Page 280 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Jack tapped the quill again. “Ana…Ana Shackley…that sounds awful familiar.” He took a pinch of Zuprium dust out of the pouch at his waist and sprinkled it onto the parchment. “Ah, yup, here we go. Have several from her, and—oh,right, she’s the one who called me a blasted stars-idiot my first day here. Lovely girl. But her letters were the first ones I ever took, so she came to her senses in the end.”
Hallie groaned and smacked her brother on the back of the head. “That’s because you are a blasted stars-idiot.”
Jack glared at her before murmuring a few words and swirling the dust on the notebook around. In seconds, a pile ofsix letters appeared. He shuffled through them. “Here ya are. Kase.”
With a trembling hand, Kase took the letter. “I don’t understand.”
Jack sprinkled more dust on the others and with another murmured word, they disappeared in a glitteringpoof.“Sometimes it’s hard to move on, understandably so, but Gran started having souls write letters to their loved ones to help them and anyone else who died after them prepare to go beyond. Helps if they know they won’t be alone, y’know?” He took a deep breath. “Stars above, I’m gonna miss her. The girls will too. She always had a way with them—especially Anne.” He replaced his notebook in his satchel and pointed at the letter in Kase’s hand. “That won’t last long in the mortal realm. Best read it here. I’ll make sure it stays all nice and new for ya if you do return someday.”
Kase swallowed thickly and croaked, “Thank you.”
He turned away to read his letter.
It was time.
And that was when the tears started. She’d known they would come, but she’d wanted to stay strong. It was one thing to think her brother was lost in the aether. It was another toknowhe was here waiting for them, never able to leave or change. Instead of feeling as if he was off in another dimension, pretending he was off having all the adventures they’d dreamed of having as kids, it’d feel like he was just on the other side of the door…unseen and out of reach despite being mere feet away.
Why did that feel so much harder to endure?
She tried to swallow, to regain her composure, but she couldn’t get her throat to work. Then Jack pulled her into another hug, and she gave up, sobbing into his shoulder. The ugly kind, all snotty and soggy and awful. Nothing like the single graceful tear heroines shed in books.
“Aw, no, not you too, not the shirt,” he moaned. “You know how hard it is to get new clothes here?”
She tried to laugh. Just sobbed harder instead.
“Aw, Hal.” He got quiet, first—then a little shaky. “Shoulda told you sooner, but don’t you feel guilty about all this, you hear? You tell Niels, too. If I’d gotten to choose who walked outta there, it’d’a gone the same way.”
“I-I won’t feel guilty.” Every word emerged like a hiccup. “I pushed you, anyway. Don’t tell Mama.”
“Iknewit,” he gasped in false outrage, and she finally laughed, even if it sounded more like a whimper. “Always were jealous of me. Like it was my fault I got born the smarter twin, the better-looking—”
She leaned back, scowling. “Jack.”
“What? You started it.” He crushed her against him again, and she let his gangly arms squeeze the life out of her. Metaphorically.
“Don’t take this all wrong, but I hope I never see you again,” he mumbled into her hair. “If you do end up in Souls Meet, though…I’ll be here.”
The soft summery breeze rustled her hair, and she squeezed her brother tighter. He was too skinny, always had been. It was almost as if he’d been doomed to break, but he never had. Not really. His body had been crushed by beams and stone in a faraway mine, but his spirit was where it needed to be.
He’d gotten to realize his own destiny here, just as Hallie had in Kyvena.
“Love you,” Hallie sobbed.
“Love ya, Lark.”
And then Jack pulled back, tears in his own eyes. “Get on, now, and don’t you dare look back.”
Stepping up beside Hallie and threading his arm around her waist, Kase held the letter out for her brother to take. “Thank you, Jack.”
Jack took it and used more dust to make it disappear like the others. He smiled and held out his hand. Kase shook it. Jack used the motion to pull Kase in close and whisper something in his ear.
After a moment, Kase stepped back, nodding. “Promise.”
Without a word or a look toward her, her brother turned and left to hug their parents again.
“What’d he say?” Hallie asked, glancing at her brother suspiciously, though still wiping a few stray tears from her eyes as she got her breathing under control.
Kase smiled, his eyes tinged pink. “To take care of you. And that if I didn’t, I’d have to answer to him.” Hallie groaned, and Kase let out a soft laugh. “Seems like we both have protective older brothers.”
