Afterlife (Second Eden #1)

by Aaron Burdett

  Dino eyed her from behind the trail of steam rising between them. “Maybe. How long ago did he die?”

  Amber cupped the hot tea and inhaled its rich aroma. She took a sip, drinking in Dino as much as her tea. “Around ten years.”

  He frowned and tapped the table. “Really? Oddly coincidental.”

  “Why?” Amber set the cup on the table. “What happened ten years ago?”

  “The Ardent Revolution happened. It was a dangerous time to be a new soul in Afterlife.”

  Amber swallowed the lump in her throat. For a moment, she saw something dark in his eyes, a deep, angry storm swirling in those pools that held so much more than he would ever say. The moment vanished, and the brooding darkness glittered above a sanitized smile. “It might be wise to teach you a thing or two before we go pay the Census Master a visit, just in case someone like me comes along and tries to take you where you don’t want to go. Think you could throw a punch?”

  “Depends whether or not your jaw’s catching it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The Wraith

  Bentley leaned against the boxing ring, looking Amber up and down. “You’re not in the Fool’s Errand, are you?”

  “No, I’m not,” Amber replied, not sure whether it was a compliment or an insult.

  Dino smirked, brushing his hand through his hair. Amber frowned at the movement. Jason combed his hair with his fingers like that. She wondered if he knew she was gone, if anyone did. If Ms. Flannery dropped by in the morning, she would probably discover the empty house with its kitchen thrown in chaos and no sign of the girl who lived there.

  “There’s no better wraith in the Errand than Bentley Diya,” Dino said.

  The man called Bentley inspected Amber. He was short and the kind of dark of a rich coffee freshly brewed with eyes that matched perfectly. Sinewy muscles rolled like steel cables beneath his smooth skin with each slight movement he made. He kept his head perfectly shaven and polished to a shine and wore a pinstripe vest with gold buttons, dark pants, and black combat boots knotted tightly up his shins.

  Bentley gripped one of the ring’s bands and threaded the slick bulges of his shoulders through, hopping spryly to the concrete floor of the cavernous warehouse in the district Dino referred to as the Smoke Quarter. Other boxing rings dotted the dusty floor while punching bags hung from chains and sparring matts and free weights filled the spaces between. The room smelled of sweat and the stink of warm bodies and was crowded with the men and women of the Fool’s Errand engaged in mock combat or furious exercises.

  “So....” Bentley tapped Amber’s shoulder, bringing her attention back to him. “She’s the special case?”

  Dino nodded. “This is the one.”

  Bentley circled her like a lion around a wounded gazelle. His dark eyes drank her in. His smile hungered. “I know quite a few fools who’d love a chance to meet the girl who tossed Dino Cardona into a wall. Some of ‘em want to fight you. Most of them want to thank you. Myself? I want to see what I’m working with. Get in the ring.”

  Amber bit her lip, suddenly aware of each and every person in the enormous room looking her way. Already some of the others in the warehouse had slowed or altogether stopped their fights or dropped their weights. Their eyes pressed on Amber as they edged closer to Bentley’s ring.

  “Go on,” Dino said. “You afraid?”

  Amber shot him a look and stepped confidently into the ring. The air in the warehouse warmed. She wriggled her fingers at her side and walked awkwardly to the center as the mat bounced beneath her weight. She wriggled her toes, wedged as they were in the boots, and looked to Bentley. “Isn’t there something I can wear that’s not boots and a dress? This isn’t really what I’d pick to fight in.”

  Bentley sprang from the ground, flipping over the ring’s bands and landing before Amber. “You won’t get that luxury in the city. If you dress like a soldier, then the blackjackets will treat you like one. Our strength lies in our ability to blend, so you’ll need to learn how to slink from a crowd, strike, and melt away in seconds. Now, show me what you got.”

  Dino backed away from the ring, leaning on a tall steel support with a wide, smug grin stretching up his cheeks. The look sent Amber’s own cheeks blazing. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Come at me,” Bentley said, raising his fists.

  By then, the crowd had formed a tight wall several heads deep. Their whispers echoed off the brick and steel of the dusty building. Amber stepped back. She raised her fists, but no matter how hard she squeezed, they just didn’t feel tight. “I’ve never been in a fight before. I don’t know how to start.”

