“Hold on. Give him a minute,” Taeral replied, a smile testing his lips.

“Killing who, exactly?” Sidyan asked Bym.

“Does it matter? I’m dead,” Bym said, sullen and grave and not at all happy with this ending.

“It matters to me,” Sidyan replied.

“Will it change where you take me? What is there beyond death? What will happen to me?”

“It depends entirely on your honesty, Bym. So, tell me… Who did you kill?” Sidyan insisted, his tone cold and flat. He definitely wasn’t playing around.

After a short hesitation, Bym sighed deeply. “My sister. Her friend. Her friend’s friend. My aunt. My mother…”

Bile rose up in my throat. I already loathed him. But what more could be done, given how he’d died here? Sidyan took a deep breath, unrelenting in his questioning. “Why did you kill them, Bym? Did you kill them all at once?”

Bym shook his head. “I took my time. I… I… Does it really matter?”

Sidyan touched him with his scythe. As soon as the blade made contact with Bym’s shoulder, the wretched soul bared it all as if the time of his confession was running out, and he needed, he desperately needed to tell it all.

“I reveled in each kill. It started with my sister, years ago, because I was curious what it would be like to take a life,” Bym said. “I loved it. I loved watching the life drain from her eyes. Knowing that I had that power. A month later, I took her friend. I took advantage of her grieving, and I slit her throat, slowly. Then another girl, and another… One day, I was itching for another kill. I’d gotten away with so many. I was so strong, so powerful… I don’t know what happened. My mother said something… something that upset me, and I killed her, too.”

“How were you caught?” Sidyan asked quietly, watching the other Reapers, a muscle ticking in his sharp jaw.

“My father walked in. Killing my mother had not been planned. It was impulse. Pure impulse. I lost control, I wasn’t careful.”

“Do you regret murdering any of them?”

Bym shook his head. “No. I would do it all over again if I could. When the earth started shaking, I thought this was my chance to escape, so I could keep slitting throats and feeding on the cries of these women begging for my mercy.” He gasped, his eyes wide with shock. “Why am I telling you all this?!”

“Because I made you tell the truth,” Sidyan said. “Come now, Bym. It’s time for you to move on,” he added, putting an arm around the spirit’s shoulders.

“Where… Where are we going?” Bym asked. “Is there a hell? Am I going to hell?”

It didn’t come as a surprise that other civilizations believed in afterlife punishment for their deeds. The Eritopians had similar faiths, as did some of the Nerakians and inhabitants of other planets I’d visited before the Exiled Maras had trapped me. It was a recurring idea across the In-Between that our actions were punishable by superior forces, one way or another.

The pixies, my species, believed that the universe gave back what you put into it. If you murdered, you would lose someone to murder, if not your own life. If you lied, then someone would lie to you, and so on. I remembered Amelia mentioning the earthly concept of karma, which was eerily similar to ours.

“What is beyond death cannot be quantified in such terms,” Sidyan said to Bym. “The universe does not sit in judgment of the living.”

That somehow seemed to reassure Bym, and we followed them farther away from the other Reapers. We passed a tall and thick cluster of red, jagged rocks, until no one else was in sight. I nearly screamed when a small ghoulish-looking creature emerged from behind one of the stones.

Taeral squeezed my arm in a bid to reassure me, and I held my breath.

Bym was downright confused, not that I could blame him. “What’s happening?”

“But I can judge you, and I can also feed a friend while I’m at it,” Sidyan replied, and pushed Bym forward. The spirit stumbled and fell, whimpering.

The ghoulish creature was half my size, with more humanoid features than most of its kind. Most of the hair had fallen, but what was left was long and black and silky. There were feminine lines blurred by the almost-transparent skin, muscles still twitching and vessels still filled with flowing red blood. “What the hell is that?” I asked.

“It’s a ghoul,” Taeral said. “Though unlike anything I’ve seen before. To be fair, I’ve only seen the meat-eaters from Herbert’s crew… I think this one might be an original ghoul, like the ones from Nevertide. But it’s pretty small.”

“No… Stay away from me!” Bym screamed, but to no avail. The ghoul pounced and tore him apart, eating every thread of his soul, its skin glimmering with delight. Its eyes were wide and not all black. I could still see the irises, in which galaxies still shone, much like the Reapers’.

