Page 25 of The Tenth Muse

“Stuck?” Their throat bobbed, attention dropping to the discarded plumes. “Not at all. You are welcome to cross realms at any time, so long as you’re with me.” Snapping their gaze up to my face, they walked over to the central display, waving me over to look at it. “In fact we will be leaving shortly. There are souls to shepherd and I wish to show you how you can help.”

Below Reaper’s pointer finger was a small village with thatched roofs and bales of hay littering the ground. Little islands, each with their own unique housing and landscape were scattered, some floating and some flat against the large circular table. A familiar palace was across the way, sending goosebumps up my arms, all the way to beneath the feathers capping my shoulders.

“I will not harm anyone.” It was partially true. The only one I wished to harm was the Emperor. With his newly gained immortality, that would never happen.

Reaper held their hand out, palm skyward, and waited. “Nor would I ever ask that of you, Songbird.”

“My name is Lyric.” I crossed my arms. “Or do you wish for me to still call you Death?”

Reaper’s sharp brows furrowed, slightly shifting the shape of the slash of onyx across their gaze. “Do you dislike Songbird?”

“It’s not that I dislike it. I just…” I bit my lip, copper bursting on my tongue from the force of it. Reaper ran their thumb across the wound, crimson coating their fingertip, but healing it in onesweep. I swallowed, dropping my chin so I didn’t have to look them in the eyes. Something about that was all too raw. “I spent so many turnings alone, always wishing someone would speak my name as I’d heard it before I’d been left.” The one thing I remembered. Walking along the rim of the display, my hand trailed along its ledge, passing over tiny towns and vast empires, some with humans and others with beings like myself, others with ones I’d never seen before. “I thought maybe the Emperor would see me as more than what I could be for him.” I shrugged, trying to brush off how foolish I felt. How gullible. “Now I know he never cared at all. I was only his splendor because he needed to use me, after using my mother, my family.”

Even though I couldn’t see their outlines any longer, I could still sense their disquiet, the strong beat between my ribs a key reminder that I was the only one left.

“Forgive me, Lyric.” Reaper said, kneeling so quickly before me that it startled me. Their hands were splayed on the floor at my feet. It was a show of respect, a plea, though there was still nothing subservient about it. Reaper rippled with power and strength, even staring up at me from their knees. My heart thudded loudly, body warming under the intensity of their stare. “If you are to be at my side, I do not ever want you to feel anything other than cherished. I hope that in time you will see that you belong here. That you will understand all of it.”

“I hope so too.” Though I had no idea what there was to understand. Reaper had made a deal with the Emperor and I no longer could stop them with my canthymn.

“Take my hand.” They pressed up onto their knees and reached for me, never actually touching me though. “I wish to show you what is possible.”

My body was still, unsure if I wanted to know just yet. I’d only just gotten here and I still hadn’t been able to wrap my headaround the deal or what fate was in store for me now that I was tied to this scythe.

“I’ll explain everything in time.”

It was the promise I needed to summon the courage to reach back, and in an inky swirl of shadow we were off.

The room was dark, lit only by a few dripping candles on the bedside table, their black wicks long and curling. Under the blanket, a man’s eyes were fluttering, hand slack in his wife’s. Tiny fingers grasped his blue-veined wrist.

“It-it h-hurts.”Echoed in my ears, and I knew it belonged to the man who could no longer speak the words.

“I know.” Reaper said, pressing the scythe on their forearm. It floated out and then expanded and solidified, their fingers wrapping around the black leather.

“My wife and son.”The man’s shadowy form lifted from his unmoving body, Reaper reaching their blade around to coax it free of the man’s wilted corpse. They tugged, but the man’s voice wailed its plea, cracking between my ribs.“I don’t want to leave them.”

My lip quivered, tears brimming my eyes.

“The sign of a beautiful life,” Reaper said, mournfully, but with a soft reverence to the words. “Be glad that you have loved as you have and know that you will be reunited in the afterlife.”

“You promise?”

The man was still hesitating, soul fighting to stay where it could not. The urge to croon my final canthymn, if it could only revive him for his crying wife and small son, was too much to bear.

“I do promise, Sevren.” Reaper hooked a bit more under his soul, drawing more of the shadow upright, skimming down past their torso and hips. The man’s soul was almost completely untethered from his lifeless body. “You have cared for them all you can. Now let us care for you.”

“I-I’m scared.”

My breaths shook with the man’s uneasy voice. Why was Reaper so needlessly cruel in bringing me here? What did they want to show me?

“I know. I’ve brought someone special to help ease your fears.”

Reaper’s starry gaze fell upon me.

I stepped forward, dragging my feet across the floor, though I could not feel it. The shadow’s silhouetted face turned toward me and I bowed my head. “M-may I sing for you?”

“Y-yes. I th-think I should r-rather like that,”the shadow said, voice fainter than before.

“Take my hand.”

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