“What are you so giddy about?” she asked, the gold thread glowing between her and Kalon.
“The thought of your upcoming failures. It’s what puts me into a sweet sleep at night,” I replied dryly, offering a snide grin.
“I’ve tried everything,” Lumi muttered. “The damn room won’t budge. This spell is not the Word’s territory. I can feel it.”
“Has the Word reached out to you in any way?” Time asked, genuinely curious.
Lumi shook her head. “It doesn’t need to. It knows its own limits, much like death magic. I’m afraid this is one of those areas where the two can never meet.”
“Don’t worry, Lumi,” I whispered. “We’re on it.”
Petra giggled. The more she enjoyed herself, the more I longed to see her face when she took her last breath. It was the least she deserved for everything she’d done. I’d thought the Exiled Maras had been the worst of the worst, but Petra took the cake. Well, she and Danika could split the prize for Worst Mother, since they were both okay with killing their children so they could continue to enjoy immortality.
“There is nothing you can do,” Petra said. “How many times do I have to repeat myself? It’s getting embarrassing. For you, Esme, that needs to be specified. I told you the moment you learned who I really was… I told you I’d prevail. You underestimated me.”
Kalon stirred. His eyes were open. I held my breath. “No…” I whispered. “You underestimated your son.”
Before Petra could follow my gaze and understand what was happening, Kalon’s hand shot out and went right into her chest. His claws pierced through skin, tore through flesh, broke through bone. She froze, her eyes round and blue and empty when the realization finally dawned on her.
“I’m sorry, Mother,” Kalon said, his voice trembling as he pulled his hand back along with her heart. Blood coated them both.
“Ka… Kah…” Petra croaked, having lost her final words.
“I’m sorry.” The golden thread connecting his heart to hers withered and vanished. He caught the smoky bauble before it left her fingers and carefully placed it on the floor. Danika would not find us in Roano—not today, at least.
I released my held breath as Petra fell backward, finally defeated and lifeless. Kalon dropped the heart and stared at his bloodied hand for a moment. The air around the doorway shimmered. Lumi narrowed her eyes as she looked through.
“It’s gone. The membrane. It’s gone!” she exclaimed.
Nightmare wheezed and coughed as he woke up. “Holy crap!”
“That’s the trouble with the living using death magic. Their life force feeds the spell,” Dream said, gripping her twin’s shoulder with one hand as he came to. “Once they’re dead, the spell dies with them.”
“Whoa, that was quite the ride,” Nightmare said, gasping, then scowled at me. “Your boyfriend was clenched deep in there, honey. I had to beat him out of it!”
My synapses fired up as I made the connection. The spell was gone, and so was the membrane. I jumped to my feet and bolted into the room, sliding across the floor and taking Kalon in my arms in one motion. It was such a smooth and natural move. We just clicked together like matching pieces of a puzzle.
“Babe,” I murmured, as he shuddered in my embrace. He tightened his hold on me, hiding his face between my neck and shoulder in a warm, secluded curve where he could cry in peace. I didn’t let go, listening to his soft sobs as he released all the anger and pain he’d held on to for so long.
My gaze wandered to Petra, who lay on her back with a gaping hole in her chest. Lumi reached us quickly and took hold of the heart, slipping it into a leather pouch and handing it over to Amane for safekeeping. The Faulty had returned, and I’d barely registered her presence. Lumi must’ve used the comms system the moment Petra died. Soon this whole room would be flooded with people happy to see Kalon alive.
“We’ll take care of this eventually,” Amane said, stuffing the pouch into her satchel.
Time knelt next to us, carefully measuring Kalon from head to toe. “He doesn’t look so good.”
“I know. The Black Fever is regaining its hold on him,” I said. “But give him a minute.”
“I’m sorry.” Kalon sighed, slowly raising his head. Seeing him like this was painful. I wiped his tears with my thumbs and pressed my lips against his.
“It’s okay,” I mumbled between short and fluttering kisses. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters, Kalon. You’re okay, and we got her soul shard.”
“I killed my own mother.” He glanced over his shoulder. He couldn’t bear to look at her, and I certainly couldn’t blame him. He’d been through gut-wrenching torture just by making this decision. It hadn’t been easy.
“No one takes pleasure in killing another being. No one sane, anyway,” Time said. “And certainly not one’s mother. But you had no choice, Kalon. It was the only way to stop her malicious ways.”
“She was going to put the shard in your heart,” I added, peering into his sad, glassy eyes. “She was going to hand you over to Danika and kill you. There was no other way.”
Kalon took a deep breath, closing his eyes in the process. I felt his grief as though it were my own, strangling my heart and tearing me apart on the inside. I took his hands in mine, ignoring the blood, and squeezed tightly.
“You’re not alone,” I added. “You will never be alone.”
“My brothers. Where are they?” he asked after a long pause.
“They’re safe,” Lumi said. “And now that Petra’s gone, Moore is definitely going to be okay. The sleeper spell will have worn off.”
