Free Afterlife (Second Eden #1) by Aaron Burdett Page B

with eyes half-closed, though there was nothing tired about her. She watched him with casual disdain mixed with just a hint of sensuality, each bat of her heavy lids teasing something more if only he played his cards right.
    The woman pursed her lips and looked to the ceiling. “Ah, I have found her! No, William, she has not passed through the gates of Afterlife. Samantha’s heart still beats among the living.”
    William slapped his hands on the table. “Please, you must tell me. Does she love another? Is she happy with him?”
    The fortuneteller lifted her hand, running a long nail beneath her chin. “It is … unclear.”
    “Unclear? What do you mean unclear ?”
    She arched a serpentine brow. “I mean, there is a fog. Unclear. Not. Clear. The barrier between the living and the dead is called a veil for a reason. It veils things. It’s not like I have a mirror bonded to the mortal world and can just look right through and see. There’s some interpretation involved.”
    “Then what’re you good for!” He pounded the table, veins bulging on his neck. “Show her to me! I want to see her.”
    “That costs extra, William. You know this. I have no mirror, remember?”
    William yanked off his gold watch and tossed it on the table. “Then take this as payment and let me see my wife.”
    Her tongue passed over her glistening lips. Bone Man continued listening, gliding around the room until her client’s back faced him and he could see the fortuneteller directly. One quick jab through the divider and his sword would skewer the fool getting played by this woman. He shivered in delight at the thought, but held his sword.
    Her cheeks tugged her lips in the slightest of grins as she hooked a nail on the watch and pulled it to her. “Very well. But I must warn you of something first.”
    “What?” William asked, his voice warbling, his chest pressing hard on the table’s edge.  
    “All souls come to Afterlife in their prime. We do not age, we do not decay. You have been here many years, and like all others, you bring only your name and a single, powerful memory you hold dear. Unlike most others, that memory also gifted you your wife’s name and gave you a way to keep an eye on her mortal life. You are a lucky man in this regard. Most of us will never know the families we had when we lived, because we simply do not remember.”
    “Yes, yes, everyone knows this. They explained as much to me when they recorded my name for the census. So?”
    “So, I am saying the young Samantha you remember will not be the Samantha who appears. The ravages of a hard world will have weighed upon her. It might be too much for your heart to bear. I would hate for your heart to break and the Deep to take you on account of a meager fortuneteller such as I.” She pushed the watch toward him but paused halfway across the table. “It would be so much easier for you to remember who she was and not who she is. If she loved you with all her heart, perhaps she will remember you when she comes to us.”
    “And when she dies, she’ll be the Samantha I remember! She’ll come here just as young and vibrant as when we first met.” His eyes glazed over, and he smiled. “She’ll be just as she was meant to be. Perfect.”
    “Then why not wait?”
    His glassy eyes blinked, their bright look hardening. “Because I paid you a gold watch and it’s what I want to see. This is the Crystal District. I didn’t risk being seen in this sewage pit for a therapy session, and I’ve paid enough people enough money to know you aren’t a fraud. There aren’t any sealed lips in Afterlife gold won’t peel apart. I know you can reach into the mortal world. I know you trade in Deep artifacts. I know you’ve traveled with the dust devils. It’d be a shame if the archduke’s men discovered as much, wouldn’t it now?”
    The woman leaned forward, her eyes so narrow they looked closed. “Yes, it would be. For the one who spoke the shame more than for the