Page 14

nine

.

.

.

When we returned to Occasus, we landed by the display and I gripped the railing, trying to catch my breath.

The other scythes stared at me, their swirling star-lit eyes tracking me as I walked across the bridge, halting at its edge when I realized I had no clue where to go.

Wind kicked up from the crackling below, and I peered over to see only darkness.

“Come with me,” Reaper said, waving me onward.

Sevren followed behind them.

“We need to get him to in-processing.”

“Why isn’t he a shadow?”

Sevren stayed a few steps back, eyes wide as they took in their new surroundings.

“Only restless souls, ones with unfinished business, remained tethered to their scythe.”

We descended the looping path, moving lower and lower through the tower until we came to another bridge with another display, this one much smaller than the one levels above.

I gestured behind Reaper, to where I knew a sea of shadows hid from view.

“So all of those beings attached to you…”

“All can’t go to their final resting place. Not without finding solace beyond their mortality. I am charged with the Emperor’s death so I carry them within me.”

Tiny forms moved like insects around the small buildings.

A cluster of towers loomed above them and I quickly recognized the one we stood inside.

Lowering myself, I squinted, finding my feathered form within.

Scythes and souls moved around us, some descending down low where the table ended, and I bent down, curious if I could see Deorsum and what took place leagues below.

I was only met by the bottom of the table, though.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure that I wanted the answer.

Reaper cleared their throat and I stood back up, then they waved Sevren over, took their hand, and pressed it to a small building at the left corner of the living map.

A moment later, he disappeared into it.

“So all of my kin, the other splendors…” Even though I could not see them, I could sense them.

Beyond that, the rap rap rap of our connected beat pulsed under my flesh.

“Now that the Emperor is immortal, they won’t ever find peace?”

The idea filled me with so much sorrow, but more than that, I felt something new to me, something hot and vibrant and consuming.

Rage.

Not only had I spent my life alone, the only one of my kind, but they hadn’t even found peace beyond life, a life I now knew thanks to Reaper had been fraught with pain because of the very Emperor who’d bartered me off to selfishly gain immortality.

Reaper’s voice softened and they reached a hand up toward my cheek, hovering there until I leaned into their palm.

“I never said they won’t. Just that they haven’t.” I couldn’t explain why I was drawn to this being, one that I’d been taught to keep at bay with my canthymn, but the cool fingers that delicately traced along my jaw soothed the fiery ache within me.

“In the meantime, I’ll bear the weight of their distress.”

“For how long?” I rasped, recalling how thick and violent the sea of souls had been when they’d erupted in the Emperor’s chamber.

“For eternity, if I must.” The stars in their black swirling irises flared, then dulled in a blink.

“There must be a way to fix it.” My fingers wrapped around Reaper’s wrist, holding them there.

“Something we can do.”

“Believe me, I’ve tried.” They sighed.

“Nothing I did ever worked, now I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me.”

Realization slammed into me.

“You think I can help them like I helped Sevren?”

“I do.”

Cool breath breezed over my neck and collarbones, making me shiver, but not in a way that had me wanting to go anywhere else.

I finally could place what Reaper’s scent reminded me of, the Caprificus forest after fresh rainfall, earthy and floral and rich.

It was a comfort I wanted to shade myself under, to nestle within.

I lifted up onto my toes, fingers trailing the seam of fabric covering the bottom half of their face.

“So that’s why you made the bargain?”

“It is.”

“And that’s all?” I wanted to see them.

All of them.

To tear away this mask between us.

Reaper’s cool hand left my jaw, and I jolted at the loss of them.

Slipping their hand over mine, they guided it off of the fabric, but didn’t let go of my fist clutched in their palm as they muttered, as if to themself, “For now.”

“This is where you’ll be staying,” Reaper said, the frosted glass door sliding down into the floor.

I slowly stepped over the threshold after them.

There was a long cushioned chair that could fit a few people across it, a circular table, cabinets, and other cooking gadgets I’d caught only glimpses of during my time in the palace.

Then there was a long narrow hallway with a few frosted glass doors.

A fireplace sat against the opposite wall, a lone rectangular stone with something situated atop it that I couldn’t quite see.

Reaper waved me further into the room, and with a wave of their palm, the door lifted back into place.

“I know it’s not much but I hope over time you’ll feel more at home here. There’s not much in the way of decor but, if there’s something you want, all you have to do is ask and I’ll try my best to procure it.”

“Thank you.”

Not that I had any idea what else would belong.

I’d only ever lived in the forest, the only decorations were the brightly lit stars above, the rustling leaves in their various jeweled shades, and the radiant blooms that told me the seasons.

“Kitchen is here.” Reaper pointed to the cabinets and circular table then down to the first frosted entryway.

We strode closer, a few shadows sneaking out from their back and slipping down toward the ground before Reaper tugged at their pant leg, wrangling them back somewhere beneath their smooth skin.

A few long scars ran across their low back, slightly silvery in the dim light.

“Bathroom is that door on the left and then to your right you have the bedroom which opens out to the balcony.”

My heartbeat scattered.

One bedroom.

“Yes. Scythes don’t normally share living space with anyone other than their compara .”

“What is that?” I asked.

“Their soul’s other half.”

“And do all scythes have one—a compara ?” I said, trying to make conversation and not think anything more of it.

“We do.” The door opened, revealing a round room with a circular bed at its center with dark grey blankets over black sheets and a handful of fluffy pillows.

The whole room was painted charcoal with long tapered sconces that lined the walls which illuminated the moment the door disappeared into the ground.

“There haven’t been any new couplings in a long time.”

“How long?” I shifted my attention from the large, singular bed to the scythe next to me, their muscled shoulders carved in moonlight.

“I’m not sure exactly, but I think the last scythe found theirs over three decades ago.”

So long ago…

“What happened?”

“I think you know.”

The lost splendors.

The timing of when I’d been left was too close a match.

They were the scythes’ compara .

No wonder they’d all been staring at me when I’d arrived.

Reaper nodded without me saying a word and dragged a finger gently along the curve of the frosted glass wall that presumably led out to the balcony.

It was too dark to make out the shape of anything but how I longed to be outside beneath the stars.

“Anyways,” Reaper continued, walking back toward the doorway, “if you can help free the souls of the Emperor’s victims then they could be free to live in Occasus, and even possibly find their compara.”

“Who knows, perhaps you’ll find yours?” The words scratched up my throat and I swallowed thickly, suddenly parched.

“Perhaps, Songbird, perhaps.”

They walked through the door, not glancing back behind them.

“Now let’s get you some sustenance before we really get started. I’ll give you the rest of the tour later.”

I followed Reaper out of the room, equally hopeful and haunted by everything I’d learned.