Chapter 90

Death greeted her with a smile, like a patient mother spreading her arms to welcome a wayward daughter home. There had been some days, long ago now, when she would almost have greeted it gladly. But not anymore.

The girl who had wallowed in such self-pity was a vague memory, just another one of the phantom spirits tugging at her as she drifted deeper into the sea of death, feeling the bony fingers of her ancestors plucking at her, inviting her down into the darkness, where the pain would end and her soul could finally be free.

She did not want to be free. There was too much for her to do still. What was it? What had she left behind? Adel could not remember. Had there been a girl somewhere? Or was she only remembering another shade of herself? And there was someone she hated. Hated with a passion like no other.

The blaze of anger that sprang to life in her chest buoyed her up, quieting the voices of the dead for a moment as she clawed her way through the murky depth