Page 62 of Infernal Secrets

Ash stiffened, finally saying the first thing I’d heard from him since we caught sight of Raelynn. “Why would she be there?”

Zeke looked at the ground, rubbing his fingers together. “If she wanted to get to Rae the night she died, then whatever she needed to say… would she have unfinished business?”

Silence settled over us as we considered Zeke’s grim words.

If Raelynn’s grandmother hadn’t accepted her fate, her soul would go to Cholian, a barren purgatory beyond Elyrdin, where lost souls wandered until they accepted death.

In extreme cases, lost souls turned dark, striking out at humans. Those souls required council intervention to keep the balance between realms and limit ghost sightings on Earth.

“She’s crying,” Zeke said, voice softening, catching my attention.

I didn’t want to look.

I’d avoided looking at Raelynn ever since we arrived, but once again her pull dragged me in, forcing me to take in the scene.

She stood between a woman and a man who looked bored, staring at the casket as if it held answers she’d never get. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

Her composure shook me.

The sorrow was clear in her eyes, but she remained poised, hands clasped around a long-stemmed rose. A faint tremor ran through her fingers.

I expected dramatic sobs, like we’d overheard upstairs when she found out her grandmother died, but they never came.

My chest tightened when the older woman bent to whisper, making Raelynn’s body tense.

When she lifted her chin, refusing the tissue, I realized it was the aunt who made Raelynn’s life hell. How long had she endured that treatment?

Another tear slid down her cheek, tracing her jawline.

Her tears were beautiful.

She didn’t wipe them away. I couldn’t tell if it was to spite the woman at her side or to remain open to the grandmother she grieved. Either way, she stayed unguarded, and I stood captivated by both her fragility and her strength.

The sudden urge to hold her—to let her know she wasn’t alone—made panic lance through me. The relentless pull beneath my ribs magnified until I thought my heart would rip from my chest.

I bit down on the barbell in my tongue to distract myself.

I needed to get away.

Ash’s growled words snapped me out of my panic. “What are they doing here?”

I followed his gaze to a group of people at a nearby grave.

It took a second for the meaning of his words to register. Only one human stood at the grave. Several delemora hovered behind him.

“Feeding,” Ezra said, eyes narrowing. “What better place to gorge yourself on negative energy than a graveyard?”

The delemora evolved from lesser infernals in Feranzis after years of feasting on the corruption and despair of the damned souls banished from Elyrdin. They had no place on Earth.

Raelynn had been right.

Somehow, a rift had opened between planes. Infernals from Niemna were slipping onto Earth without the council’s notice. If her mother and grandmother had seen them too, how long had they made Earth their playground?

“Look,” Zeke said, stepping forward, before Ezra’s arm shot out, stopping him.

The delemora at the end turned its attention to the funeral. Raelynn noticed its approach and closed her eyes.

Her aunt said something that upset her, evident in the way her jaw clenched. Still, she opened her eyes after a deep, held breath.