Page 242 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
She dropped her hand and rotated Kase’s ring around her finger instead.
She and Jack walked through the narrow village lanes, him nodding and waving to each person they passed. If Hallie didn’t know they were in Souls Meet, she would’ve guessed they were somewhere in the Narden foothills. The charming village reminded her of a smaller version of Nar, where she’d busted Kase out of jail after crashing his hover.
There were no hovers here.
Jack opened the door to one of the little structures that felt and looked more like a cozy wooden lodge. Its beams were honey-brown, aged with years gone by. It was different from Jack’s cottage but lacked none of its warmth.
Inside, more people milled about, sipping orange juice from glasses—an oddity in a tavern. The breakfast fare looked quite nice as they passed by a table of women eating the bacon with forks. High society in life, she guessed, and hadn’t changed at all in death.
Hallie’s heart flipped over as they approached the barkeep, a man who looked to be in his early fifties. She hadn’t realized just how much she missed working at the Crowne Haven inn until that moment. She’d only gotten the job as a way to keep going after the trauma of theEudoramission, but looking back, she could see that working there had been a very good thing. It’d kept her busy, had kept her from spiraling even after she’d dropped out of the University.
Jack shook the barkeep’s hand. “We’ll take the usual. Two this time. This here’s my sister, Hallie.”
The man looked up with kind yet haunting blue eyes, his face all angles and shadows. His curly hair was steely gray and slightly unkempt. “Addison, and it’s a pleasure, my lady.”
“And you. Jack says your chef has perfected the art of bacon frying. I’m eager to try it.”
“Of course.”
He left to go grab their food, and Jack led her to a table near one of the windows. When their food arrived, they bantered back and forth as they ate, laughing over some of their shared memories—like the time Hallie had beaten Jack in chess, and her brother had hounded her for a week straight afterward, insisting she’d cheated.
She had, but only that once.
It was nice to unwind a little after everything and enjoy having her brother back once more. The food still tasted stars-awful, but she gagged it down and convinced Jack that it was indeed the best thing she’d ever eaten. He probably didn’t believe her, but she didn’t want to take away his joy.
“Hey Addi, you seen Gran round this morning?” Jack shouted back at the barkeep.
He paused in his cleaning of a few of the glasses. He nodded out toward the door. “Left at first light. Said she wasgonna be out at the Aurora for a bit and to tell you to hurry it up if you came by.”
Jack rolled his eyes but grinned. “Thanks.”
“Aurora?” Hallie asked.
Jack wiped his mouth with his blue-and-gold flannel sleeve. Some things hadn’t changed. “The other Gate. It’s been acting up as of late.”
They finished up shortly, and Jack led her out of the village and toward the distant peaks. They reminded her of the Nardens with their snowy peaks and blue haze. It made her miss home even more. Before theEudora, the mountains were one of the only things she’d missed. They were beautiful, if deadly, and their majestic power always took her breath away.
As they walked a well-trodden dirt path through more planting fields and past small copses of trees, Hallie said, “So tell me about the Gates. I thought only one existed until I found the…what did you call it? Nether Gate? And the one we’re headed to now is called the Aurora?”
Jack nodded, picking a stray daisy and offering it to her. “For your hair, because it would annoy Mama the most.”
Hallie rolled her eyes and plucked it from his fingers. She twirled it a few times before sticking it behind her ear. It was almost like having a pencil tucked away there. Almost.
Jack strode along, whistling a tune Hallie didn’t recognize. Hallie caught his sleeve. A few people passed them, looking wan and tired, heading toward the village. Jack waved and smiled. “Good to see you this morning. Tell Addi at the tavern to give you some orange juice, it’ll perk you right up!”
A woman with curly white hair, expensive yet ragged clothes, and a limp scowled at him, but kept walking nonetheless.
Once they’d passed out of earshot, Hallie hissed, “Jack, will you just answer my questions, please?”
He flashed her a mischievous grin before tugging his arm out of her grip. “Souls come through them. The Aurora and the Nether, though Gran says there was supposedly another that hasn’t worked in ages. Gran don’t know exactly what happened to it, but its ruins are up in the mountains.” He gestured toward them with a flippant hand. “She’s scared that whatever did that one in is doing the same to the Aurora, so she’s been out trying to fix it since the Nether Gate is persnickety at the best of times.”
The Aurora Gate must be the one from Myrrai. She wondered what Jack meant by it not working and when that had happened. Ben had done something to it, and then Hallie had taken the sword from it. Maybe the sword simply needed to be restored? That had been her plan, after all, to collect all the Essences into the sword and restore it to the Gate. It would destroy Jagamot and cost Hallie and the other Essences their lives, but more would be saved.
She hoped.
But now she was here without the swords or the other Essences.
Maybe she should just accept her fate and live here with Jack and Gran. Maybe she could help ferry the souls. Though if Jagamot wasn’t stopped, would this place cease to exist as well? Would he destroy the afterlife, too?
