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water from the Garden of Life.”
    In spite of herself, Valaska was impressed. The stuff was extremely hard to acquire. Mother Nature held it under strict lock and key, the rumors declaring that too much of it released in the world would unbalance the natural order.
    Things had to die in order for others to be born.
    But, in spite of Mother Nature’s rigid stance, some of the valuable water still ended up on the white market, and those damned angels who peddled it drove a hard bargain.
    “I need more,” the demon demanded.
    Adexios shook his head.
    Not the answer the imp wanted. It lunged for Adexios.
    The stupid man didn’t move. He let the imp grab a hold of him and yank him close.
    “Give. Me. More.”
    “I have no more,” Adexios lied. And she knew it was a lie for she’d seen how carefully he poured and then stoppered the bottle before tucking it behind him, hidden from sight. “Even if I did, given the severity of your wounds, you’d need more than a few flasks to clear you of this malignancy.”
    The demon snarled, showing sharp teeth, and yet Adexios didn’t flinch.
    “Getting mad at me won’t change things. Tell me what happened.”
    “Why? I’m going to die. Who the fuck cares?” the demon whined, releasing Adexios and lying back on the ground with a dramatic fling of his upper body. “Why should I tell you?”
    “You should tell me so I can stop it from happening again.”
    The demon said nothing, staring instead at the dying jungle canopy over him.
    Valaska knew the right words to make him talk. “We will give you vengeance. We shall spill blood in your name. Make those who did this to you scream in agony.”
    “Really?” This drew the imp’s interest, and a sickly smile stretched its cracked, black lips.
    “Yes. I give you my word as a warrior that we will hunt thy enemy and smite it.” She punched the palm of her hand with a fist.
    “Tell us what happened,” Adexios prompted.
    “Happened?” The demon cackled, the sound feeble and ending with a wet, gasping cough. It seemed the initial adrenaline the water had given him had already worn off. “I will tell you what happened. Impossible beauty. Purest evil. I thought I’d found rapture.”
    “But?”
    “Decay. Despair. Darkness.” The imp’s eyes widened, and the black orbs took on a milky cast. “We must flee. Hide. Now. We must run.” The demon bolted upright and wobbled on his taloned feet.
    Adexios grabbed him lest he fall over. “Why must we run and hide?”
    Black ichor began to leak from the demon’s eyes and nose. His breathing emerged in choppy gasps. “Death is coming. Death is here. And it looks like…looks…like…”
    The demon sagged and fell backward, the sudden slump too abrupt for Adexios, who lost his grip.
    Dropping to his knees, Adexios leaned close, very close as the demon uttered his last dying breath and words.
    Valaska didn’t hear it, but judging by Adexios’ grim expression he had.
    Getting to his feet, he walked away from the corpse. He gathered his things.
    “What are you doing?”
    “We have to go.”
    “Wait. What did he say? What did this to him?”
    Adexios faced her, his face still grim, but not afraid. Was that determination she spied in his eyes?
    “The demon said she is coming. And she intends to remake our world.”

Chapter Six
    “Don’t talk to the passengers. You’ll ruin the mystique.” From the official Ferryman’s guide.
    The demon’s death and warnings put a damper on any conversation. Oh wait, that was already happening before.
    For some reason, Adexios found himself tongue-tied around Valaska. Anyone else, he had a snappy retort—just ask his dad.
    “Son, why are the damned arriving wet?”
    “I might have accidentally hit that whirlpool on account of I hate this job!”
    On second thought, maybe not snappy, but at least he had a reply.
    With his friends, he always found a topic of interest, one of the more popular ones being the decaying social structure of the