because she’d do something that would get her in trouble.
“Therefore, a male apprentice won’t survive the first stage,” Taeral concluded.
“After that, Votya didn’t dare try again,” Lumi said. “She didn’t want another soul on her conscience.”
“Amelia, what’s wrong?” Raphael’s voice came through, loud and sharp enough to demand my attention. I looked at him and took a deep breath.
“I take it you don’t see her,” I said resignedly.
“A vision? Or illusion, or whatever it is you’re seeing?” Raphael replied, his brow furrowed. I nodded slowly. “No. I can’t.”
“She’s literally a yard away from me, feet in the water,” I said. “Blue skin, big green eyes. Not from a species I recognize. I must be losing my mind. Slowly but surely…”
I lowered my head, while my mind struggled to hold its grip on reality. There had to be a reasonable explanation for this. There had to be something that was causing these sightings. The girl was even more peculiar because of how close she’d gotten to me. None of the others had dared come within a yard of me. This was new.
“Is she doing anything?” Raphael asked, kneeling next to me.
“No, she’s just standing there and watching me,” I said.
“You could ask me a question. Then I’d have something to say, perhaps,” the blue girl spoke, and my heart leapt into my throat. I nearly jumped but felt Raphael’s hand firmly set on my thigh—it was enough to keep me anchored and still, because the last thing I wanted was to scare her off.
“Holy moly, you can talk,” I gasped.
“What? Wait… What is she saying?” Raphael asked.
“Where are we?” I asked her, my brain switching gears, all of them clunky and heavy after watching all these creatures and wondering about my sanity.
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What planet?” I replied, while the rest of the crew waited silently for me to relay her responses. I was too busy focusing on her, though.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“You’re not helping,” I complained, slightly frustrated.
“It’s not my fault. I just woke up here!”
“So, you just follow people around and say nothing and let them think they’re going nuts?” I croaked.
“I wasn’t sure if you could be trusted. Also, I found it weird that you’re the only one who can see me,” she replied.
I couldn’t help but scoff. “Yeah, you and me both.”
My gaze dropped to Raphael’s hand, still on my thigh. Next to it, the scythe’s blade gave off a delicate glint. Like a giant boulder let loose from the top of a mountain, the realization hit me. A string of expletives trickled from my lips, as my stomach sank—lead on the bottom. “You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me. And I’m supposed to be a prodigy genius or whatever,” I managed.
“What is it, Amelia?” Lumi asked, this time, while Raphael watched me carefully.
I brought the scythe up. “I think it’s this. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it until now.”
“What’s that?” the girl asked curiously. We were as strange to her as she was to us, and I was in no position to judge her for her choice to stay silent. She didn’t know us, and she seemed old enough to have already been taught that not all strangers are good. The poor creature was just being cautious, and, if my scythe-related theory proved to be correct, she was also dead…
“Hold this,” I said to Raphael and handed him the scythe.
He hesitated for a moment, but as soon as his fingers wrapped around the ivory handle, his expression changed. His eyes bulged when he saw the blue girl—whom I could no longer see.
“Oh… dear…” he whispered. I shot to my feet, grinning victoriously.
“Hah!” I cackled. “I figured it out.”
Needless to say, Lumi, Eira, and Taeral were still waiting for an answer, understandably befuddled by what they were witnessing.
“I can… I can see her,” Raphael said, then grunted. “And she doesn’t like me very much. She wants to talk to you, not me.”
He gave me the scythe back, and she became visible to me once more—arms crossed and pouting. Her face lit up when she realized I could see her again. “Don’t leave me with him again,” she insisted.
I laughed. Not so much because of her immediate disdain of Raphael, but because I now knew for a fact that I wasn’t going cuckoo.
“I’m confused,” Eira said.
“For good reason!” I replied, then glanced at the scythe. “It’s this. It’s the scythe. It belongs to a Reaper, and it seems to have at least one