Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Louhi has taken over Tuoni’s Shadow Self, Sarvi says after a moment. But where is Tuoni? And how does Hanna not know?
I get out of my chair and join Sarvi at the window. “I believe my father is still in Inmost with Hanna. I don’t think that’s Hanna at all. Perhaps it’s another Shadow Self Louhi conjured from her own magic.”
Or perhaps…something—or someone—worse.
A chill runs through me. “We have to go back to Inmost.”
Sarvi eyes me sharply. No. I will go back to Inmost. I am quick. Both of us going would rouse suspicion. If your mother truly is impersonating the king, she’ll be paying far more attention to you than to me.
“If something has happened to him, do you think you’d be able to help?” I ask gently.
Sarvi thinks about that for a moment. I’ll pay Tapio a visit since he’s already suspicious, see if he’s learned anything from the other gods. Something like this, perhaps it’s better not to do anything alone.
They’re right about that.
We have no idea what we’re up against.
Chapter 12
Death
The Secretive Man
“I’ve missed a year,” Hanna says breathlessly, staring down at her phone. I have a hard time understanding what she means; the sight of the phone in her hands is so foreign to me that it feels like I’m walking inside a film, that I’m still back at Shadow’s End watching something, and I’m not really here.
“You missed a year?” I repeat, shifting in my seat beside her on the bench at the train station. I’m constantly aware of how much space I’m taking up in this world. So is everyone else, it seems. People stare at me in barely disguised awe, a mixture of wonder and fear. I don’t know if the fear is because I look strange to them, darker skinned with silver lines, long hair, furs draped around my shoulders, which don’t seem to be the fashion here, plus my height and stature. Or is it because they instinctively know that I am Death? Perhaps not the one that comes for them, but the one that welcomes them. Do they know, deep down, that I am their king when they go to the afterlife?
If only I had access to the Library of the Veils right now. I could look inside the books of their lives and learn something about each and every one of them.
“Yeah,” Hanna says, her voice dull now, tapping at the screen on her phone. “My father’s funeral was in February, and now, it’s the first week of January.”
“I told you that time moves differently on the other side. To be honest, I’m surprised it’s only been a year and not more. Does that affect anything with your father?” I pause, weighing my next words. “Or does it more affect your life here?”
The one you could go back to. The one I would be powerless to keep you from returning to.
She doesn’t answer me, just keeps reading something with a slowly growing look of horror on her face. Finally, she puts the phone in her coat pocket and cradles the big bag in her lap. “People think I’ve gone missing,” she whispers, and I notice her eyes growing wet. “People say I was last seen getting off the plane in Ivalo. There was a search party for me, for my father. He hasn’t been seen either.” She looks at me. “Tuoni, everyone thinks I’m dead. They think my father is dead too. How can I find him if we’re both ghosts?”
This is affecting her greatly; I can see that. I want to ask her why it matters if everyone thinks she’s dead—after all, is there not a great honor in death?—but I don’t think she’d like that question.
“As you know, your father is not dead,” I tell her. “We would know if he had entered Tuonela again, so that means he is alive somewhere.”
“But he hasn’t come forward. He hasn’t been seen.”
“Then he must be in hiding.”
“Which makes him harder to find.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. We haven’t tried yet. Don’t let your mind get away from you before we’ve even started.”
“Ugh, my poor mother,” she says, putting her head in her hands, her long, messy hair spilling over her. “She thinks I’m dead. She thinks she lost her only child.”
“She is not your real mother, though.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she cries, her voice muffled.
I think about that for a moment. “But if there is no body to be found, then how can they say you are dead? I know enough that your body stays behind in this world while your second self, your soul, steps into my Underworld.”
“People give up hope after a year. They lose interest when they become a cold case. Well, except for the people who watch the cold case shows.”
“Perhaps you will be on a cold case show then.”