Chapter 62

There hadn't been a single moment for happy reunions or hugs. The second we'd reached the doorway, Hollis twisted around and beckoned for us to follow him. We hurried through the winding marble corridors of Death's castle without speaking a word. Ezra eventually took the lead, ushering us out a small door at the far end of the castle, forcing us through the dead gardens he'd called Grimwood Thicket with markers of terrifying gargoyles and gnarled bushes.

Each turn was intentional, as if they'd taken this twisted path so many times, the way through was burned to memory. I did my best to keep up, repeating every turn over and over in my mind as we ran, eventually leaving the gardens behind and crossing into a line of dead trees. But beyond that, within the world of eternal night, a silvery reflection grew from a speckle in the distance to a massive, eerie lake, its dark waters glistening with a gossamer light. The air, heavy with a haunting lament, carried the mournful echoes of countless souls. Their voices, like a distant choir, and the trees that lined its shores, stood as silent sentinels.

The second we stopped, I darted for Hollis, wrapping my arms around him as he chuckled, that familiar sound coating something that felt so raw and so bruised within me. "I missed you, Old Man."

"Careful, Little Dove," he whispered into my ear. "You don't want anyone here knowing you have a heart, or they'll find a way to use it against you."

I pulled away from him, studying his deep blue eyes. "Your bonded wife? Is she here?"

He nodded, but his smile faltered. "I see her when I can. Death tends to keep us apart." When Paesha hugged him, he buried his face into her chestnut hair, but I could see the worry there, just below the surface.

"What's going on, Hollis? Tell me what he's done."

"The only currency in this realm is fear. You live with it, or you cultivate it. Those are the two roles. The reaper or the sower and I expect he'll come for you again soon. If you let him see that Orin is your weakness, he's going to find a way to break you both. You have to stay away from Orin. He's not safe."

I lifted a shoulder. "He's never been safe, and that hasn't kept me away yet."

"I mean it, Deyanira," Hollis snapped, his words more forceful than they'd ever been. "This is your eternity. Don't let yourself be fooled into thinking you can hide from Death in his own court. He loves the cat-and-mouse game, but you're always going to be the mouse."

"What is this place?" Paesha asked, kneeling to stare at her reflection in the water.

Ezra grabbed her and yanked her back, just as a translucent hand broke the surface, reaching for her. She looked at me then, fear coating her stunning eyes, though her golden skin had been leached of color by the greedy light of the silver moons.

Ezra pointed. "This is the Lake of Lost Souls. The final punishment Death deals to those who don't bend to his will. See the souls? They're condemned to circle the bottom of the lake, forever seeking a final breath they will never be granted. Once you breach the water's surface, not even Death can save you."

"A graveyard," Hollis added. "He doesn't come here often. It's not exactly safe, but there isn't an inch of this realm that is."

"Deyanira?"

I spun at Paesha's gasp, not recognizing the voice until I saw the face standing in the tree line. "Mother?"

Instead of walking away, the Huntress moved in, taking my shoulder as my father stepped from the shadows behind her, his hand not lovingly in hers, but gripping her shoulder as he pushed her forward. I saw it then. That look in her eyes I'd seen so many times before, though I hadn't known it for what it was with Ro. The fear. The control from a man that was once a lover. My father was a reaper.

His fingers tightened on her, knuckles turning white as she hissed, shrinking until he stopped.

"I needed to see you," she said softly. "One more time, if only for selfish reasons. You really are so beautiful and so grown. I can hardly believe it."

She reached until her fingers were a hairsbreadth from my face, but my father yanked her back. Paesha grabbed my hand, holding me in place, vigilant at my side. Ezra grunted, taking the opposite so I was sandwiched between them.

"How long do you think I'm going to let you jerk her around before I kick your ass, Father?"

"Do not speak to me that way, Deyanira. You were raised better."

"No. I really wasn't. The last time you and I had a private conversation, you hit me in the face and threatened me. Do you think I give a shit what you have to say? Get your hands off my mother."

"Stop this," the woman who looked so much like me snapped, interrupting what I'm sure would have been a fun battle of wits between us. "I've come with the only advice I can offer. You must seek out Death, child. Find him and take whatever consequences he deems fit for your intrusion. To take him as an enemy is not the eternity you want."

"Are you telling me this because you want to or because you have to?" I asked, tilting my head.

I didn't miss the way she turned to him, cowering as he glared. "It's true."

I pulled away from the others until I was within striking distance of my father. "I would like to take a walk with my mother. And you're going to stay here with my friends. Got it?"

He scoffed. "You have no power here."

In one motion, I snatched my mother free of his grip and punched him in the face. "I'm a pretty quick learner. I can't kill you, but I can torture the hell out of you, and pain is pain in any realm."

Ezra stepped forward, gripping my father's shoulder exactly like he'd held my mother. "Perhaps a lesson in kindness as we wait."

