Olivia shrugged. “I borrowed some magic from Mowse,” she said. “The ones at Sal’s house are asleep. So are the ones outside your door. It was pretty easy, really.”
“But I thought you didn’t want this house?”
“I don’t,” said Olivia. “I just wanted to… see it again and see if any of our things are left before Rosa comes back. That’s all. So she doesn’t have to see it.”
“They still haven’t called for you?”
“Not yet. But they said they will soon. They’d better.” Her dark eyes swept over the countertops, the stove, the table, the cabinets. “It’s different somehow,” she said. “It even smells different.”
Something about her had changed. The flirtatious demeanor she usually had with him was gone, replaced by an odd… hollowness. She was wearing an expression he hadn’t seen her wear before, sort of serious and almost sad, but not quite. He wasn’t sure what human emotion corresponded to such an expression, but he could tell that it wasn’t a good one. He could tell that it was all that she could do to contain it. And suddenly his worries seemed minuscule in comparison.
“I’m going to give it one final look through, if that’s all right with you,” she said.
“Be my guest. I’ll stay right here.”
“Thanks.” Olivia lit another kerosene lamp. “I’ll just be a second.”
Olivia scanned the kitchen one more time, then started down the hallway, her lamp illuminating the dark with a ball of dim gold light, then disappearing again. He heard her walk the length of the hall, duck into the bathroom, her old bedroom, every room except the one with the bloodstained floor. He heard a drawer slide out, then a soft fumbling. The door slid shut again, and he heard her footsteps coming back up the hallway.
“You want a smoke?” she said to him, pulling a cigarette out of her pocket as she came out of the dark. She sat down next to him at the kitchen table.
“Why not?” he said, and took one. But his eyes were on her.
They sat in silence for a moment, sending up clouds of thoughtful smoke.
They had shared cigarettes before. Smoking made Asa feel like he thought a dragon must feel, lungs hot and sulfuric, controllable. She had laughed when he’d smoked his first cigarette, coughing and going green at the gills. But this time, Olivia seemed to smoke without thinking about it or taking pleasure in it. But by this point, he knew that it wouldn’t help to ask her what was wrong. All he could do was wait.
“I like what you did with the place,” she said finally.
“Thanks,” said Asa. “Though I haven’t really gone into the one room with the bloodstain. It… feels bad in there.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It always did.” She blew another cloud of smoke. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a doll carved from pale, soft stone and a chain with a heart-shaped locket dangling from it. “I had to get these,” she said. “Rosa and I had our hiding places in the house. The bathroom, our room. I wanted to give them to her if they were still there. And they were. Thanks.”
“No problem,” said Asa. “If there’s anything else hidden in the walls, feel free. I found a dead rat once. It’s probably still there if you want it.”
That did it. Olivia smiled.
“You’re really something, you know?”
“Yeah,” said Asa. “Though exactly what that something is is becoming blurrier by the day.”
She glanced back down the hallway, toward Asa’s bedroom—her old bedroom.
“You’ve met Her?” Olivia asked, her voice quiet. “Death?”
Asa’s heart thudded once, painfully.
“You could say that,” Asa recovered. “I’m more Her Sister’s creation, though.” Asa paused, decided to take a gamble. “But, of course, you’ve met Her too. I’ve seen the wall in there.”
Olivia looked down at the table. Let her cigarette burn.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” she said quietly. “I needed a way to stop it. To stop him.”
“She is good for ending things,” said Asa. “Of course, She never does anything for free.”
“That’s what’s bothering me,” said Olivia. “You know how you were sent here on behalf of Life? Well… do you think Death was helping me so I would help Her win the Game? Help Her end Elysium?”
She seemed younger as she looked at him then. All her toughness and grit had been peeled back, and this is what she was at her core—just a girl who loved her sister—and Asa’s heart seemed