Page 31 of The Devil In Blue
“Then why bring me here?” I said. “This place isn’t meant for humans. Living humans, I mean.”
“It’s not really meant for the dead, either.”
“Precisely. I know what the half-world is. It’s the place in between.” I looked past him toward the misty, dark maze. “Is that place filled with souls?”
His slow nod answered that question. “They will wander for a long time, most of them. Until they either deal with their pain or let it devour them.”
“What happens then?”
“Then, they leave through the door they create. There’s no telling what’s on the other side. Only they know.”
I wondered what my door would look like. Would it be built from my pain? Hatred? Hope? I wanted to know so badly that I almost moved toward that dark, ominous maze entrance, but Rune was in my way and something told me he wouldn’t let me find out.
“What were you doing in there?” I asked softly.
“Helping.”
“But you said souls must do it on their own.”
“I don’t show them the way. I simply light candles so they can better find it themselves.” He sighed heavily. “The maze gets full and the songs of the damned incessant.”
I strained to hear what he was talking about and barely even heard whispers.
“I can’t hear it,” I said.
“Lucky you.”
His bored tone drew my interest. I stared at his face, stricken once more by how handsome it was. He barely looked real. He was a painting in a book. A figure in my dreams. But he’d also wounded me.
He was the man I danced with at the masquerade. Even then I sensed something odd about him. Something uncomfortable and overpowering.
“Why did you crush my necklace?” I whispered, uncertain why I’d spoken the question aloud.
Rune tilted his head like he was as confused as I was.
“Why ask such a foolish question when you should be asking more important things?”
“I’ve already asked you the important questions. You nearly killed me over them.”
He blinked like the statement had hit him in the gut. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect to see any hint of regret in him, but I did. For a split second, it darted over his expression and was immediately cut with tension.
“I refuse to believe you don’t remember,” he muttered. “But it would be too cruel of you to fabricate a lie so powerful that you believe it. And if I wanted you dead, you’d already be in that Labyrinth with the rest of the damned. Again.”
“I haven’t fabricated anything. I cannot be whoever it is that you think I am.”
“Then who are you?”
“I told you.”
He stepped forward, invading my space. I wanted to back away, but Lucien had taught me never to shy from his touch and I suppose that lesson was what kept me grounded. I stood firm and let him get close, even if it made my muscles seize.
“You told me lies,” he hissed.
“They were not lies.” I paused a moment, trying to bite my tongue, but something about Rune made me want to speak up. To challenge his words. “Do I look like her? Is that what this is about?” He hissed and started to pace, scrubbing his face with his hands. “Whoever this woman is that you think I am, do I look like her? Am I being used to fulfill some vengeance? Some fantasy?”
“You looknothinglike her,” he said bitterly, eyeing me with the same disdain I saw in the dining hall. “There’s not a single hint of blue in your eyes. There isn’t even…”
He trailed off.
