"It's a lot to take in, but I'm doing okay."
He nods and leads me into the room.
My mouth falls open as I take everything in. The only thing in the room is a single door. Juliet and Tobias are nowhere to be found.
"What do we do now?" I ask, eyeing the door suspiciously.
"We go through the door."
"Is it safe?"
"It's how we get from the academy to the nearest town quickly. It's not normal for reapers to use doors like this. I think they had a witch come in and create it so they could build the academy around the grove without impacting our ability to go back and forth to practice reaping. It's a neat trick, even if it is a bit freaky."
"At least I'm not the only one who feels that way. What should I expect when I step in?"
"You'll tingle, and then you'll step out in town. Just trust yourself. You can't get lost, it only goes to one place."
I nod. "All right, then. Let's do this."
I don't wait for him to say anything and step towards the door. I'm nervous about this, but I trust my friends to be pointing me in the right direction. I resettle my scythe so it fits better and take a deep breath.
Here goes nothing.
I step through the door, a tingling sensation taking over my whole body. It's not unpleasant, but I am looking forward to stepping out the other side.
My feet land on tarmac and the sensation of the magic disappears almost instantly. I glance around, only half surprised to find I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. No one pays any attention to me as they go about their business.
"How did you find it?" Mathias asks as he joins me.
"Tingly. It was fun."
He chuckles. "That's a much better reaction than I had the first time I went through the door."
"Oh? What happened?"
"I threw up in that bush." He points to the shrubbery in question.
"Ah. Not the best look."
"No. Tobias teased me mercilessly for weeks. I was lucky I got to hide out in the Sakura common room while he wasn't there."
"So he only started spending time there once he started dating Juliet?" I ask.
He nods. "And it was a long time coming. The two of them were dancing around one another right up until the Grove Captain competition when they finally did something about it."
"That sounds like just about every teenage relationship I've ever witnessed."
"Me too."
"You guys, over here!" Tobias calls from across the road.
"They must have found something," Mathias says.
"That quickly?"
"How many ghosts have you seen in your life?" he asks in the same understanding tone he uses to talk to me about things he knows I'm clueless about.
"A lot."
"Then that's why they've found something already."
"That makes sense." I suppose I've never really thought about ghosts as a potential job to do before, but now I think about it, that makes sense. As reapers we're supposed to help people find peace and move on.
People being ghosts.
We cross the road to join Mathias' twin.
"There's a house down here with a new ghost. Young woman in her early twenties. Juliet is seeing if the husband will talk to us," Tobias says.
"You already know she's married?" Have I missed something about how he's found out?
Tobias taps his hand. "Wedding ring."
I've never noticed details like that about ghosts before. I should pay more attention. Then again, up until Agatha, I've spent my entire life trying to avoid ghosts, not study them in great detail.
"We can go inside and interview him," Juliet says once we're in front of the small terraced house with a red door. "Why don't Tobias and I talk to the husband while the two of you try and see if the ghost will talk? If we're lucky, she'll know why she's stuck here and this will be an easy one."
"And if we're unlucky?" I ask.
"Then we'll have more work on our hands, but it isn't anything we can't handle." She flashes me a reassuring smile, one that's probably very genuine. She's one of the best reapers at the academy, she doesn't have that title by chance.
"All right, let's get on with this," Tobias says.
The inside of the house matches the outside. It's seen better days, but is clearly well cared for and kept by someone house proud. Is it the living husband or the dead wife responsible for this?
That probably isn't the kind of thing I'm ever going to find out.
We enter a medium-sized kitchen. There's a pile of dishes in the sink that answers my question about which of the two is responsible for keeping the place clean. Definitely the wife, and things have changed since she died.
A ghost hangs in the middle of the room, a sorrowful expression on her face. I suppose that makes sense if she's died recently.
"Hello, I'm Daniel," the husband says, drawing my attention to him. "Thank you for coming. I didn't realise my wife was still here."
I resist the urge to narrow my eyes at the lack of misery in his voice, but people grieve in different ways and I need to learn to recognise that.
"It's no problem," Juliet responds. "Where would you like to talk?"
"Here is fine." He throws a spoon into the sink but misses, the metal clattering against the surface and skidding to the floor.
He ignores it and pulls out one of the dining room chairs to sit down.
The ghost huffs, glowering at her husband as if he's done something truly heinous rather than not putting a spoon in the sink.
"Do you think she hates him?" I ask Mathias in a whisper.
He shrugs. "She might not. Nobody knows how the dead hold grudges, Syxe."
"Her ghost is in the other room, we can go ask her," I suggest.
"You can. I can't hear a word she says. It's all weird noise to me."
"Oh. Sorry. I forgot."
"It's fine. It takes a while to get used to but you will."
"So, can we go ask her? Or should I wait for Tobias to go do it once they're done talking to the husband?" I never realised reapers did this part of after-death care too.