  “Start by swinging,” he said.

  Amber punched. Bentley laughed and sidestepped so quickly Amber stumbled forward and nearly fell flat on her face. She ran into the bands, glaring at Dino as his brow arched. You can do better, his expression said.

  She slapped the bands and spun around. Bentley was an inch from her, her own shocked face reflecting in the dark brown of his eyes. His hand latched onto her arm and spun her around, launching her to the other side of the ring.

  Amber hit the bands, her back lighting on fire as she crashed to her knees. Some of the people watching chuckled. She stared at the ground, then hit the mat with a fist and wobbled to her feet.

  Bentley balanced high on a corner post, watching her with a closed-lip smile. Amber brushed her hair back and raised her fists. Bentley’s lips parted, and he flashed his alabaster teeth. He flipped into the air and dove straight down, fist balled into a missile of knuckled fury.

  Amber screamed and leapt aside. He struck the mat and sent her flying into the bands again. She doubled over one and coughed uncontrollably, struggling to her feet. She raised a hand in surrender. “Wait….”

  Bentley’s shadow slipped over her. His boot connected with her jaw, and she spun aside, mouth blazing from pain. Dino appeared in her vision, wincing. A few of the people watching beside him grimaced.

  Amber struggled to remain conscious as her gaze swept over the crowd. A woman with thick braids motioned for her to stand while the short man beside her just shook his head.

  They pity me, Amber thought.

  Bentley’s hand latched onto her shoulder so hard she screamed. In an instant, Amber was shooting toward the rafters.

  “I thought you were a fighter, girl?” He laughed and spread his arms as hers flailed wildly. “Where is the fighter? Not here. Not here!”

  Amber screamed as she plummeted to the ring. Bentley shook his head and opened his arms to catch her. He pivoted, flying backward as she smashed hard against the mat.

  “Oops, I missed,” he said.

  The world spun. Amber’s head throbbed, and her aching body barely obeyed her mind’s commands. She struggled to her hands and knees and looked up. Once again, she saw Dino, leaning against the rusted column. His face was expressionless, his jaw tight, the crowd around him a wall of disappointment at her pathetic showing. He unfolded his arms and stepped toward the ring. “That’s enough, Bentley.”

  Amber clenched her fists. Dino brought her here to humiliate her. Dino wanted everyone to see her get beaten by this man, so she would know her place.

  “You wanted me to teach her,” Bentley said. “This is how a wraith learns, although I doubt she’ll ever make much of one. You had enough today, girl?”

  His shadow once again fell over her. She slapped the mat and rolled aside, barely avoiding his heel as it rocketed down where she once lay. She jumped to her feet and ducked his fist but took another brick of knuckles to her chest.

  Amber gasped, stumbling back into a post. Dino ran beside her, looking up. “Enough, Amber. Stop this.”

  “Isn’t this what you wanted? To see me get my ass handed to me?”

  His jaw tightened again. “No. I didn’t think he’d go this hard.”

  Bentley charged her, crossing the mat in a single terrifying lunge. Amber watched the dark block of his fist zoom toward her. She was cornered wi
th nowhere to run, no way to dodge.

  Amber squeezed her eyes shut and looked to the side, bracing herself for what would come next.

  When no hit came, she cracked an eye open. Bentley’s knuckles lingered a hair from her jaw. His fist loosened, and he dropped his hand. “You’ve got courage, but where’s your anger? A wraith needs anger to throw a punch. You’re a sad little ball of doubt and pity.”

  Amber slumped on the post, her slick palms sliding along the ropes. “I thought you were going to break my jaw.”

  “And I thought you were going to fight me. Dino told me you had the wraith curse. Where is it? Why don’t you use it?”

  “I don’t know how. I thought you were going to teach me, not beat me to death!”

  Bentley tilted his chin down and frowned. He broke eye contact and swatted at the air as he strolled to the center of the ring. “She’s no fighter, Dino.”

