CHAPTER 18

Beth felt her stomach drop, watching the vertebra exit the neck hole one at a time until his entire spine was now outside of his body. Sulyvahn gave the spine a flick and it expanded, the bones now dangling loosely from a cord made of the same smoke that leaked from his body. He cracked the whip over her head and she felt a paralyzing chill wrap itself around her.

"What do ye think?" He did a couple more practice strikes, and she could hear the bones rattle against each other every time he allowed the whip to coil in on itself. "Those I can't reach, I can catch."

"Wow. I really wasn't expecting that. May I?" She moved closer to examine the whip, which Sulyvahn presented for her inspection.

"Look, but don't touch. You won't like how it feels," he warned her.

"Fair enough." Her fingers hovered over the whip, and she could feel the immense cold coming off of them. "But I get the impression that you're trying to make me squirm again."

"Maybe a little," Sulyvahn admitted. "You don't spend your whole life running down spirits without wanting to be properly appreciated by the living. Truth be told, I rarely get to hunt these days, not since the Roman Catholics invaded Ireland. Everyone seems to have their own method of dying that doesn't involve the old ways, but I do occasionally get to chase down an atheist who dies on our soil. Always a gasser, chasing down some poor eejit who thought they were just gonna spend eternity in the dark and all."

"So do you escort the dead to the afterlife, too?"

"A bit. Toss them all in the wagon and ferry them over. Not as nice as a personal escort, but dullahans weren't made to be polite." Sulyvahn gave the whip a shake and the bones locked together once more, forming back into a spine.

"How can you stand up straight without your spine?" Beth asked.

"Never said it was mine." Sulyvahn's head grinned as he shoved the spine back into his neck.

"That's a little disgusting, to be honest."

"No harm in it." Sulyvahn put his head back on, the smoke vanishing again. "I'm made of much sterner stuff than a couple of human bones."

"Indeed. What are you made of, exactly? I mean, you were created to collect wayward souls, after all. Is that dangerous work?" They continued onward through the maze, Beth keeping just a step ahead of the dullahan.

"Hmm. There's an interesting question. I don't know what I'm made of, exactly. I just existed fully formed one day, so I'm afraid that's a secret the queen keeps to herself, if she even knows. As for danger, aye, I've run into my fair share."

"Like what?"

"There are creatures out there, beings that feast on the souls of the departed. Sometimes they collect them just to keep them locked away, feasting on their misery. Others tear the soul apart, reducing it to sparkling shreds. There's a reason creatures like me exist, and it's to ensure a proper departure from the mortal plane. Let's just say that I've run into a scrap or two by collecting something else's prey."

"Whoa. Like what kinds of things?"

"Things that know when they're spoken of, lass, so I shan't say more about them." Sulyvahn smiled, turning his eyes to the sky. "It seems unusually warm for this time of year."

"The house seems to have its own weather."

"Oh? You don't know for sure?"

"There is very little about this place that we know for sure. In fact, the news that the queen has an agreement to shuttle Caretakers to the other side is one of the few facts that we have."

"Aye. Every soul is special in its own right, but from what I've heard, a Caretaker's soul is a rare thing indeed, and it can't be left to wander around."

"Oh, really?"

Sulyvahn nodded. "Never seen it for myself, but our dear Cecilia has been ferrying souls exclusively for this house for many centuries now."

Beth frowned. "It can't have been that many. The house was built less than two hundred years ago."

The dullahan's eyes sparkled. "I assure you that this place is far older than the foundation on which it's built. I'm a little surprised that you don't know more about the place."

"Yeah, well the spell that protects it has a memory component. It's a bit frustrating, but nobody who lives here can remember anything until Mike unlocks it."

"Now that's fascinating. Would explain why Cecilia would never say much about the place. Would drop off her charge and then wander back to the mortal realm."

"Does she drop off souls in the faerie realm?"

"Not quite. She passes through it on the way to... wherever." Sulyvahn grinned. "You have to understand that the world beyond the veil is complicated. Beings like us all have our own road to walk, but the destination is the same."

"Beings like you?"

"Collectors, psychopomps, whatever we're called these days. When the world got bigger, we would run across each other on occasion." Sulyvahn stopped in front of the sundial. They were at the center of the maze now. "Not very useful at night, is it?"

"Makes a good centerpiece. Sort of ties the whole yard together, don't you think?"

"Looks old." Sulyvahn crouched down, his eyes on the dial. "Wonderful craftsmanship."

"We like to think so. So I was wondering—" Beth was cut off when a white van pulled up between the lions, the driver hopping out and then opening the back. Sulyvahn faded into a black mist as the delivery man wandered into the front yard, his eyes moving across the massive yard. His eyes locked on Beth, and she rushed out of the garden maze to meet the driver halfway.

"Bit late to be out, isn't it?" Beth asked, immediately suspicious.

"Priority delivery from Lance Ferguson." Once the driver was close, Beth recognized him as Marco, one of the legal secretaries from the office. His short, dark hair was spiked up, and he had shadows under his brown eyes.