Page 53 of In Between Death and the Devil

“Not many do.” My eyes raced over her, looking for an injury, but there wasn’t anything obvious.

“I just needed a minute alone.” Her face scrunched up, fresh tears lining her eyes.

“Do you want me to go?”

“No. Stay. Please.”

I sat on the floor, glad she’d given me permission. I didn’t want to leave her in such a state. And it was almost a relief to not have to focus on my own emotions for a few moments.

“You disappeared after our evaluation.” There was a touch of hurt in her voice that went straight to my heart.

“I failed.” I looked at the floor. There was no point in hiding what had happened.

“You weren’t the only one. Gods, weighing our own souls was awful.”

“I wasn’t?” It was news to me, but I’d been so preoccupied with everything that had happened to me and working with Death that I’d barely interacted with any of the other servants.

“No. One other person failed too. I heard they took one look at their heart on the scales and tried to run.”

“Wow.” It was strangely comforting to know I wasn’t the only failure.

Bea gave me a small smile.

“Are you okay?” I cringed as soon as the words were out of my mouth. She clearly wasn’t.

“Just a bad day.” She tried to wave it off, but her lip trembled.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.” Her laugh quavered.

“Learning to become a Judge?”

She nodded, swallowing a sob. “Facing our past. Leaving it behind.”

My heart throbbed. If only she knew. “What happened today?”

“We had a session in the Dungeon with the Tempters. They’ve been helping us work through our painful memories. Things from our past we’d rather forget. Today, I relived the worst day of my life.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “The day I woke up to discover my entire family had died.”

The hair on my arms stood up at her words. There had been other orphans at the convent, but I’d never met someone who’d lost their family all at once like I had. “How? Sorry, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” I never did when people asked.

“That’s okay. Talking about it helps.”

She sounded like the Devil, but I pushed that thought away. I didn’t want to think about him.

“My sister came home from school one day with a fever. We didn’t think anything of it until the rest of us started to get sick. The fever ripped through our town. A quarter of those who got sick died. My brother and father became ill when I did. I was delirious for days.” She took a shaky breath.

“When I finally woke up lucid, the house was quiet, even though it was nearly midday. I stumbled out of bed to check on everyone else. They were all dead in their beds.” Her voice trailed off into a sob.

I closed my eyes, tears stinging, the pain of her loss echoing my own. Seeing it reflected in someone else was both horrifying and comforting. I felt helpless and less alone. “I’m sorry, Bea.”

“Thanks.” Her smile was watery.

“What happened to you after…?”

“An elderly aunt in another town took me in. I lived with her for two years until she died of old age. Then I joined the Order.” She twirled the silver ring on her finger, the black stone glinting as it caught the light.

I nodded. It wasn’t unusual for people with no family to end up joining one of the Orders. There weren’t a lot of options for making one’s way in the world. Many joined by choice. Others, like myself, were placed there.