Page 77 of In Between Death and the Devil

Colt stood there, eyes wide but unseeing, frozen in place.

He was here. Which meant he was dead.

“What is this?” I asked.

“A gift for you. The judgment of his soul, so you can accomplish what you came here for.”

I didn’t think it was possible for her to shock me more than she already had, but I should have known better than to underestimate her.

Death cocked her head at me, a look of confusion on her face. “I thought you’d be more excited. You came to avenge your family’s death, which he is partly responsible for.”

My eyes flew to her face, my skin crawling. She was wrong. I’d been hurt by Colt, but I held myself responsible for what had happened. Colt was the man who had fooled me, but I was the fool. It was my fault. Not his.

Except I didn’t fully believe that anymore. Someone had hired him to seduce me, and he’d taken the job because he wanted a better life. Colt and I were pawns in a larger game that I didn’t fully understand. I still felt guilty for what I’d done, but I didn’t need to judge his soul, and I certainly wasn’t about to sacrifice my own in exchange for judging his. Death’s offer made no sense.

I could feel her studying my face, gauging my reaction. What was I going to say? I doubted she’d take my refusal well. Not with the stakes as high as they were. I kept my gaze on Colt’s suspended form as my mind spun, searching for a way out.

“What’s wrong with him?” I asked, playing for time.

“Nothing. He was so agitated, suspending him was the only way to calm him down. You can move closer. He can’t hear or see either of us and he won’t until I release him.” Death stepped behind me and gave me a little nudge.

The empty expression on Colt’s face made me shudder as I approached. To be so completely in someone else’s power… The idea was nauseating, but that’s what Death wanted me to do, to give myself over to the In Between. I wondered if he was conscious.

Standing inches from the invisible barrier, I sensed it in a low buzz against my skin. The platform was several inches high, adding to Colt’s height. I had to tilt my head up to look at his face.

His eyes snapped down and locked on mine, sending a jolt through me. I felt my power uncoil from my chest, reaching for him. And then I was no longer in the room with him. I was hurtling through memories. His memories. I saw the end of his meeting with the cloaked figure that I’d seen in his Soul Record, except this time I saw it through his eyes.

He looked down at the contract, pendant, and wooden box they gave him.

The box’s lid slid open to reveal what looked like two orange pomegranate seeds.

His eyes shifted to the contract, reading the text. Instructions to always wear the pendant, since the girl could see people’s deaths. It would prevent her from seeing anything when she looked at him. The pomegranate seeds were to be swallowed by him and his mother, to transport their souls to a special place in the In Between when it was time so they could receive their reward. And instructions for procuring a solution to induce a heart attack and to get his affairs in order before his death.

I heard his intake of breath and felt his desperation. He didn’t want to do this, but there wasn’t any other way.

The next lines made him feel a little better. Guarantees for a favorable judgment, with everything he’d asked for in his next life.

He glanced up at the cloaked figure. Was he really going to do this?

Their hood slipped a bit, revealing a sliver of a mouth with sharp, pointed teeth against red lips. The rest of their skin looked slightly translucent, a strange cloudiness underneath.

Shivering, he picked up the pen and bent down to sign the empty spot under his name. He’d come this far. He wanted to get it over with. The other party had already signed it. The strangest of names.

Death.

The memory ended abruptly and a blink later I was back in the room with Colt. And Death. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as my power coiled back up in my chest. I’d seen Death look into the eyes of souls to gauge if they deserved their sentence. Apparently, I could do the same.

My mind raced over what I’d just seen.

The pendant was the reason I’d never seen Colt’s death, and the pomegranate seeds looked like the drawing in Death’s notebook I’d seen the day the bridge nearly collapsed.

The pointed teeth under the hood looked just like the ones that had tried to drink my essence not even an hour ago. Colt had met with a Wraith. I was certain.

Death’s signature was on the contract. Fen wasn’t using Wraiths in the World of the Living. She was.

She was the one who’d hired Colt. She was the one who’d wanted me framed for murder.

“I didn’t think you’d progressed this far.” Death sighed behind me.