Page 91 of In Between Death and the Devil

“I did. I just left out the part between my family dying and going to take care of my aunt where I joined the Order of Shadows first.”

I pressed my lips together. It didn’t matter. A lie of omission was still a lie.

“Okay, I did lie about one thing. Well, two. When we first met, I told you I was from Resthaven. I arrived in the In Between from there, but I’m from Torre Bay hundreds of miles away.”

“Bea, I don’t⁠—”

“After my family died,” she said, ignoring me, “I started going to the Order of Shadows. In Torre Bay, they serve meals to anyone who needs them several times a week. Helping other people like that made me feel better, gave me a reason to get out of bed every day.”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear about this.

Bea plowed on, talking faster, as if determined to finish despite my objections. “Eventually they asked if I wanted to help more people and I said yes. I worked my way up through the ranks until they told me they needed someone to infiltrate the Order of Death and go to the In Between to spy for the Devil. They explained what was happening here, how Death was clinging to power and needed to be replaced.”

“Yes. They needed a spy. Which is why it’s fine.” I might as well not have spoken.

“When I accepted, they arranged for me to go to Resthaven to live with an older woman who was dying. I posed as her niece. That was my second lie. I took care of her in her final days, and when she was gone, I joined the Order of Death. I was there four years before I applied for the Ritual, as planned. I didn’t know until I got here what they actually wanted me to do.”

It matched what Fen told me, but it didn’t matter. None of it did. It might have eased her conscience, but it didn’t change anything.

“Is your name really Bea?” I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Yes.”

“Well, at least there’s that.” I turned away, but this time she grabbed my arm.

She held up her hands when I yanked my arm out of her grip. “I felt so guilty about keeping it all from you, but you have to know I would have befriended you regardless of who you were or what the Devil asked me to do. I liked you from the moment you ordered me to get dressed after we arrived. I wanted to be your friend then. The fact that it was part of my job made it both easier and harder.”

The memory of us wrapped in blankets and nothing else rose to mind. The way she’d stubbornly refused to get dressed until I did. She was the first person whose eyes I looked into and only saw her, not how she died.

I shook off the memories. This was pointless. There was no way to tell if what she was saying was true. Better not to torture myself with wondering. Hopefully she’d leave me alone now that she’d said her piece. “It doesn’t matter. You did your job well. I’m sure you’ll be an excellent ally moving forward.”

Bea seemed to collapse in on herself at my formal words and chilly tone. At least it stopped her talking. Finally.

“Make sure no one sees you leaving.” I gestured for Daphne, who stood with Fen and the others, all of them shooting us furtive glances.

“I know you don’t trust me,” Bea said to my back, “you have no reason to, but I’ll prove to you that you can. However long it takes.”

My hands clenched and I blew a noisy breath out my nose. Bea was stubborn. There was no point in trying to convince her that she was wasting her time. So I didn’t bother to answer and just walked away.

This time she let me.

“Can we get started?” I asked the others.

“Everything okay?” Fen asked.

“Yes. I’m fine.” I was here to figure out what I could do with my powers. That was what I needed to focus on. Nothing else mattered.

He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t press me. “Let’s do it.”

* * *

An hour later, I was sweaty and my head ached, but things were going better than I expected.

To my dismay, Bea had refused Daphne’s offer to take her back and settled in a corner to watch, saying she wanted to “help”. I’d studiously ignored her, channeling all of my irritation into focusing on the task at hand.

We’d started off easy. Fen had asked me to make my hands glow. Opening our connection and summoning my powers had been straightforward. So had creating small balls of light in the palm of my hand. Progressing to larger and different shapes, then moving them from my hand around the room, had been kind of fun, especially when Titus challenged me to see how many I could create and move around at the same time. Destroying things was easy. Fen created shadow objects for me to obliterate, first by touching them directly, then by lobbing balls or spears or arrows of light at them.

Then I’d learned to create a shield, like the ones I’d seen the Tempters wield in the Dungeon with the Wraith, and used it to defend myself against objects the others threw at me, including Fen’s shadows.