Free Marked by Sarah Fine Page B

handwriting, like they were still kids and this was their clubhouse. He walked over to examine the barred windows. They were sealed shut. Damn. It was stifling in here, and he could use some fresh air.
    He threw himself onto the bed, which sagged under his weight. Galena had made it up for him, and he smiled at her thoughtfulness. He should be thinking about sleep, since he had another shift tonight and he’d have to be sharp. But the cold fire of Cacy’s pendant was almost literally burning a hole in his pocket. He pulled it from his pants and examined it. A set of scales was etched on its surface in amazing detail. He turned it over to see a fierce-eyed bird, wings spread as if in midflight. Engraved below the bird’s feet were three words, but Eli couldn’t quite make them out. He held the disk close to his face and brushed his thumb over the letters.
    A low yelp flew from him as an icy pulse shot through his fingers and frigid shocks traveled up his arm. He squinted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The pendant was now a ring with a transparent, swirling center. Heart racing, he clutched the edges to hold it up to the light, but it expanded in his grasp until he held a large hoop in his hands.
    “What the hell?” he whispered. His skin tingled as the room began to swim in front of his eyes; he realized he was holding his breath. His chest expanded as he drew in a lungful of the cool air flowing from the hoop. He peered through its center and could still see his room, but everything looked different—gray and dull. And . . . oddly familiar, like something from a dream, like a memory he couldn’t quite touch. His trembling fingertips penetrated the skin of the swirling bubble, sending a shiver throughout his body. He reached forward until the cold engulfed his entire arm, turning his skin pale, and he suddenly needed to see what lay on the other side of the ring. Already knowing this might be the stupidest thing he’d ever done—but unable to fight the bone-deep curiosity and his certainty that he’d seen all of this before—Eli stepped through the ring.

CHAPTER TEN
    C acy and her siblings stood in the dead chill of the Veil, watching as Rylan compressed his Scope and pulled it wide again. She didn’t know where her father’s soul would be waiting, but the Scope always took them where they needed to go. It always knew.
    That knowledge didn’t save her from the wave of pure confusion that sloshed over her as she stepped through the intra-Veil portal. Dec’s eyes went wide, echoing her surprise. She had expected to arrive at their Back Bay brownstone. Or their father’s posh office at Psychopomps Inc., where he’d pretty much lived for the last fifteen years. Or that meadow in Siberia where he’d scattered her mother’s ashes.
    She had not expected to arrive in front of a boxy apartment building on a dingy street. “Where the fuck is this?” she asked.
    “Cambridge, my salty-mouthed darling.” Her father walked toward her, arms outstretched. “Thank you for coming.” His embrace was strong, which brought her tears to the surface all over again. “And thank you for trying to save me,” he said in her ear. “Please tell your partner he did an admirable job as well. He has my . . . gratitude.”
    “Daddy,” she choked. “How—?”
    “Father,” said Rylan, moving forward and clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Tell us what happened. We have to catch whoever did this to you!”
    Their father released Cacy from his embrace and gave Rylan a firm hug. “Forgive me, son. Hashing out the details of the human crime that led to my death is not how I want to spend my final moments with my children.”
    He pulled back and took Rylan’s face in his hands. “You are the Charon now. You will make the hard choices from now on.” His pale, burning eyes bored into Rylan’s. He drew him close again, clutching his eldest son’s head against his shoulder as if Rylan were a little boy and not