  Amber clutched her aching ribs and stumbled after him. “But I can fight. I just didn’t know how it worked, and now—”

  “Listen, girl. A wraith’s power comes from her rage. You want to move fast, punch hard? You got to get angry. You got to let go of hopelessness and pain. You got to embrace the rage and think you can do it all. Why aren’t you getting angry?”

  “Of course I’m angry!” Amber dropped her arm and straightened. “You didn’t even give me a chance!”

  Bentley laughed and spread his arms, circling her like a hawk eyeing a rabbit. “None of us here got chances. Afterlife doesn’t coddle you, girl. You show up with nothing, with no one, and either you make it or you don’t. No one cares because nobody’s your friend or your family. Who’s gonna care about you, huh?” He motioned to Dino. “Him?” He swept his arms toward the crowd. “Them? Nobody’s gonna take you by the hand and show you the easy way out, girl.”

  “Stop calling me girl.”

  “But you are a girl. A little, whiny girl.”

  “I’m not!”

  Bentley blurred as he raced around her. His breath washed across the back of her neck. “Girl.”

  He shoved her. She spun around, but he had already danced behind her.

  “Girl.” Bentley pushed her and laughed.

  Amber swung wildly behind her, but he ducked and pivoted from the sloppy blow. “Girl.”

  His strong hands knocked her forward, and she nearly lost her balance. “Girl.”

  Amber swiped again, but Bentley sidestepped and slapped her cheek. “Girl.”

  “Bentley, stop,” Dino said. “Amber, get down from there. We’ve got work to do.”

  Amber quivered, her heart thrashing against her ribs, her pulse thumping hard in her neck. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She glimpsed Dino as he slipped into the ring to try and bring her down, and it only infuriated her more. This whole brawl was his idea. He knew it would happen. He wanted it to happen.

  Bentley with his wide, mocking grin called her girl over and over again. He danced around her, a furious, terrifying blur of power and speed.

  Amber’s eyes shot open. Her hand fastened on Bentley’s wrist just before his backhand connected. The muscles in his forearm rolled beneath her grip. She squeezed them tighter. Strain creased his brow as he fought her hold, but she kept his hand still.

  “My name is Amber. Not girl,” she said.

  Bentley laughed, throwing his chin back. “Right, right.”

  His foot darted between her feet, kicking out the right leg and hurling her to the mat. He slipped from her grasp and snorted, walking from the ring. “You will be girl to me until you learn to be something more. I feel sorry for you, Dino. Afterlife’s no place for a babysitter.”

  “I can fight!” Amber pounded the mat. “I’m not weak!”

  Bentley flipped onto the floor, shooing the crowd from the ring. “Come back later then and prove it. Learn how to be more than a little girl. Or don’t. Your choice, but now you know what training with Bentley Diya is like, so come ready or don’t come at all.”

  Amber brushed off her dress. She followed Bentley from the ring and did her best to ignore the smirking wraiths returning to their practice.

  “I’ll see you soon,” she said.

  Dino sighed and offered up an apologetic smile. “You gave it the good ‘ole college try, Ms. Blackwood.”

  “You did this on purpose, asshole.” She jabbed her finger at his chest and shot daggers with her eyes. “You enjoyed every second of it, didn’t you?”

  “It was just as painful for me to watch. I expected you’d at least put up some kind of fight. You looked like a rubber doll getting flung around out there. What’s everybody going to think about me now that they saw the girl who kicked Dino’s ass can’t defend herself to save her life?”

  “Maybe next time it should be you and me in the ring,” she said.

  “Only if I’m lucky.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The Iron Council

  Six generals sat around a long, polished table. At its head lorded the archduke in his massive chair, a tufted, black velvet monstrosity framed in elegant ivory. The archduke himself watched the proceedings cloaked in shadow, the only hint he even existed the intermittent sigh of frigid, smoky air emanating from the black that surrounded him.

  Bone Man stood at attention before the Iron Council. Both the box and the agate necklace he recovered from the mortal world sat in a column of light in the table’s center.