"Why not? We need to find out why she's sticking around anyway so we can do something about it. That's our job before we can reap her," Mathias says.
"What if we can't do anything about why she's here?"
"Then we fill out the forms with all the information we have and submit it to the academy administration who will kick it up to the Reaper Guard, or whoever else is able to take care of it."
"What you're saying is that everyone is using teenage students to do the grunt work," I point out.
"You're not wrong. But it's a good way to learn what we need to do for when we are the people getting the bigger cases."
"True." I head to the other room, strangely confident considering this is only the second time in my life I purposefully want to strike up a conversation with a ghost. I've spent so much time trying to avoid it that it's almost strange to think I'm about to do it.
The living room is much the same as the rest of the house, with nothing truly remarkable about it. A small pile of plates sits on the side table next to the sofa, only reinforcing it's Daniel who is the messier one.
The mournful woman hangs in the air, somehow seeming duller than the rest of the ghosts I've seen. It's easy to tell she's upset, but without asking her, it's difficult to know what's on her mind.
Which is what we're here for. To find out and do something about it. I like the way knowing that makes me feel. I want to help, it gives me a purpose I didn't know I had.
"Hello," I say with an awkward wave.
"Who are you?" the woman responds, her voice full of the same sadness her entire vibe is giving off. I wish I could do something about it.
"My name is Syxe, I'm a reaper." The words are foreign on my tongue, but they feel right. This is who I am and what I'm meant to be. "What's your name?"
"Denise."
I wait for a moment to see if she'll elaborate on that, but she do
esn't.
"We're here to ask you if there's something that's keeping you in this plane." I resist the urge to glance back at Mathias to check I'm doing this right. He won't even be able to answer that if he can't hear what she's saying.
"He killed me."
My eyes widen until I school my face in a reminder I'm supposed to be the professional in this situation. "Who did?"
"He did," she repeats as if it will make more sense the second time.
"I'm not sure who you're talking about," I admit. "Does he have a name?"
"I can't tell you it."
"Okay, will you let me talk to my partner for a moment?"
She nods.
I turn to Mathias. "How much did you hear?"
"None of it. I can't understand ghosts, or seers when they're talking to ghosts."
I frown, not having realised that's the case. "Ah. Okay. Well, she said someone killed her but she won't give me the name. She says she can't."
"That's common. But it's okay." He turns to face the ghost. "We're going to help work out what's keeping you here," he promises her.
"I thought you couldn't communicate with ghosts?"
"I can't, but they can hear and understand me," he explains. "What's her name?"
"Denise."
"We're going to help in any way we can, Denise," Mathias promises. "We'll be back when we have information for you."
"Tell him thank you," Denise says to me.
"She says thanks," I repeat.
"You're welcome," he says. "But we should go and check on the others and see if they've found out anything useful."
"Do you think they have?" I ask.
"No idea. But there's only one way to find out."
He isn't wrong about that. I'm still not sure exactly how all of this works, or what we're supposed to do next, but with the other three reapers here to help me through the process, I'm positive I'll be just fine.
Chapter Ten
"Are we really going to the library?" I ask as we approach the familiar beige building. I've spent a lot of time within these walls over the years, and it's strange to think this is where reaper business is taking us.
"Of course. They have access to all the records we need," Mathias responds.
"I just assumed there'd be some kind of reaper system for this."
"Except we're not dealing with the ghosts of reapers, they're humans. The best place to find information about them is on the human-built systems."
"When you say it like that, it makes a lot of sense," I admit. "Though it's still a little bit disappointing."
"Juliet and Tobias' job is even less glamorous," he assures me.
"Are you trying to tell me that there isn't any magic involved in this?"
Mathias chuckles. "Talking to ghosts doesn't count as magic?"
"Oh. I hadn't considered that. I guess I've always been able to do it so I've never thought of it as particularly magical."
The lack of magic does seem to make carrying around the heavy scythe somewhat useless. Though I'm guessing not all of the problems discovered by reapers include this much work. I'm sure most situations are like the one with Agatha where it's as simple as talking to the ghost and doing what they need straight away so they can move on. There's probably a bit more magic in those situations than in this one.
"We need to leave our scythes at the front desk," Mathias says as we enter the library.
"That makes sense." But I don't like it. I may not have owned a scythe for longer than a few hours, but I'm already growing attached to it.
"It's fine, the librarian is used to it."
"That explains why I've never seen any reapers here." If they leave their scythes at the front desk, they'll just look like everyday humans and anyone not in the know will be none the wiser.
"You've probably seen lots without realising it."
"That's what I assumed."
We approach the front desk where a portly woman sits. A broad smile spreads over my face as I recognise her. It's barely been a week since I was last here, but somehow, it feels longer. Perhaps because so much has happened in that time.
"Hi, Lisa," I say, waving awkwardly.
