Page 70 of Between Ghosts and Gods

Kasu exchanged glances with Ruo and Arun. This felt like a trap.

Arun took her hand and interlaced their fingers. Ruo brushed against the side of her leg. Whatever happened, they would face it together.

They stepped through the doorway. Lady Camellia followed soon after. The door swung shut behind her and disappeared.

The broken glass had been cleared away from the storage room and the missing bottles replaced with new ones. Kasu was sure that some of the memories swirling inside were ones she had taken from customers herself. Extracting bad memories was a lot like pulling out a particularly stubborn clump of earwax – it was hardly pleasant.

At the back of the room hung the old, yellowing portrait of a young General Shusa. The first time she had seen it, Kasu had wondered what it was doing there, but she could not work up the courage to ask.

Lady Camellia swept past them and opened the door leading into her office. A giant mirror of departure occupied the length of one of the walls, its glass dark, reflecting nothing back as it loomed over everyone but the demon lord.

The bottom of Lady Camellia’s gown glided across the cold wooden floor as she leaned on the edge of the large mahogany desk.

“So,” she said. “Explain.”

Ruo pressed their body to the ground as if they might be able to slip through the floor if they just tried hard enough. Kasu’s eyes went to the window that the cat had used to escape the last time they were here. She had a feeling that wouldn’t work this time.

“I’ll explain.” Arun stepped forward.

Lady Camellia’s good eye roved over him. “I remember you. Are you the one responsible for leading my Kasu astray? She was never like this before, you know. Never went out at night. Always a good, dutiful girl.”

The disappointment in Lady Camellia’s voice was like a brand burning Kasu’s skin. Disapproval meant she had done something wrong. It meant that she was a failure, and failures were not worthy of the mercy of the heavens. She hated that her body responded that way. Even though she knew what Lady Camellia had done to Arun’s mother, even though she knew that the demon was not someone worthy of respect, she still felt like a beaten dog.

“Before I tell you anything,” said Arun, “I want you to go first. We know that at the last meat auction you bought a lady from the heavens. We know you used her life to create an elixir that can make others relive their worst memories. Why? What’s the point of it all? Why did you torture and kill my—” He cut himself off abruptly, choking back the words like poison.

“I’m a demon. Isn’t that explanation enough?”

“There has to be a reason,” said Kasu. Lady Camellia had no qualms about hurting others, but she had never struck Kasu as someone who enjoyed inflicting pain for the sake of it. There had to be more to it than that.

The demon brushed a finger over the flowers adorning her eye socket. A violently red bouquet of poppies and roses and small anemone flowers.

“People don’t become ghosts by having easy, happy lives. There’s always something turbulent swirling inside them. Envy over the living, regret for their past mistakes, hatred against someone for making their lives miserable. The resentment and pain of those who become ghosts is quite marvellous. Unfortunately, they’re weak. I amassed so many memory bottles and yet all that pain, all that regret, still couldn’t produce an elixir strong enough to make a god go mad.”

“And that’s what you want, is it? To hurt the gods?” Kasu spat.

Lady Camellia chortled. “Oh Kasu, you sweet, stupid child. One day you’ll learn that the gods aren’t the spotless paragons of virtue you think they are.”

“Tell me exactly what you did to my— To that lady from the heavens,” Arun demanded, rearing back like a viper threatening to strike. Though, facing off against Lady Camellia, he was more like an ant brandishing a toothpick.

The demon seemed to find his bravado amusing. She chuckled.

“Since my memory collection failed to produce results, I decided to turn elsewhere. If you want to make a powerful elixir you need powerful ingredients. I was stuck in a bit of a rut until someone told me of a very special item in Ghost City. When I laid eyes on her, I knew that she was everything I needed! Of course I had to have her. I brought her back here and drained her blood. Sliced her open until I had wrung out every last drop of her pain and fed her soul into my elixir! Her suffering was exquisite. Truly the secret ingredient I needed to make … this.”

Lady Camellia reached into her desk and pulled out an ornate glass bottle. It was smaller than the memory bottles she kept on her shelves, and the liquid inside was an angry blood-red.

“Lord Cobalt says you owe him,” Kasu retorted.

“Lord Cobalt is a buffoon. I told him that if he could catch that woman I would give him the scraps after I was done. Instead, he grabbed her and put her up for auction, and I had to pay for what was rightfully mine. He has my pile of gold. I am under no obligation to give him anything more.”

“And how did you know there was someone from the heavens in the under-realm? Did the Pale Lady tell you?” Kasu asked. The longer she kept everyone talking, the longer she could put off an actual fight.

Lady Camellia scoffed. “The Pale Lady was always a thorn in my side, putting on those foul plays to get a rise out of me! To say nothing about those awful songs! But tell me, Kasu, why all the questions? Why do you care what happens to some stranger?”

“Because—!” Kasu bit her tongue. She couldn’t mention Arun’s connection. That was not her secret to share.

“I’ve heard enough!” Arun was quivering with anger. He charged at Lady Camellia, but the demon lord simply swatted him away as if he was nothing more than a troublesome fly. Arun flew into the wall, his back colliding with the trinkets and knocking several off their pegs.

With a yowl, Ruo pounced. Their claws tore at Lady Camellia’s dress, but the demon was too big and too strong. Like Arun, Ruo was hurled into the wall, sending more trinkets crashing down over their heads. A decorative letter opener clattered to the ground and skidded somewhere beneath the desk. Arun rushed forward and grabbed it when Lady Camellia turned back to Kasu.