“Just to find someone, and give something back to him—or her, I suppose—a-and leave.”
Death’s voice became soft and cooing, with barely an echo of the mercury-stained growl that it had been before. Just like that? What a pity, to have to spend so little time in a form you’ve always been enamored of. Very cruel of my Mother to send you of all daemons here. Unfair, I think. And they say that I am the harsh one.
There was a tickle in his mind then, almost a caress.
Well, I suppose I’ll leave you, then, Human Lover. Spend what time you have wisely—what little of it you still have.
Then She leaked from his mind and left him alone. His face in the mirror snapped back to its human features. With shaking hands, Asa felt his nose, his mouth. He breathed a sigh of relief.
But Death’s words had left their mark in his mind, a breadcrumb trail that he could not ignore.
It did seem unfair. To give him just a taste of humanity before wrenching him out of it, bringing him back, sadder but wiser. Why had the Mother done it, and why had Life agreed to it? Was it to teach him a lesson? To let him see that the grass was no greener on the other side?
Asa turned away from the mirror and began to pace the floor.
He knew what he should do: find the owner of the cricket in amber as soon as possible, finish the mission, and leave.
But that wasn’t what he wanted to do. What he wanted to do was explore, to test out this new body, to see and feel and hear and taste and touch as humans did. He wanted to make friends, acquaintances, enemies. To laugh and shout and whisper and weep! He wanted to live a human life while he could. As Asa realized this completely, the yearning seemed to fill his every sinew, his every fiber, and he knew he was powerless to resist this new, intoxicating thing called humanity.
Asa reached into his pocket and took out the cricket in amber. In the low light, it shone like honey. Life’s presence seemed to wind around it like vines.
He took a deep, steadying breath. Back in the Between, to disobey meant punishment. To disobey meant pain. And for the very worst offense, to disobey meant being ripped apart and scattered, atom by atom, through the universe, then feeling each atom fade to oblivion.
But this isn’t the Between, Asa thought.
Rebellion was a new feeling, a very un-daemon-like one, and to Asa it felt nearly delicious. He cupped his hand over the amber cricket and put it into the drawer where he’d found the sisters’ picture. Out of sight, out of mind, as the humans said. And just for a while. After all, what harm could it do?
CHAPTER 6
3 MONTHS
AND
19 DAYS
REMAIN.
As the days went on, I was called to Mother Morevna’s room for “lessons” three times. Each time, I was merely given a vague explanation of magic, handed some books, and practically pushed out of Mother Morevna’s room afterward so that she could do whatever it was she did all day and I could serve my function of making everyone feel better. So much for being the Successor, I thought.
I had tried to follow her and find out what it was when she went out into Elysium, but either she saw me and vanished or she was too fast for me. So, dejected, I spent my days reading from the Booke or wandering Elysium by myself, wearing my new importance like a cloak while the other girls my age were in school—school I couldn’t go to anymore because it would ruin the illusion that I was really learning something with Mother Morevna.
But no matter what the truth was, the way people talked about me had changed. There were no longer looks of disapproval on their faces, or pity. They were curious now. As though they’d been wrong about me all this time. People greeted me, even people I hadn’t known before the walls went up, like the Speers, the Coxes, the Sanchez-Romolos. Even the man down at the Blue Moon, Elysium’s only “café,” said good morning to me now. One day, he even gave me two small fried pies.
“Take them for Mother Morevna,” said the Blue Moon man. “Try to get