Page 54 of Against All Odds

“Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with fate’s reasons.”

“What’s happening to Raya now?” My voice trembled. “Do you—did you see what happened in there?” I swallowed hard. “Does the Court know? Am I going to Hell?” The last question came out brittle. “And why are you in my room?”

“I understand your confusion, and I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.” Jurrian stood. “But I propose I will do so while we await Raya at the gates.”

My jaw dropped, immediately followed by a stubborn warmth that swelled in my chest. “Raya is sent to the liminal realm?”

“I will explain this, too.” With a nod, he walked to the door. I rushed to follow him into the gray corridor that always seemed endless until the door at the other end manifested in front of us.

“The thing you saw on the astral plane was a hellbeast,” Jurrian explained as we walked. I opened my mouth, ready to ask a thousand follow-up questions, but forced myself to listen patiently instead. “It appears this hellbeast has been plaguing Raya with dreams of doppelgängers all her life. The Court and I were unaware of this… complication up until now. Hellbeasts feed on fear, but are relatively harmless, especially in the current day and age where people are less open to the spiritual world. Centuries before ours, they used to have more power, including the real ability to drag the living down. The key difference is belief – when people are constantly subjected to fear mongering about the lower realm, they become a lot more vulnerable to its demons. Today, all demons can do is terrorize the dreams of the paranormally sensitive, but as long as they’re just dreams, that’s it. It can be a frightening experience, but one the person will wake up from.”

He paused to send me a disapproving side-eye, and I got the uncomfortable feeling of a child being scolded. “Unfortunately, the place where you and Raya met just now was not a dream, but your astral plane. Not many understand the difference between the two.”

“I’m such an idiot,” I stammered, lowering my head to hide the shame heating my cheeks. “We have—we have met in Raya’s dreams before. I know it’s wrong,” I mumbled sheepishly, “but that’s why I was reading about astral projection. I got frustrated with Raya’s lack of progress, so I learned to astrally project myself into her dreams.” I glanced at his face – still unreadable. “But you already knew, didn’t you?”

“I am aware, yes, and we’ll get to that in a second.” He grimaced. Reaching a door, he pushed it open and waited for me to pass first. I blinked against the bright gray light. “Those other times, you projected yourself into Raya’s pre-existent dreams – meaning her soul remained safely in her body.” He inhaled deeply, and for a moment, I swore I caught the disappointment on his face before his deadpan mask slid back into place. “The difference now is that Raya was not in REM sleep when you projected yourself into her subconscious. Instead of you entering her dream, the projection followed the only available anchor point: your own astral plane. As a result, her soul temporarily left her body with no silver cord keeping her safe. Once the demon snatched her soul, the separation from her physical body became permanent, marking the end of her mortal life. A body without a soul is just a shell and cannot survive.”

He sighed, looking down. “Her roommate will find her body tomorrow. He’s been suspicious of her since she stole from him, and he’ll check her room as soon as he notices the missing pills. It will seem as if her organs failed, and those who knew her will probably attribute her death to her lifestyle or the pills scattered across her room.”

I flinched as if his words physically stripped me open. Hearing him explain this so calmly instead of angered somehow made me feel even stupider. I was supposed to protect Raya, and instead, I had literally put her life in a beast’s hands by playing with something I hardly understood.

She wanted to get sober, and yet, the people in her life wouldn’t know better than to think her addiction got the best of her. The thought tasted bitter in the back of my mouth.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked in a small voice, glancing over at him from the corner of my eye.

“Mad?” When Jurrian’s eyes met mine, the gleam in them surprised me. “How could I ever be mad at you?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“It was unwise, yes.” He came to a halt, and I did the same. I recognized the place that came into view before us. We had reached the gates where Jurrian had first received me. Behind the gray clouds, I vaguely recognized the outlines of the mirror and the scale – the moment he gave me my assignment seemed like ages ago, although I knew it had only been weeks. “And the full consequences are yet to be seen, but I can’t say I’m surprised.” He released another heavy sigh. “The judgment is not mine to make, but I can say what I see. You came here as a guarded young woman, hardened by life, your heart closed to anyone – and throughout your assignment, you learned to open it. The decisions you made as a result were far from wise, but understandable? Yes.”

I sucked in a shaky breath, deliberately focusing my gaze on the gates. His words were hardly comforting, as the Court likely wouldn’t see it that way. “How long have you known?”

“About the astral projection?” The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

I grimaced. “About all of it.”

“The Court alerted me as soon as they detected unusual activity in your connection to Raya. Typically, communication between a guardian and their assigned is supposed to be one-sided: you can communicate with them through nudges, subliminal messages and subtle odds manipulation. They can talk to you by tuning into the Source, but they are not supposed to be consciously aware of your presence – much less, acknowledge it.” He paused, and when I turned to look at him, he kept his expression deliberately neutral. “It appears she called out your name when she was alone. That alerted the Court and prompted them to investigate. It took them a while to find out what was going on exactly, as this has never happened before in the brief history of the guardian experiment – a guardian physically manifesting herself in her assigned’s dreams through astral projection.”

I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth, shaking my head to cover my burning cheeks with my dark hair. This was one thing I definitely shouldn’t share with Raya – better to spare her the embarrassment.

“So, for obvious reasons, the Court intended to end the assignment at once,” Jurrian continued, unbothered. “They were prepared to banish you to the lower realm – but as they were about to do so, they figured your soul wasn’t in the liminal nor the living realm. Unable to access your astral plane, they needed to wait for you to return, but then, well… what happened, happened.”

My brow furrowed. I had to ask more questions, needed him to keep talking to keep the fear at bay, because as soon as I allowed it in, it would squeeze my throat, then my chest, then everything. “But I’m back now. So… why am I not… down there?”

Jurrian was silent for a beat too long, allowing my anxiety to flare up again.

“Because this is such an unusual situation,” Jurrian sighed out, “that the Court wishes to speak with you both before your karmic judgement. That’s why you are here now, and why Raya will arrive with us in…” He glanced up at the sky, as if the answer lay in the gray clouds, “…mere moments, probably.”

I tried to speak, but fear had found its way around my throat, clutching like an iron fist. I tried to keep breathing, but the thought of being swallowed by hellflames alone was enough to suffocate me. And then—

“Ah, there she is.” Jurrian’s voice tore me out of my thoughts, bringing me back to the present.

The familiar shape of a short girl with tangled brown curls and chestnut eyes manifested in front of me, briefly lifting the fear from my chest. The clouds inched away from her as if making space for her. She looked lost, as lost as I had probably looked when I first came here – rubbing her arms, casting nervous glances around.

Then her gaze rested on me.

Within seconds, a broad smile broke across her face. “Seren.”