Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children, #3)

Christopher whistled low. “Damn, girl,” he said.

Kade said nothing. He only stared.

Both thrones were currently empty. The Lady of the Dead led them toward the dais, stopping when they reached Nancy, who must have been aware of their presence, but who did nothing to betray that knowledge.

“Nancy,” said the Lady softly. “Please move for Me. You have company.”

Nancy moved like frost melting: slowly at first, almost imperceptibly, and then with more speed, until she finished lowering her arm and chin and turned with something approaching, yet far greater than, human grace. She allowed herself to look at the people clustered around the base of her pedestal, and her eyes widened, ever so slightly.

“Kade,” she said. “Christopher … Nadya?” She looked at the others without recognition. “What are you all doing here? Is everything all right? Are you…” She stopped herself. “No, you’re not dead. If you were dead, you wouldn’t be here.”

“We’re not dead,” said Kade, and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Nancy.”

“It’s good to see you too.” She glanced to the Lady of the Dead, seeking permission. The Lady nodded, and Nancy dropped to her knees, sliding into a graceful kneeling position atop her pedestal. It was a practiced, easy motion; she had done this before. “I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye.”

“I don’t think most of us would,” said Kade. “You happy?”

Nancy’s smile was brief but brilliant. Artists would have died for the chance to paint that moment of pure, unfettered bliss. “Always.”

“Then all is forgiven.” Kade gestured for Rini to step forward. “This is Rini. Sumi’s daughter.”

“What?” Nancy’s expression faded into puzzlement at the mention of her former roommate. “Sumi didn’t have children. She was too young. She would have told me.”

“She was supposed to come back to Confection and save the world and get married and make a baby,” said Rini. She held up her arm. Her hand was entirely gone now; her flesh ended at the wrist, and at the tear her disappearance was leaving in reality. “She needs to stop being dead and come home and have sex until I exist again!”

“Um,” said Nancy, looking nonplussed.

“This is Sumi,” said Christopher, gesturing to the shimmering skeleton beside him. “We were hoping you might know where the rest of her is.”

“You mean her ghost?” asked Nancy.

“Yes,” said Christopher.

Sumi said nothing, but she cocked her shining skull to the side in a gesture that was a pale shadow of her constant curious motion before she had died, her skin and flesh stripped away, leaving her in silence.

“Even if…” Nancy glanced to the Lady, who nodded permission. “Even if I could find Sumi’s ghost for you, even if she was here, how would you put her back together? You’d still be missing all the … squishy bits.”

“Let us worry about that,” said Kade.

Nancy looked to the Lady again. Again, the Lady nodded her assent. Nancy looked back to the others.

“Not all ghosts come here,” she said. “This isn’t the only Underworld. She could be in a thousand places, or she could be nothing at all. Sometimes people don’t want to linger, and so they just disappear.”

“Can we try?” asked Kade. “It seems like dying when you still had a world to save might be cause enough to stick around for a little while. And you were roommates when she was alive. Sumi never did like to be alone.”

“Even if you can find her ghost, that’s just the part of her that’s waiting to be reborn,” said Nancy. “Who she was isn’t going to be here.”

“We have to try,” said Rini. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

Nancy sighed, a deep, slow sound that started at her toes and traveled all the way up her body. She uncurled her legs and slid down from her pedestal, landing without a sound. As she fell, her skirt rode up just enough for Kade to see that her feet were bare, and that there was a ring on every one of her toes, shimmering and silver.

“Follow me,” she said, and bowed to the Lady, and walked away. Every step she took chimed like a bell as the rings on her toes struck the ground.

Kade followed her, and the rest followed him, and they left the remaining statues and the Lady of the Dead behind.

*

KADE STOLE GLANCES at Nancy as they walked, trying to memorize the new shape of her face. She was thinner, but not alarmingly so; this was the thinness of a professional athlete at the top of their game, the thinness of someone who did something physical every hour of the day. Her hair was still white, her eyes were still dark, and she was still beautiful. God, but she was beautiful.

Nadya shoved her way between them, demanding, “So is that all you do all day? You stand there? You left a whole world full of shit to do and people to talk to so you could stand there?”

“It’s more than just standing there,” said Nancy. “Hello, Nadya. You’re looking well.”