Page 31 of In Death's Hands
“I don’t think it’s linked,” says Nathan stiffly to his sister of sorts, a hard look on his face.
“How can you know? They reappeared twenty years ago, almost to the day. It would be a pretty big coincidence if they weren’t linked to what happened to her. Or rather didn’t happen.”
“So, we figure it out. What happened to me, what these Novensiles are after, all of it,” I tell them, ready to finally move forward and get my life back.
“And to do that,” says Turan with a pointed look at Nathan, “you need their help. But you don’t have to gothere.”
“You know that’s the only true neutral place we could meet without endangering anyone.”
“Not if you could be fucking grown-ups about it!” she barks. “It’s dangerous.”
I wonder for a second why I’m not more scared of something a god seems afraid of.
A god. Nope. Still not making sense.
“More dangerous than keeping her here, not learning what is wrong with the Order and letting the Novensiles grow stronger?”
Closing her eyes, Turan takes a few big breaths, visibly trying to calm herself down.
“We’ll stay in the antechamber,” Nathan adds more gently.
“Why are you scared of it?” I ask her, and boy do I regret it immediately.
“I amnotscared of this place.” Her eyes start glowing again, and I notice Nathan moving in front of me, entirely blocking my view of the small woman. God. Whatever. I get on my toes to look over his broad shoulder in time to see Turan notice his not-so-subtle move and send a scathing look his way. “You know exactly why I think it’s a bad idea. We areweakthere. I will not be weak again.”
“It won’t affect us that much in the antechamber. You know that,” says Nathan as he goes to grab a piece of paper and a pen from a drawer in the kitchen and quickly scribbles something. “We don’t have a choice. It’s the one place none of us have been back to since then. I won’t meet them anywhere else.”
He hands Turan the note, and she shakes her head as her eyes move over the words. “Fine, I’ll pass it along. But it’s the last time I’ll do so—I’m not your damn postwoman.” She turns to look at me, and I wait for her to tell me that it’s my fault, that I’m putting her brother in danger by simply existing. But she disappears.
And I mean shedisappears.
One second, she’s whole and looking at me in a way I do not understand, the next she’s gone.
I gasp, looking around and finding her nowhere. My eyes settle on Nathan’s amused face, and his expression is the only thing keeping me from a full-blown freak-out.
“Being attacked and beaten barely fazes you, but Turan Fading throws you into a fit?” His lips twitch ever so slightly and distract me enough to focus on his words.
“I—Uh.” Okay, maybe his lips distract metoo much. Especially as they now turn into a full-blown smile that transforms his whole face into something far too lovely to be associated with death. I blow out a breath, willing the heat that’s suddenly found its way into my body to disperse with it. I am all over the place; one second I’m worried aboutgods, and Death itself—himself—knocking at my door, or rather hisassistant’sdoor, to rectify the mistake he made twenty years ago, and the next I’m swooning like a teenage girl with raging hormones at asmile. And before that I was freaking out over Turanvanishing. Fuck. Where did she go?
“Fading?”
“Ah,” he says, his right hand jumping to smooth his hair down. “We can all do it. The way we do it depends on the Crown we serve.”
“Crown?”
He sighs. “There is a lot you don’t know. A lot that I will have to share with you if you truly decide to come and search with me.”
“Of course I’m coming with you. You said so yourself.”
“It doesn’t mean you don’t have a choice. I could find a safe place for you.” By the way he clenches his jaw, he doesn’t seem too happy about that option. “Hell, you could even stay with Turan.”
“Helldoesexist?” I gulp.
He closes his eyes for a second. “We were thrown into your world with nary a memory of our own. We adapted, used your lingo.”
“So…?” It does not escape my notice that for the second time, he hasn’t answered my question.
“So, I will teach you about my world. Whatever you need to know, I will tell you. I cannot promise to tell you everything, but I promise to be truthful with what I choose to share.”