Sidyan didn’t say a word. He just stood there and watched Bym get eaten, until there was nothing left, except for a very contented, purring little ghoul. He seemed satisfied with the outcome, while I struggled to make sense of everything I had just witnessed.

I remembered there were some pretty strict rules about this. On one hand, I honestly didn’t mind watching that monster get eaten by another monster, but, at the same time, I wondered… wasn’t this “illegal” in the world of Reapers?

“It’s showtime,” Taeral muttered, then whispered briefly against Thieron’s blade, revealing us both. “Sidyan! It’s been a while, buddy!”

The Reaper froze, his galaxy eyes wide and filled with horror. The ghoul was equally frightened. It scampered backward and hid behind his long tunic. There was nothing about its behavior to suggest aggression. It was weird, especially when I compared the creature to others of its kind.

“Taeral,” Sidyan managed. “You… What are you doing here? What’s the swamp witch doing here?!”

I figured he knew us without ever having actually met us. The Reaper network of information was wide and practically endless. It didn’t exactly come as a surprise that Sidyan had been so quick to recognize us. But everything about this particular moment was intriguing. We’d caught him doing something terrible, according to the laws of Reapers.

“I figured if I showed my friend what you’ve been up to, she’d have a better understanding of why I’m so sure you’re going to help us,” Taeral said, grinning like the devil. “By the way, feeding a soul to a ghoul. What sort of punishment does that carry?”

Sidyan’s pale face turned red with anger, but he put his scythe away, his hands then balling into tight fists—so tight that the knuckles turned white. The ghoul eyed us warily, after having found a mild sense of safety behind him.

“Don’t worry, Lumi,” Taeral continued when Sidyan didn’t reply. “He cannot hurt us. I’m Death’s protégé. He wouldn’t dare.”

“I wouldn’t, period,” Sidyan hissed. “I can explain this.”

“I’m sure you can, especially since it’s not the first time I’ve seen you do it,” Taeral said. It caught Sidyan’s attention.

“You’ve been following me?”

“Sort of. Gotta thank Thieron for its stealth capabilities. I thought I might learn a few more Reaper tricks from you,” Taeral replied. “But then I saw you feeding a murderous incubus to your pet ghoul earlier this year, and I figured I could learn more about you instead. Lo and behold, we stand here today, about to make a deal.”

Sidyan froze, his brows drawn into a deep frown. I realized then exactly how I was going to reach Visio without anyone knowing. I was going to ride the cosmic wings of a Reaper who would have no choice but to help us, since Taeral was about to blackmail him regarding his ghoul.

“Who is the creature?” I asked, nodding at it.

“Her name is Maya,” Sidyan retorted. “And none of this is her fault!”

Taeral cocked his head to the side. “She ate a soul to become this, didn’t she? Is she an original ghoul? Pre-meat-eating stage?”

“She died young, and she had been tapped to become a Reaper. And yes, she’s an original ghoul, though obviously tiny, given the young age at which she passed.” Sidyan sighed. “She didn’t fully understand what it was all about at the time. I took her under my tutelage. I tried… I tried to help her, but she strayed. She got in with the wrong crowd.”

“Other ghouls?” I replied.

Sidyan nodded briefly. “By the time I found her again, she was all alone and nearly torn to shreds. They fooled her into eating a soul, and then they made fun of her. They bullied her. They treated her like garbage, and she nearly got herself killed by another Reaper. I’ve been keeping her close since. Once a year or so, though sometimes sooner, I find her a soul to eat. She’s young as a ghoul, so she’s got an appetite. But I never feed her an innocent. She only eats murderers.”

The way Maya had been turned reminded me of Herbert. I had a feeling that a lot of these ghouls ended up in such predicaments by trusting the wrong people. I crossed my arms. “So you’re judging people, then. Like you said to Bym earlier. Do you think that’s fair?”

“It’s not. But it’s the best I can do to keep Maya safe. She’s a good soul. She just fell in with the wrong crowd. She didn’t even belong as a Reaper… far too young to be able to embrace a near-eternity helping others cross over. What happened to her wasn’t fair. And here we are, trying our best to stay out of everyone’s way.”

“Won’t anyone notice Bym’s gone?” Taeral asked.