Skye is dead.
How she perished is a mystery. All she knows is that she is trapped in After, a makeshift city of souls surrounded by infinite darkness and terrifying monsters that tear ghosts apart.
But while all other ghosts accept the eternity of...
There was no containing my gasp of awe at the palace's interior. The people of After had nothing unless they were scavengers, or bartered with scavengers. The king's home, however, was nearly filled floor to ceiling with treasures. Webb and I crept past mountains of sparkling gems and marble statues. The king was a hoarder of all things beautiful, and everything glittered in the red glow cast from the stained glass canopy above. I could see now that the veins of metal supporting the uncountable panels of rose-hued glass were cast in the shape of twirling and twisting thorny vines.
All the winding vines met at the eye of the glass canopy, from which hung an enormous chandelier of lux. I stood in its shadow, gaping up at the snarl of twisting and curling vermillion spires. It was like a supernova, forever frozen at the point of explosion. The chain that held it from the canopy creaked as if barely able to hold its weight.
Our boots squeaked on the mosaic tile floor that was bathed in the ambient light of the artificial sun. Webb gawked at the fruits of centuries of scavenging the Dark. The other ghost's hand fell from his weapon and the two of us exchanged grins.
"Let's go scavenging, Webbington," I told him.
"Great. Let's make this quick." Webb rubbed his hands together. "In and out, right?"
We wandered into an entire city constructed of nothing but colossal bookshelves sagging under the weight of more books than any person could ever read in several hundred lifetimes. I supposed that with Blackburne being the first ghost and all, of course, he'd probably read them all cover to cover. Twice even. "This could be a good place to start."
Webb fanned through pages of of a tome before tossing away over his shoulder, looking bored. "Nah. Nothing interesting here. Not like Vale's emo poetry. Remind me to show you where she hides it. It's haunting stuff."
"Yeah...Vale." My stomach lurched. "We're going to keep this between us, right?"
"Absolutely," Webb said. "This is coming to the second grave with me because she will definitely kill us for this."
I pulled a book from the shelf, revealing a gap—an eyehole to the other side of the shelf. I went still as one of the marble statues when someone else shuffled past the gap on the other side. The person paused, back turned to me and head swiveling as if he'd heard the breath I let out. I immediately ducked for cover and hissed, "Shit!" I yanked a confused Webb down to the floor beside me.
The other hollow turned into the cluttered alleyway of shelves we hid in. A shadow passed over us as a man, tall and rail thin and with a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to his back, prowled by our hiding place. I recognized him as one of Blackburne's echelon. A few paces away, another much larger hollow man patrolled the chamber.
Good news, Vale probably wouldn't kill us. Bad news, these guys would surely do it for her.
"Crap," Webb whispered to me when the hollows were out of earshot. "Looks like Inky and Blinky aren't out scavenging with the rest of the fan club."
"Who?"
"Oh. Yeah." Webb wrapped a coil of hair around a finger as he explained. "So, excluding Reynard, Blackburne's second-in-command and number one ass-kissing fanboy, Blackburne's personal echelon has a high turnover rate."
"Crow?"
"Crow. Vale and I never bother to learn their names. We call the current line-up Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde."
"Cute."
"Right? So, Inky's quick, but he's kinda scrawny. I think we could take him if we had to. But Blinky is, um..."
Webb and I shrank down even farther behind the statue as the larger of the two hollows lumbered past. The hulking monster of a hollow whistled a jaunty tune as he listlessly swung a flanged mace that was almost as large as I was without a care. Webb sucked air through his teeth. "Well, let's not get caught by Blinky."
Beyond the brutish hollow and his vicious mace, I noticed a doorway on the far side of the atrium. I gave Webb a nudge and gestured to our escape. He nodded, and we both waited, not breathing, until both ghosts had their backs turned and were a good enough distance away on the other side of the alley. I led the way with Webb close behind. We cleared the slum of bookshelves. Now we were out in the open. There were fewer treasures to hide behind at this side of the atrium. Should Inky or Blinky spy us, we had no place to hide.
There was a clatter of falling debris behind us. Then the flutter of wings. I looked backward into the shelves and saw a crow take flight, startled out of hiding by the other two ghosts.
"Goddamned crows!" Inky called out. Within a heartbeat, he nocked an arrow in his bow and loosed it. A streak of red shot through the air. The crow screamed when the lux-tipped arrow pierced clean through its chest. It crashed to the floor in a burst of feathers and dust.
Right in front of Webb and me.
Inky and Blinky stammered at the sight of us. Blinky charged with a bellow, weapon at the ready. Inky nocked another arrow.
I grabbed Webb by the sleeve and gunned for the doorway. There was a whistle of wind. We yelled and ducked as an arrow shot by.
I was just about to cross the threshold when the hollow behind me dug his heels into the floor, forcing us both to a sudden stop. I turned back to him. Webb drew his sword.
I tugged on his sleeve. "Webb, don't fight them!"
The hollow boy blew a strand of hair out of his face in exasperation. "Duh. I'm not that stupid." He scowled at the charging ghosts and raised his sword. "This better be worth it, Skye." He brought his sword down on a cable affixed to the wall beside the doorway and severed it. The freed cable snaked up the length of the wall, all the way to the final tether at the ceiling's apex.
My heart rose to my throat.
The massive chandelier fell from the canopy, dropping several stories in a matter of heartbeats, about to crush us all.
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I wait in intermission I remove inhibition I don't speak, nobody's listenin' It's not safe to seek the attention I won't sink, I won't wallow In this dream that I have borrowed So don't lead, I won't follow There's no sense in waiting for tomorrow 'Cause I'm hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow
