Page 6 of In Between Death and the Devil

I gave her a tight smile and nod. We might have all come from a convent of the Order of Death, but how we joined was not the same. It sounded like she’d chosen her path freely, from a place of altruism. I hadn’t.

Once we were dressed, we followed the crowd leaving the room. As we moved into a hallway, whispers made me turn my head. The corridor to my right ended in an ornate archway and a staircase leading down. I felt the urge to investigate, but the people around me blocked the way and the whispers faded into nothing, making me wonder if I’d imagined them. Bea tugged my arm, and I turned in the opposite direction, walking by her side.

It was a good thing I stayed close to her. She was so busy staring at our surroundings that she kept bumping into people, until I hooked my arm through hers to anchor her to my side. She gave me a grateful smile that I had to look away from. The way she smiled so easily was disconcerting.

At the other end of the hallway, we ascended two flights of wide stone stairs. My jaw dropped further with every step.

The walls were shimmering mirrors, clouded with age. Some were clear enough to see our reflections. I saw my familiar face—green eyes wide with wonder, sharp nose, and auburn hair. Others were too frosted to make out much detail beyond the vague shape of a person, and in a few the reflection lingered after someone had passed by. Unease coiled in my stomach.

To distract myself, I looked around, taking in the other details of the place. Balls of light hovered above us, and torches with pink flames lined the staircases we climbed, giving everything a warm glow. The next hallway we entered had niches every ten feet with full-length statues of Death in white marble, like the ones in the convent I’d come from. Each one had a slightly different pose.

“Why so many?” Bea asked in a low voice. Her creased brow matched my own.

“I don’t know. It’s not as if there’s a question of whose castle this is.”

“It’s weird, right?”

“Yeah.” My laugh was shaky.

“There aren’t any windows,” Bea said.

I’d been too distracted by the otherworldly walls to notice. Oddly, the lack of them didn’t bother me. “I wonder what the outside of the castle looks like, or if we’ll ever see it.”

“That’ll take some getting used to,” Bea said pointing to the seam between the wall and the floor.

A swirling black substance connected the two, shadows that moved and glittered every now and then. The brightness of the walls had overshadowed it. When I looked closer, I realized the shadows lined every seam—between the wall and ceiling, and at every corner. Like the place was being held together by darkness which pulsed and roiled, as if the castle was alive and breathing. Like it could shift or change at any moment, even though nothing did.

People around me flinched away from it, unease rolling off of them, but I felt drawn to it.

My fingers itched to reach out and touch the inky black, wanting to feel the texture and weight of it, but Bea pulled me away before I could give in to the reckless impulse. I tucked my hands under my elbows so I wouldn’t be tempted again.

The group made a right turn and arrived at an arched double doorway that led into the top of an indoor amphitheater. Wide tiers with stone benches led down to a low platform in the middle.

“Is this everyone?” Bea whispered to me.

The Amphitheater was only a third full, less than I expected given the number of souls that passed through the In Between. “Maybe this is only some of them.” My brow furrowed.

Around two hundred people milled around, all wearing green and tan with the symbol of Death pinned to their chests, just like the people escorting us. I scanned the room for the man from my vision, but I didn’t see him.

“Who is she?” Bea asked, nodding to a woman standing at the front next to a low platform.

She had straight, shoulder-length black hair and wore the same uniform as everyone else, with a cream-colored sash across her chest and a larger, more elaborate pin at the shoulder. She scanned the crowd with an inscrutable expression on her face that reminded me of a hawk. There was no way to tell what she was thinking. It was unnerving.

“Must be someone important,” I said, avoiding her gaze.

We were directed to an empty section at the bottom of the room. As we filed in, I noticed no one was sitting.

Then, a hush fell over the crowd as white mist formed on the platform and power filled the room. Death was coming. I straightened as my pulse fluttered in my throat. Everything else faded into the background. There was only her: the goddess I had come to serve. My atonement could finally begin.

CHAPTER 3

The mist curled and billowed, pouring over the edge of the platform as it grew. My mouth dried as a pulsing ball of light appeared above it. With each surge it grew, doubling in size, until the air split and a woman stepped forward out of nothing. My breath caught as she raised her arms and the mist and light vanished.

Everyone in the Amphitheater knelt in one swift movement, bowing their heads. Startled, I followed suit with Bea and the other newbies, glad I wasn’t the only one who was behind.

“You may rise.” The hair on the back of my neck rose at her voice. Melodic and laced with power, it made every instinct I had scream to run and hide. I had no doubt that if she wanted to rip my soul to shreds, she could, and there would be nothing I could do to stop her.

As we settled into our seats, she gave us a dazzling smile, and the atmosphere shifted from threatening to soothing. I stared at her, comparing her to the statues I’d seen. Her features were so perfect they looked like they’d been carved from marble but, other than that, there was no comparison. Long blond hair fell in waves down her back to her waist, crowned with a simple gold circlet. Her white dress was modest but close-fitting, sharply tailored to flow over her lithe body and covering her from neck to ankle and shoulder to wrist. Simple yet stunning.