lying, he countered with something that made my conviction waver. I was tired of this game. “You didn’t fight back?” The words came out sharp and accusatory.

His eyes fell to the ground; the hard mask he usually wore melted into something softer and more vulnerable. “I tried, but I was new to the role, and ill-equipped. My predecessor didn’t have a chance to train me much before Death took over, and I didn’t have many supporters. We were operating with less than half the Tempters we needed for a while. I spent most of my time just trying to keep up.” His jaw worked, shame written on his face. “I didn’t offer much resistance.”

My retort died on my tongue at his admission of failure. It was something I could relate to, and I felt a pang of sympathy for how helpless he must have felt, thrust into such a tight spot.

I stiffened, realizing that part of me already believed what he was saying. Giving in so easily would be foolish. He’d forced me to keep an open mind with our deal. He must have done it with this moment in mind. That foresight should make me distrust him. I couldn’t take anything he said as true without proof. Yet so much of what he said resonated; my resistance was crumbling.

Everything felt tangled. I rubbed my face with my hands, as if the gesture could clear my mind. There were too many emotions riding me. I’d come here for answers as to why my powers were like Death’s. He’d spun me an elaborate tale. Part of it might be true, but to decide what was and what wasn’t, I needed to start with what I knew for certain—he was more powerful than Death, and the realm was out of balance.

“Death said the bridge nearly collapsed today because of the imbalance of the realm,” I said.

“She’s right.”

“She also said something had changed to push the realm to a breaking point.” I licked my lips. “Is it me?”

He held my gaze for a moment, pity written all over his face. “Yes.”

The room threatened to spin. I sucked in a breath.