  Kamlai Chakma cleared her throat. She tended to speak first in Council meetings, being eager to please the archduke in whatever way she could. The youngest soul on the Iron Council, Kamlai came to Afterlife less than fifty years ago, and in that short time built a respectable martial presence in the eastern districts. Impatient at the lack of upward mobility in the Soul Assembly with its old souls and established houses, she turned to other means to extend her power in the city and gladly committed her forces to the archduke’s cause in return for a place at his table.

  General Chakma was pivotal in crushing the Soul Assembly’s counterattack in those first days of the Ardent Revolution. Her spirits had the Assembly’s forces clawing out each others’ eyes or running screaming to the dusty Deep. Now, her blackjackets prowled the streets, searching for Fool’s Errand scum, or hunted in the Deep, scavenging the endless dunes for buried relics.

  If the general had emotions, she hid them, and while Bone Man never understood why she hated the Assembly with such a passion, he enjoyed seeing her eyes darken at their mention.

  She waved at the artifacts and frowned. “So the necklace and the box are linked, yet one came from the Deep, and one came from the mortal world? How is this possible? Things from the Deep are from the Deep. They have no connection to the living.”

  “Not linked,” General De Luca said. He was a powerful soul, unmatched in the doppelganger curse and so cold in demeanor and tone he could make ice shiver with a glance. “We believe the necklace was used to summon the thief. The thief delivered the box to this mortal girl, and now she bears the curse contained within it. Whatever power the box contained now resides in the mortal’s heart.”

  “So we have a new enemy in our midst,” Kamlai said, her gaze drifting to Bone Man. “Because you could not kill the girl. You have failed the Council, Bone Man, and now the Fool’s Errand may have a weapon it can use against us. A weapon that might even be stronger than you.”

  Bone Man clenched his teeth and looked away from the woman. His eyes settled on the shadows of the archduke’s seat. No others mattered but him, no other voices carried weight.

  General Kelly interlocked his fingers on the table and leaned into the light. “Perhaps this matter isn’t suited for one such as Bone Man. I have many capable phantoms who can scour Afterlife and find her. Dino is a smart man, but I doubt even he could hide a girl like her for very long.” He looked to the archduke and straightened. “Sir, we could have this girl in the Black Palace in days, if that. Give the command, and I’ll divert my forces from the border to the inner districts.”

>   De Luca shook his head, leaning back. “Your phantoms would be no better at finding the Fool’s Errand than my doppelgangers have been. Faye has her now. This requires something different than stealth. If we are to stop whatever weapon the mortal has become, we will require a full-on assault. We should call in our favors with the Scarlet Sinners and identify as many rebel camps as possible, then wipe them out with one grand offensive!”

  “De Luca, for such a talented doppelganger you have a bad habit of speaking like a wraith,” Oscar noted.

  “And that’s so bad, General Kelly?” General Padilla asked. “Let’s not forget it’s my wraiths who keep the city in order.”

  Fabiana Padilla leaned back in her chair, angling toward the rival general. “This city would be in chaos if it were up to slippery phantoms and squirrelly doppelgangers to keep order. Remember that it is my wraiths who keep the gears of our Afterlife turning.”

  “No offense intended, Padilla.” Oscar flashed a smile, tugging at his jacket. “I’m merely

  saying that we can’t trust the Scarlet Sinners. If Wilhelmina learns of the cursed mortal, she’ll have our soldiers scattered throughout every useless corner of the city while she spins her little web to take the fly for herself.

  “And to launch a full-scale assault on the Errand is folly. Faye’s cells are scattered all over the city. Try and root them out all at once and we’ll leave valuable assets exposed, ripe for the Errand or the Sinners or both. Who knows, Wilhelmina might even reach out to Faye for an alliance. We can’t afford that with the chaos going on in the expansion.”

  The other generals muttered their agreement. Taking advantage of the numbers on his side, Oscar pressed the issue. “Bone Man is better suited as an enforcer. Let him hound. I’ll send my phantoms into the streets to find this mortal. They will not rest until she’s chained within the palace walls. It is the only logical solution. Ian, what’s your thought on this?”

  Bone Man turned to the quiet general. Ian West, the city’s most infamous poltergeist. A man of few words, he often spent these meetings nearly as quiet as the archduke himself. Bone Man liked that least about the man, because it kept his motives shrouded in secrecy.