Page 50 of The Crow Games

He let out a slow exhale that left his broad shoulders drooping. “Are you certain that is what you wish, old one?”

“I am certain,” I said coldly, and before he finished inviting me to partake of his chalice, I drank what remained in it down, the liquid thick and sour-sweet on my tongue.

I lay on the floor beside Ruchel. The magic took its time working. The alcohol was supposed to relax me and make invading my mind easier, but the divine magic struggled against my rebellious spirit. Sparks popped before my eyes, and my heart sped.

But spirit and consciousness are two sides of the same coin, and eventually mine surrendered to his.

The stone room fell away. I was back on the Schatten, or a place that resembled the train, in the passage of a sleeper car. Everything was too bright, the bone walls luminescent as pearls. Even the rumble of the tracks was different, smoother under my feet.

I explored the compartments, but it wasn’t bunks or luggage tucked inside them. Memories played out behind each door. I’d been taken deep inside my own subconscious. I stopped at the car that showed Lisbeth in our old shop. The flaming sigil burned on the tile overhead, and a shadowy creature fell from the ceiling, my mind filling in the gaps I hadn’t seen myself before the double of me burst through the door much too late.

I watched Lisbeth die.

The memory started over, only this time, the moment the sigil appeared I charged inside. I attacked the shadowy monster with a surge of spirit. I pursued it around the shop, knocking over shelves and scattering hats, shattering jars. I chased it out of the memory, down the aisles of the Schatten, into the dining cars. It turned over tables and threw plates at me that I dodged. The creature tried to escape me by entering the lounge.

I caught up with it there. The monster left oily slick in its wake, which I slipped in. Striking the creature was like attacking smoke. I chased the beast into another memory—Lisbeth’s first haircut—then another. Playing with her in the snow. And another. Baking bread together, smearing flour on my face and pretending I hadn’t noticed it there. Her little laughter so sweet my heart squeezed.

I watched Lisbeth die again.

And again.

And again.

I returned to the original memory. I gathered all the spirit I had left and laid a snare for the monster, iron gray claws extended from my chest like a beartrap. The next time the creature dropped from the burning sigil, I grabbed hold of the being with my spirit, and I crushed it.

But Lisbeth still lay on the floor dead at my feet. It mattered not how many times I destroyed the monster.

Depleted and alone, I found another memory of my sister, this one earlier in the day, before she died. I watched her dancing around our shop, practicing her steps in those lovely moments before I’d entered our room and left her alone. It played over and over again, Lisbeth humming a tune to herself, her skirts twirling.

I leaned back against the bone wall behind me, and I slid to the floor, knees to my chest. I pictured the mental mortar and pestle, and I grinded my grief down and down. I lost track of how long I sat there, numb and hollow inside, my spirit spent.

The gaslights dimmed, and a shadow grew before me, casting me in cool shade.

“Asher?” I looked up into the familiar face of the reaper, the sharp features and dark eyes, undecided if he was a figment of my mind.

“Ruchel sent me,” he explained, his rich baritone and his death aura too intense to be imaginary. He didn’t fit here in this realm of wispy memories and luminescent things. “There is nowhere in the Otherworld I can’t go, so our coven asked me to check on you.”

Doors up and down the sleeper car slammed shut, locks thrown—all but the compartment across from me barred themselves in an instant.

Asher chuckled. “Relax,” he said. “I won’t leave the atrium of your mind. I didn’t come to pry. The others are worried, is all, and they insisted I check in. You’ve been out a long while.”

Time likely passed differently here. I had no concept of how long I’d been gone, like dreaming. A night could fly by in a blink when I slept. “They’re already awake?”

He nodded.

“And the prize?” I asked.

“None have claimed it yet. Ruchel said she had to figure out a way to outsmart herself to beat her trial, but she proved to be too difficult an opponent. And Nola was given another chance to battle the invaders in her Sebrak encampment, but out of spite she burned even more trees this time around and was thrown from the trial.”

“And you?”

His laugh lacked humor. “I’m not allowed to make an attempt.”

“Right. You’re a traitor,” I said fondly. It was my favorite thing about him. “And Blue?”

“Blue was not comfortable sharing. But she wasn’t successful either.”

I sighed. “It’s all right. I know the lesson the god of wisdom is attempting to impart to me. I put it together some time ago. We’ll get the relic.”

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