Page 85 of In Between Death and the Devil

He seemed to understand what I needed, digging his fingertips in a little to provide extra pressure.

A few breaths later I felt calmer. “So, how do we proceed?”

“We need to assess what you can do with your powers,” Titus said.

“I can’t do much,” I said, already feeling like a failure.

“That you know of,” Fen said. “You haven’t had a chance to play around or experiment. An assessment will give you that chance.”

It sounded like a chance for me to prove just how little I could do, but we had to start somewhere. I couldn’t get better if I didn’t do anything. “Okay. When should we do this?”

“No time like the present,” Titus said. “I can clear the training room for the rest of the morning.”

I shuddered at the thought of going back to the Dungeon.

“Different training room,” Fen said.

“Oh. Good.” One less thing to worry about.

“You should change,” Daphne said. “Into something more protective.”

“There’s a padded tunic in your wardrobe,” Fen said.

Titus and Daphne pushed their chairs back, reaching for the now-empty platters in the middle of the table. I moved to help.

“What do we do about Death?” Marcus asked, stopping us.

“There isn’t anything we can do, is there?” I asked. “Unless you’ve got some magical way of knowing what’s going on in Death’s castle. You don’t, do you?” I looked at Fen, expecting him to laugh and say something about not being that powerful.

Instead, he looked uncomfortable. It was in our bond, too, making my skin crawl.

“Fen?”

“Actually, we kind of do.”

I sat back down with a thud. “You’re kidding.” I would not jump to conclusions. I’d promised to try and trust him. Still, my heartbeat pounded in my ears.

“We have a Judge who passes information to us,” he said

“You have a spy?” That changed everything.

“We do.”

“Who is it?” I looked around the table. Why didn’t any of them look happier about this? Did they not trust me?

Fen’s look of apology should have alarmed me more. “It’s Bea.”

CHAPTER 24

Bea? My friend was a spy for Fen. The revelation left me stunned.

“You’re joking.” It came out as a plea instead of a statement.

“No,” Fen said. “I’m not.”

All I could do was stare at him as I tried to grasp the idea. She’d arrived in the In Between as a Judge trainee only months ago, just as I had. “How? When?” I managed to ask.

“She was recruited years ago,” Daphne said. Her expression held a hint of an apology, like she knew the calculations I was doing in my head.