I threw him a grateful glance, and he bowed slightly, his hazel eyes catching in the moonlight, though even when he'd bent, he was still so much taller than I was.

Once out of earshot, my mother cracked. "Listen to me. You have to stay away from Orin. Do you understand? I saw the way you looked at him, but whatever you remember him to be, he's gone. He belongs to Death now. His will is not his own."

"I don't?—"

She threw a hand up. "There are things you don't know. Things I don't know if I have time to explain."

We stayed well away from the edge of the lake, but she hardly peeled her eyes away, even as she scrambled for words.

"You don't have to save me, Mother. I'm grown, and I can make my own choices."

"Orin only exists because of you," she rushed out.

"Orin is older than I am, so that's not true at all. Please, Mother."

"Deyanira Sariah Hark, you listen to me and listen well. You'll have one single chance to hear this story, I'm sure of it."

I paused, crossing my arms, trying to swallow my pride. "It's Faber. I'm listening."

"Do you want to know why Death came, had a son, and then abandoned him? All magic comes with a cost, and when Death's power was restricted by the gods when they made Requiem immortal, he leeched the immortal power in order to create his harbingers because he's hunting a soul in Requiem."

"Interesting." I knew this, but Ezra had said everything had ears, and there were few I trusted enough to share anything with, so I let her continue as I remained silent.

"It wasn't enough for him to have a single weapon. He's greedy. So, he took a human woman to his bed, his seed bearing him a son. He believed he stole the power and the very breath of his heir to gain the ability to overtake the magic of the next born Life Maiden. Orin was meant to die after that, and Death was sure the last strand of your Life magic had sent his son to the ether rather than this court."

My heart plummeted into my stomach. "How could you possibly know this, and why would you tell me?"

"I've been here for a long time, Deyanira, and the only thing I've sought for years is this answer. I could feel you in my belly. The pure joy and healing and love that radiated from you before you were born was immense. I always thought you would be the new Life Maiden after Sorenia, your predecessor, was killed. But then everything turned dark, and I came here. I knew it was wrong. Broken somehow. If I give you nothing else, daughter, take this knowledge. He will surely cast me into the Lake when he learns of my betrayal anyway."

"Mother," I whispered, taking her hand. "What in the gods' names could you have done to get this information? Surely, he's not keeping a diary."

She smiled, so sad it was haunting. "He keeps consorts." She brushed a dark lock of hair behind an ear, letting the moment and her confession hang between us until the silence grew unbearable.

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything. Just listen. Death wants no heirs, no one vying for his position. The bond that you share goes beyond your marriage, but don't fool yourself. Orin's darkness is strong enough to swallow you whole, as it was always intended to. His existence was a price paid and nothing more. Believe me, his father sees that power for what it is now. He intends to send him to Requiem as soon as he has control and bring it down. Every person will fall. Every soul will be reaped. And the price for that kind of magic will be Orin himself. And likely anyone tied to him. Run far and fast, Deyanira. Or this lake will look like a sanctuary when Death truly gets ahold of you. He'll play with his food first, but he never leaves the table hungry."

I turned to her then, staring into foreign eyes, into the face of a woman who was taken from me before I could even know the love of a mother. Yet she'd still made her own sacrifices. She'd found a way to love me beyond death. "I didn't grow up gentle. I'm not a reticent person. I don't like gravy, and sometimes flowers make me sneeze. I prefer the cold side of a pillow, and I'm not a morning person. I taught myself to walk, and when Father hired a tutor to teach me to read and write, I taught myself instead because she was mean. I prefer rooftops over grassy fields, and I'm not scared of heights. I can't play an instrument or sing, and I accidentally married the wrong man. But he was the right man. The only one for me. He loves me just as much as you do, and whatever part of me that's bound to him is where my future lies. Be it darkness or light, an eternity at the bottom of this lake or upon a throne of skulls, I will not leave him to suffer his father's madness. And while I'm grateful for your words, there's truly nothing you could have said that would have changed my mind. I've never been a runner, Mother, only a Maiden."

"Dey—"

"You're suffering. I can see it in your eyes. Let me try to bring you a bit of peace. A little of those final moments of happiness in Requiem." Reaching for her hand, I pulled her into a hug, holding my breath as I called for the power I was always meant to have. She gasped as light formed between us. Not the blue or silver light of nighttime, but something warm and inviting. Calm and healing.

But one moment I was holding my mother, wishing her peace, and the next, the light of her soul was ripped away from her body as skin and bones turned to embers, and she was released. Free. The tiny orb of light circled me once and then twice, and though I wasn't sure if my mind conjured it or if it really happened, I could've sworn I heard her whisper, "Thank you," before she vanished altogether.

"What the hell?" I said, mostly to myself, as no one was nearby.

But a sinister voice answered. "You've released her soul to reincarnate, and now you'll do the same for me."