Page 43 of Reaper's Reward

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ADDIE

Hel’s underworld was darker than I remembered, which was really saying something because it’d been really dark the last time I was here. I reached out into the shadows and took Maddox’s hand. Had we not been bound to one another, I would have been nervous that I’d grabbed the wrong hand.

That’s how dark it was in here.

Through the darkness, Paige said, “Um, so…I’m going to keep it real with you folks. I don’t know what to do next.”

I could almost feel her gaze on me. Expectations made my skin crawl, but I rolled my shoulders back and reached deep. My metaphorical fingertips grazed the surface of the cold sea of arcana sitting inside me. The arcana answered at my touch. It rolled upwards in a tsunami that I let crash out in every direction.

Much like Maddox, the underworld drank down my power. Blue fire lights sparked to life at every bend in the tunnels. Faces appeared all around me. Page’s jaw dropped in awe. Maddox lifted a curious brow, his eyes roving over the changes that my arcana had spawned. The man in the leisure suit from the seventies grinned as he nodded appreciatively.

“Don’t get too excited,” I said. “All I did was turn on the lights.”

At least, that’s what I thought. I didn’t know what I was doing. This wasn’t my domain. It was the old hag’s, and she never took any time to teach me useful shit like this.

I tamped down my bitterness and lifted my chin. Maddox led the way. I could hear him sniffing ahead of us. I wondered what he could smell down here. Everything reeked of musty stone to me. Nothing really stood out.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the edge of my arcana burst. Shadows gathered like a veil between the area I’d—for the lack of a better term—turned on. I reached out and touched the rolling shadows.

This wasn’t darkness…it wasn’t the absence of something. Rather, as I touched the opaque cloud, I realized that it was made of souls. I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. This was an afterlife. I’d expected people laying on azure beaches or exploring endless libraries in their afterlives.

To find souls gathered like this left me unsettled. I stole a glance at the man from the seventies and wondered how long it would be until he was nothing more than a mass of darkness, too.

Paige touched my shoulder. “Don’t worry. These are the souls that savored all they could. These are the ones who embraced finality once and for all. It was their choice, Addie.”

Still, I scowled. This seemed a little weird. I wasn’t a goddess of death, but I’d expected something different. Which, I found a few moments later. After pushing out with my power once more, the shadows scattered to reveal doors carved into the rocky walls.

The doors took all sorts of shapes and forms. There were round wooden doors set into the walls and tall stained glass doors shining light from within. I marveled at them and let my fingers drag across their surfaces.

“These are the actual afterlives,” Paige said.

She cracked open a door to let Maddox and me peer in. A warm breeze immediately rushed out to rustle my hair. The smell of salty ocean water found us. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. In the distance, I heard laughter and splashing. Sand stretched for miles with a sapphire ocean twinkling just beyond it. There was the azure beach.

Paige closed the door. Her lips twisted to the side as she peered at it. “We could check every afterlife, but I really doubt Hel would be in there.”

The massive, half-skeleton woman with dark hair that hung over her blue fire eyes wouldn’t have been found dead on that beach. Hel was a goth goddess at heart, and I believed that with every fiber of my soul.

“How can we even be sure that she’s here somewhere?” Maddox asked, his attention trailing up and down the corridors like he was waiting for something to leap out at us.

Paige grimaced and shrugged.

I bit the inside of my cheek and took in all the doors around us. Something in my gut told me that we weren’t going to find Hel hiding in the human afterlives. That wasn’t her thing. She was a somber and practical goddess.

That didn’t narrow down our options, though. I didn’t have a roadmap down here. These winding halls seemed endless, and I had no idea where any of them might lead. I had the urge to attempt summoning her, but a goddess as old as herself might resist and leave us empty handed.

“What are you hiding from us?” I asked under my breath.

Hel had been acting out of sorts lately. I’d noticed unexpected thoughts and emotions reaching her face. She wasn’t used to keeping secrets, and it showed.

I turned to Paige. “If I can light up the halls, then why aren’t other Reapers doing the same?”

Maddox put a hand on my crown. “Because you aren’t like them.”

I stared up at him quizzically. The puzzle pieces in my brain refused to put the fragments of his statement together. Of course, we were alike. Paige and I were both Reapers. She could do anything that I could.

“You’re more than a reaper.” Paige said it with her whole chest, like it was true.

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