Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (17 page)

“What happened to the street?” she asked. “Oh God, where’s my house? Are they dead? Are they all dead?”

Dino folded his arms and watched her, his eyes narrowed and lips flat. “Your neighborhood’s fine. The people in this one, not so much.”

“This one? What the hell are you talking about? Where am I?”

“Welcome to Afterlife, the City of Souls.”

She turned from the pane, her brows furrowing to a wedge. “Did you slip me something? Am I drugged? Where’s Ms. Flannery?”

“Good God, no I didn’t slip you anything. I’m not that type of guy.” He grabbed the door leading into the hall and swung it wide. “As much as I’d like to pull up a chair and chat until we’re blue in the face, we need to get out of here. I smashed the mirror from this side so Bone Man can’t enter through it, but his crows are still around and he’ll find another way back easily enough. This house will be the first place he searches when he returns, and you don’t want to be around when he does. Follow me.”

“Yeah, right. I’m not going anywhere with you.” She stormed through the door, shouldering past him. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I know I’m not going anywhere with a guy dressed like some weird
Indiana Jones
movie extra. You can play your little roleplaying whatever it is with someone else.”

Dino pinched his nose and sighed. “I couldn’t have been more wrong about you it seems. Faye’s gonna kill me for this.”

She paused in the door and whipped around. “What do you mean you were wrong about me?”

“See, I thought you were someone special. Bone Man’s been hunting a certain thief who stole a certain relic people in the know want really, really badly. Clearly it wasn’t you. Some self-righteous broad who doesn’t know a poltergeist from a phantom definitely couldn’t have pulled off the heist of the century. You got a twin? Does she have a better temper? Maybe at least one skill other than getting under my skin with all her silly questions and accusations?”

“Oh, you think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“Honestly?” he asked.

“You know what, I don’t care.”

“Why’d you ask then?”

“God you’re infuriating! Listen, I’ve never heard of a relic or a poltergeist or whatever you’re talking about and I definitely didn’t steal anything.”

Dino motioned into the hallway. “But he
was
after you. Something drew him to you, and if Bone Man wants something, it’s my job to make sure he doesn’t get it. Besides, for someone who doesn’t know about poltergeists, you certainly acted like one. I’ve never seen anyone strong enough to throw him around. Wish I could’ve seen the look on his face when he hit the wall!”

“Here’s an idea!” She smiled and patted his cheek. “Stick around and ask him yourself. Goodbye now.”

She spun around and stormed into the hallway, coughing as the dust swirled around her face. Dino pinched his chin as he slowly shook his head.
 

This mortal could somehow match Bone Man’s power. Dino couldn’t let her slip through his fingers, no matter how much she annoyed him. Floorboards croaked under his rapid footsteps. She glanced over her shoulder, scowling at him from the corner of her eye. Down the stairs she went.
 

Dino slowed. He clenched his teeth, his body sighing into rolling gray mists.
This one’s trouble
.
 

Through a crack in the floor his body twirled, and in a heartbeat he reformed at the bottom step just as the girl reached it. “Sorry. You’re not getting away that easily.”

“Get back or … or I’ll run off or do what I did to that Bone Man thing!”

“First, you won’t be outrunning me any time soon, and second, give me a little credit here. You can’t hurt me like you hurt Bone Man. I’m a phantom. We’re harder to toss around, seeing as how we’re, you know, smoke and mist and all that whenever we want.”

“Whatever. I’m pretty sure sticking around you is still the more dangerous option. Out of my way.” She shoved past him and ran out the front door. Wind toyed with her hair as her sprint slowed to a jog, then to a standstill. Dust swirled around her hips. Moonlight washed her shoulders in silver and reflected in the messy nest of her glittering hair.

Dino walked to the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the charred frame. “This city is home to every soul that ever was, and it’ll be home to every soul that ever will be. Good, bad, a little of both—it doesn’t matter. How long do you think you’ll last alone in a place like this? Where will you go? What will you do? There’s evil out there, and it wants you. I don’t know why, but it does. You step in the city without me, and you’ll suffer for it. You may not like me. Fine. But I think by now you know I’m not the one who wants you hurt.”