"Syxe, how are you? I was saying to Rita earlier that we haven't seen you in a few days," she responds.
"I'm good, thanks. I've been getting settled at Scythe Grove." I gesture to the scythe on my back by way of explanation.
Her eyes widen. "I had no idea you were a reaper."
"Neither did I. It was a bit of a surprise."
Mathias slips off his scythe and hands it to Lisa who gets to her feet to take it from him. I do the same, realising I'm holding up the situation.
"I actually have a letter for you," Lisa says. "Let me grab it as I put these away." She lifts our scythes through to the backroom.
"A letter?" Who could be writing to me? I don't think I know anyone who would do that. I wrote a letter to the Shadow Association explaining where I was and how they could reach me, if they really needed me, they'd have sent something there.
"Here you go." Lisa hands me a small white envelope.
"Thank you."
"I'll see you in a bit. Good luck finding whatever it is you need," she says, waving us through to the main part of the library.
"Who is that from?" Mathias asks once it's just the two of us again.
"No idea." I flip it open, my heart sinking at the circular stamp with the letter S inside it, a shadowy one right behind it.
I was wrong about the Association. They haven't gone about things the way I thought they would. For some reason, that makes me more uncomfortable than it should.
"Would you mind setting us up at one of the computers while I have a moment?" My voice is thick, the sound distorted by the lump in my throat.
He hesitates for a moment, clearly not wanting to leave me alone to deal with whatever this is.
"Please?"
"Of course." He still doesn't seem convinced, but he heads over to the line of computers at the far end of the room and takes a seat. He's still keeping an eye on me, but it's enough privacy for what I need.
I tear open the envelope, not being particularly careful about its contents. The neat type of the letter makes it particularly impersonal, but that's something I've come to expect from the place I used to call home.
Syxe,
Your presence is required for the Shadow Oath ceremony on the fifth of next month. Your enrollment at Scythe Grove Academy will come to an end when you partake in it.
This is not a request.
The Shadow Association
My whole body turns cold as the words sink in. I thought enrolling at the academy would be my ticket out of the controlling environment of the Association, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not sure I understand why they want someone who clearly doesn't want to be a part of whatever it is they have going on. If I was running something like that, I wouldn't want someone who doesn't want to be there.
I clench my fist, ignoring the crinkling of the page as it scrunches up. I don't know what I'm going to do about it. I don't want to go to the Shadow Oath ceremony. I certainly don't want to take it. I'm still completely clueless about what it is. Maybe if the Association had been more forthcoming about that, I wouldn't have been so eager to leave.
Who am I kidding? A chance to discover who I am while making an actual difference to people would probably have been enough to pull me away anyway. And that's what the academy offers me. A life I never thought would be possible.
I'm not going to let this change that.
I shove the letter in my pocket and make my way over to where Mathias is already set up.
"Is everything okay?" he asks.
"Fine." I force a smile.
The expression on his face tells me how little he believes me, but he doesn't say anything about that.
I'm not sure why I don't want to tell him about the contents of the letter, especially when he can probably help me deal with the situation. But it feels bet
ter to keep it to myself.
"What do we do now?" I point to the computer to make it clear I mean about Denise.
"We look up the records and find out everything there is to know about Denise and Daniel. We have their names, dates of birth, and address, which should be enough to get what we need."
"Isn't it strange that people willingly give up that information to teenagers?" It doesn't exactly seem like the most sensible thing to do.
"People are strange when it comes to the death of a loved one. And everyone knows what reapers do. They'll all know someone who knows someone who has been reaped. It helps with the trust factor."
"True. But it still seems like it'd be something very easy to take advantage of." And that's not a good thing. I hate the idea of someone scamming the bereaved.
"Then we need to make it our mission to ensure people don't lose faith in the system."
"That's a good way to look at it." And I guess it makes sense. The only person's actions I can control are my own. "Let's get on with this, hopefully then we'll be able to help Denise."
He nods and types into the computer, pulling up several programs at once. It all looks very complicated, but I'm sure he'll explain it with an intense amount of patience like he has everything else.
With his help, I'm sure I can become the best reaper I possibly can.
Chapter Eleven
I lie back on my bed and stare up at the ceiling, only just managing to resist the urge to reread the letter again. The words are already seared into my brain, I don't need to go through them again.
Someone knocks on my door, breaking through my haze. I contemplate ignoring them and keeping to myself, but that isn't fair of me. My friends have all been so patient and caring, I don't want to turn away from them when they've been doing so much for me.
"Come in," I call.
The lock clicks, reminding me that I put the catch on when I came into the room earlier. I keep forgetting the amount of privacy I have here.
"Sorry, I'm coming." I roll off the bed and pad over to the door.
I unlock it and pull it open, revealing Juliet standing on the other side with a large ice cream tub in one hand and a pair of spoons in the other.
Shadow Seer (Scythe Grove Academy Book 1) Page 5