"Is there anything else in here?" he said, bending low while balancing on the crutch. "I just see. . . biographies of Brothers. . . "
"Here, allow me to help. "
Together they went through it all, and found no reference volumes pertaining to heaven or hell. Just Brother after Brother after Brother. . .
"Nothing," he muttered. "What the fuck is a library good for if you can't find anything in it?"
"Perhaps. . . " Gripping the lip of a shelf, she awkwardly bent downward, tracking the names. Finally, she found what she was looking for. "We could search your own. "
Crossing his arms over his chest, he appeared to gird himself. "She'd be in there, wouldn't she. "
"She was a part of your life, and you are the subject. "
"Pull it. "
There were several devoted to him, and No'One slid the most current one out. Cracking the spine, she flipped past the lineage declaration in the front, and scanned through the various pages that were focused on his prowess in the field. When she got to what had been written last, she frowned.
"What does it say. "
In the Old Language, she read aloud the date and then the notation: " 'Upon this eve, he did lose his mated shellan, Wellesandra, who was with young, from the earth. Subsequently, he extricated himself from the communal society of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. ' "
"That's it?"
"Yes. "
She turned the book around so he could read for himself, but he slashed his hand through the air. "Jesus Christ, I get ruined, and that's all they wrote. "
"Perhaps they were being respectful of your grief. " She put the book away. "Surely that is best kept private. "
He didn't say anything further, just stood there, pitched against the crutch that kept him up on his feet, his angry eyes locked on the floor.
"Talk to me," she said softly.
"Fucking hell. " As he rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion radiated out of him. "The only peace I have in this whole nightmare is that my Wellsie's in the Fade with my son. That's the one thing I can live with. When I get crazy, I tell myself she is safe, and better I go through the grief than her - better that I'm the one doing the missing down here on earth. 'Cuz, hey, the Fade is supposed to be all peace and love, right? Except then that angel comes along and starts talking about some kind of In Between - and now, suddenly, my single solace is. . . poof! And to top it off? I have never heard of the place and I can't verify it - "
"I have an idea. Come with me. " When he just stared at her, she wasn't about to take no for an answer. "Come. "
Tugging on his arm, she drew him out of the vault and back into the main part of the library. Then she went deep into the stacks, ticking down the dates of the volumes, locating the most recent ones.
"What was the day when she. . . " When Tohrment gave her the month and day again, she pulled out the appropriate volume.
Leafing through, she felt his looming presence above her - and was not threatened. "Here - here she is. "
"Oh. . . God. What. "
"It just says. . . yes, the same as it was noted in your volume. She was lost from the earth. . . wait a moment. "
Going backward, then forward, she traced the histories of the other females and males who had died on that date: So-and-so passed unto to the Fade. . . unto the Fade. . . unto the Fade. . . .
When No'One looked up at him again, she felt a moment of true fear. "In fact, it does not say she is there. The Fade, that is. "
"What do you mean - "
"It just says that she is lost. It does not say that she is in the Fade. "
Deep in the cold, gritty heart of Caldwell, Xcor tracked a single lesser.
Traveling over a park's dead, scratchy grass, he moved silently behind the undead, scythe in hand, body poised for striking. This was a stray, one who had broken from the pack that he and his band of bastards had attacked earlier.