The odd girl clenched and unclenched her fists. She hugged herself and shuddered. When she started sobbing, a shock raced through him, and he scrambled awkwardly from the doorframe. “Hey, hey, it’s not that bad! Just don’t cry. Please.
Please
. Just don’t cry!”
 

She sucked in her sob and stared at the ground, trembling so softly he almost didn’t notice. He didn’t know if he should hold her or keep his distance, so he split the difference and probably did exactly what she didn’t want by awkwardly rubbing her back.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Amber. Amber Blackwood.”

“Amber. All I ask is that you come with me. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
 

“This place is strange,” she murmured.

“It is. But it’s not as bad as you think. Walk with me? The crows are watching. We need to get someplace safe.”

“You promise you’re not some kind of psycho killer like that other guy?”

“I like to think I’m the good kind of psycho.”

She laughed, and some of the fear swirling in her eyes faded. “Okay. I’ll go with you. But you do anything weird and I’m out. Understand, Dino?”

“Completely, Amber. I promise you’ll be safe as long as you’re with me.”

She would be for now at least. He didn’t know how Faye would react to a mortal in their midst. Dino didn’t even know if a mortal had ever come to Afterlife. In all his years in the city, he’d never heard of a mirror bringing the living to the dead. It always worked in reverse, and he only tried because he was out of other options.

Dino wrapped his arm around her waist, and their bodies swirled into trails of mist. She tensed, raising a ghostly hand to the sky. “What is this?”

 
“It’s my curse, the curse of the phantom.”

“Does everyone get one when they die.”

“No, they’re pretty uncommon. Really old souls can get them, or souls who died in really bad ways may show up with one of the curses. I like to think of it as a kind of karmic balance, so if your life gets cut short in the mortal world your soul gets something cool to play with for the immortal one.”

“And the phantom one just makes you a ghost?”

“I can turn to mist, turn invisible, fly, float, and move as freely as I want. What you did with Bone Man, that was the poltergeist curse. You can move objects, simply by thinking about moving them. As hard as you hurled that bastard across the room, I’d say you were a pretty powerful one.”

“I got so frightened. I didn’t … I didn’t know what I was doing. It just sort of bubbled up and exploded from me.”

“Curses work in irrational ways. The laws of science that govern the mortal world don’t function quite right here, so we’re not quite as far along as the living. Nobody’s really in a rush anyway. We’ve got eternity to figure things out, after all.”

Her brows knitted together while she inspected her hand. “There are other curses besides those two, aren’t there?”
 

“Five that we know about, to be exact. Most cursed souls come here as wraiths. They’ve got strength on their side and they’re damned hard to kill if they’re powerful ones. If they’ve got a sword they could split you in half with a strong swing or crush your skull in their hand like an overripe tomato. Then you’ve got spirits and doppelgangers. They’re a different kind of dangerous. Dark. Tricky. Slippery.”

“More dangerous than someone cutting you in half or crushing your skull?”

“Spirits influence. They possess. They can make you feel things, make you do things, see inside your mind and pull your thoughts from it. They can even put their thoughts in yours and commune with the mortal world. I’ve heard stories of spirits that’ll make you shiver.
 

“While doppelgangers can’t do all that, they’re almost as bad. They can become anyone they want. If they’ve seen someone you know, they can mimic them perfectly, even make what you felt for that person come bubbling back up.” His throat thickened as old memories surfaced, but he forced them down. “They can mimic the ones you love and trust the most and use them to hurt you. Even if your brain knows it’s not the real person, your heart damned sure feels like it is.”

“And you actually like this place? The city sounds like Hell with a bunch of people flying around with superpowers all the time.”

“It’s more like Heaven and Hell got together and decided to give up the fight and let us duke it out. Afterlife’s what you make it, and while it’s a knotted, confusing, violent mess, it’s also fragile, beautiful, and inspiring. Yeah, we get the crazies coming in thinking they’re a force to be reckoned with every so often, but there’re those of us who come out to knock them right back down and put them in their place. Things kind of equal out. Mostly.”

