Page 105 of In Between Death and the Devil

My chopping slowed and my eyes flicked up to Titus. I knew Daphne and Marcus were together, but all three of them? At the same time? Were they still…

He smirked at me. “Yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking. The three of us are romantically involved. Have been for decades.”

“Oh. That’s… nice.” I cringed at my awkward words. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Most people who haven’t been in the In Between long still cling to their World of the Living morals. It’s not until you’ve been here several years that all of that starts to fall away. We are our soul’s essence here. Our interests and desires become more clearly our own. You stop worrying about the small stuff, like who sleeps with whom.” He took the potatoes off the stove, drained them, and put them in a bowl. Then he started mashing them.

“You said Talia felt left out,” I said, continuing to chop. The herbs were starting to break down into pulp. “How do you mean?”

“The three of us were kind of wrapped up in each other. Even when the five of us would hang out, we’d end up splitting into two groups, which left Talia with Fen. Maybe that’s why they ended up sleeping together.” He sprinkled what looked like finely grated cheese into the bowl and stirred.

“You think it was a matter of them being thrown together a lot?” I frowned. Was that what was happening to Fen and me?

“Maybe. It was an open secret that Talia was in love with Fen, and it was obvious to all of us that he didn’t feel the same way.”

I felt a savage stab of satisfaction at that revelation. Scraping the herb paste into a bowl, I handed it to Titus who spooned half of it into the potatoes and set the rest aside.

“I don’t know why they ended up sleeping together,” he said. “You’ll have to ask Fen about that.”

“That went so well the first time, I’m sure he’ll be forthcoming.” I crossed my arms.

“I know he was an asshole, and I’m not excusing him, but it’s not a time any of us are proud of.” Titus grabbed a clear bag and scooped the potato mixture into it. “The rest of us showed up to the Dungeon one morning. Talia was already there, wearing Fen’s shirt over her leggings. She was bright red and refused to look at any of us. When Fen joined us, it was awkward. Neither of them would look at or talk to us. I asked Fen later, point blank, if they’d slept together and he said yes. It had been a mistake and wouldn’t happen again.” Titus winced and set the bag of the potato mixture down. “For weeks they avoided the subject, pretending that everything was fine, even though things were beyond strained. We’d try to talk to each of them separately, but they’d just change the subject.

“Talia became critical of the work we were doing. She started questioning everything, like she didn’t trust that what we were doing was good. And then one day she was gone. We found out she’d moved to Death’s castle, left without a word to any of us.” He shook his head. “She knew everything about how we operated, and she offered all that knowledge to our enemy. None of us could figure out how things had gone so wrong so fast.” His pain was palpable.

I closed my eyes. Losing Talia and everything she knew to Death would have been a massive blow. I blew out an aggressive breath through my nose. Regardless of what had happened with Fen, Titus and the others didn’t deserve what she’d done. I opened my eyes. “You felt responsible.”

He traced an invisible line on the countertop with one finger. “If I hadn’t been brought into the group, maybe Talia wouldn’t have felt squeezed out. Or if I hadn’t gotten involved with Daphne… It’s hard to say what would have happened, but I can’t stop wondering even all these years later.”

I leaned forward and squeezed Titus’s hand. This was a game I was intimately familiar with. It never led anywhere good, but I knew how hard it was to stop playing. “Thank you for telling me.”

Titus gave me a grateful smile. When I let go, he grabbed a flat metal sheet and started squeezing the potato mixture from the bag onto it in little swirls.

“Are those—” I asked, my eyes going wide.

“A Fournemouth specialty: Minnog.”

My nose burned. “My mother used to make them every winter, except she put different herbs in hers. How do you know how to make them?”

He finished piping with a flourish and slid the sheet into the oven above the stove. “I’m from Fournemouth, too.”

“Really?” I realized I knew very little about Titus. Or Marcus. Or Daphne.

“I came to the In Between decades before you were born, but I remember Fournemouth well. My family were well off. Had been for generations. My life was planned out for me when I was born. Funny how things turn out.”

I’d always thought he looked like he came from money, with his refined features. Fen was handsome, but Titus was ridiculously pretty. “How’d you end up here?”

His lips quirked up in a small smile. “My father was only interested in one thing—power. He went about getting it by accruing favors from people, but it wasn’t enough. He decided I would join the Order of Shadows to get access to people’s secrets.”

My eyebrows shot up. In the World of the Living, it was rumored that the Order of Shadows used secrets as leverage to corrupt people, that they’d extort them from people.

“Yes,” he said, “even back then people believed the lies about the Order of Shadows, that they traded secrets for favors. My father pulled every string he had to get me in.”

It no longer surprised me that what I thought I knew about the Order of Shadows was wrong, but I wondered where the rumors came from. “So what’s the truth? Does the Order not trade in secrets?”

“Trade? No. But they do hear confessions, things people want to unburden themselves of. They’re held by a special group within the Order, the Sin Eaters, who guard them closely and take them to their grave.”

How different the truth was from reality. The reputation of the Order of Shadows was such that no one would believe such a thing.