They reached the border of Old City where it finally gave way to the bustling streets and avenues of Afterlife. Townhomes and shops three to four stories tall lined the cobblestone lane. Streetlamps cast gold upon wide sidewalks brimming with people milling, chatting, laughing, crying—it was a song of human emotion filling the air, giving it a warmth that invited anyone who heard to sing along.
 

Men wearing bowlers or tall top hats or other more exotic skull toppers strolled down the street in tailored suits and long coats, their canes clicking with their strides. Women swayed in shimmering dresses of every shade of blue, green, red, and yellow, their hair tied up in braids and buns and capped by wide-brimmed hats wreathed with colorful flowers, their hands holding fragile fans flapped every so often to keep the dust at bay.
 

Dino took a deep breath and bounced on his heels as they both reformed to solid flesh and bone. “It sounds dangerous,” he said. “And it can be deadly so. But there’s no city like the City of Souls, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Amber Blackwood, welcome to Afterlife.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, her hand moving to her chest. “Like someone took something from the past, splashed it with color, and made it glow.”

“Pretty way of putting it. Roses are pretty, but never forget they still have thorns. Half those people are your enemy. The other half would sell you down the River Styx for a few bucks.”

“And which half are you?” she asked.

“Clever girl.”

“Don’t call me girl. I can handle myself.”

“Alright, Amber. Clever
woman
.”

“Well?” she turned to him, lips pressed into a line. “I asked a question. Which are you?”

“I do whatever Faye wants, and right now I’m thinking she wants you. Alive. That’ll have to be good enough.”

They turned the corner from the Old City and entered a winding lane. A few men in fine suits and slick top hats sat at the patio of a tobacco shop, smoking thick cigars that flared simmering orange and red as they chuckled to one another and sipped on wine.
 

“There’re a few basics beyond the curses you need to know about my fair city,” Dino said. “For one, we’re already dead, so we don’t age. We arrive in our prime, regardless of when or how we died.”

“Must be nice not having to moisturize ever.”

He chuckled as they continued down the lane. “Souls come here knowing very little of their mortal lives. Most of us only remember our names and a single, precious memory.”
 

“And what was your memory?” she asked.

Dino paused, his gaze drifting to the sky. “Wow. It’s been awhile since someone’s asked or I’ve even thought about it.” He smiled, closing his eyes. “I remember holding a little girl. Newborn. A plump little ball of peach that made my heart soar so high I knew it’d never come down again. She was crying, but it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.”

“That sounds nice.”

He swallowed, the memory fading as he ushered them along again. He didn’t like thinking of his memory, and for some reason her asking about it unsettled him. No one asked about another soul’s memory. It was impolite. Uncomfortable. “Yes, well, moving along. Once you get checked in at the Census, you’re free to do whatever with your immortal life. Be a scoundrel. Be a hero. Be rich. Be poor. Be everything. You’ve got eternity to do it all.”

They passed a bench occupied by two women, their curly hair bound in large buns, their dresses billowing lace monstrosities that pooled around their feet. They shared an ice cream and giggled when their eyes met his.
 

Dino winked and flashed a grin. “It was a free city once. Souls gathered in their districts and elected representatives to the Soul Assembly, and it passed the laws and kept order.” His smile faded. “Then, the Ardent Revolution came, and now, we smile because it’s better not to let the archduke see you frown.”

“If these people are pretending, they’re pretty good at it,” Amber noted.

“Everyone’s a good enough liar here given enough time, and to be frank, not an insignificant number of us were more than happy to bend a knee to a tyrant’s rule. Besides, we’re in the inner districts where the landed gentry live and play. Unsightly suffering is swept to the outer neighborhoods, or if you’re really unlucky, the Deep expansions. Be glad you’re not anywhere near those hellholes.”

A soldier in solid black marched by, twirling a slick baton as he went. Dino nodded politely at the man as he gently clasped Amber’s elbow and leaned to her ear. “Those are blackjackets. They serve the archduke. Always be kind to them. Always be polite. Always do what they say.”

Amber slowed, her eyes searching the passing gazes. “You said everyone who’s died comes here?”