Kalon’s brow furrowed as he glanced up at her. “What sleeper spell?”
“It’s how Petra got to you,” I said. “She came to Roano, found us here. We took her prisoner. She claimed she wanted to see her sons in exchange for intel.”
“Petra tried to send us to our deaths.” Amane scrunched up her nose. “But thankfully we made it back okay.”
“She hid a scythe and a sleeper spell on Moore when he was only a baby,” Soul interjected as he leaned into the doorway. “Powerful death magic. Spirit’s signature all over it. We thought we had her until she got a chance to be with the kids. She activated Moore, and well… here we are.”
Kalon shook his head in dismay. “I can’t believe she would do that.”
“The only reason Petra came here was to put the soul shard into you,” I said. “It was her plan all along. But she’s gone now, and I am deeply sorry you have to live with this, Kalon.”
“I’ll have to live with it, yes,” he mumbled, then looked at Time. “Do you see her?”
The Reaper exhaled sharply, glancing to his left. “Yeah, she’s here.”
“Who? Petra?” I blurted, my blood running cold until I realized what they were talking about. “Her spirit, you mean.”
“Yes,” Time replied.
Kalon straightened his back. Our hands were still linked, and he didn’t seem to want to let go. But there was a longing in his eyes, and I knew what it meant. I couldn’t blame him. Dream and Nightmare joined us in the room. Dream clearly seemed upset as she stared in a specific direction. Given that Time and Soul were looking at the same thing, which I couldn’t see, it had to be Petra’s spirit.
“I would like to see her, if that’s possible,” Kalon said, clearing his throat. “I believe last words are in order.”
Dream was completely against it. “No!”
“What? Why not?” I asked.
“Trust me, you do not want to hear what she has to say right now,” Dream insisted.
Behind her, in the small space at the top of the stairs, I could see Derek and Sofia. They’d both heard the news and come up. There was a mixture of relief and concern in their expressions. I could almost hear what they were thinking, because the same thing was going through my head: Poor Kalon, having to kill his own mother just so she wouldn’t kill him and everybody else in the process.
Yes, he’d had a tough choice
to make, but he’d made it. He’d chosen life and righteousness and freedom instead of death and darkness and deceit. His soul was pure, and he deserved better than this. Unfortunately, the universe was not known for gracing us with only the good stuff. All I could do was be there for him. In time, his wounds, his soul—they’d heal.
“I would like to speak to my mother,” Kalon insisted. “I deserve that much.”
“You do, sweetie, but she is not in the best of moods right now,” Dream replied, looking genuinely upset at having to refuse him. The other Reapers appeared to agree with her, so I could only imagine what foul-mouthed garbage Petra was spewing, even beyond death.
“I don’t understand.” Kalon sighed.
“She’s angry,” Time cut in. “She lost everything, and she’s blaming everyone except herself. I’m afraid she’s not interested in hearing or offering any last words. Right now, she’s trying to reach for my scythe.” He paused and took out his weapon.
I almost envisioned Petra freezing. I wondered what she was thinking.
“She doesn’t deserve a single shred of kindness,” Dream said. “She is cruel. She is evil and unrepentant. Selfish beyond all reason. Kalon, you are better off never seeing her or hearing her ever again.”
“If only she could understand the sort of punishment that awaits her in the afterlife,” Time muttered, looking at Petra’s spirit with contempt. “If only she could understand that there is justice beyond death. Her journey is only just beginning. She wanted eternity, and she’s going to get it, just not in the way she’d hoped.”
“Punishment?” I asked.
“That’s all I can tell you,” Time replied. “Order reigns in all three realms, Esme. You make yours, we make ours, and the others beyond make theirs.”
I quivered at the thought of such cosmic balance. Until now, we’d only dared to wonder about the afterlife and what it might entail. The Reapers weren’t going to share more information about it, but I had enough to go on. Enough to marvel at the way this world worked. There was an order in all this chaos. For every action, there was always a reaction. And Petra would soon get the reaction that comes from a lifetime spent killing and hurting innocent people, persecuting Reapers, and cheating Death herself. Yeah, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Can she hear me?” Kalon asked.
Time nodded.
“You might as well say your piece,” Dream said. “I’m just not going to give her the satisfaction of saying hers. She has nothing good to offer, anyway.”
“I’m sorry. But I will sleep better knowing that my brothers and I are safe from her venom,” Kalon replied. “I don’t expect Ansel, Tudyk, or Moore to ever forgive me, but everything I do, I do for them. They deserve better, and that’s what my mother never truly understood. Maybe she will, wherever she’s headed.”
“I sure hope so,” Time said and swung his scythe through the air. For the briefest of moments, I caught a faint glimmer as the blade moved. I could breathe again, and it had come at the expense of someone else’s death.
She deserved everything that was coming her way, but I couldn’t bring myself to bask in it. Petra could’ve chosen another avenue. She could’ve chosen a life with her children, if only she’d accepted that the past five million years had been spent in absolute cruelty and immorality.
Kalon’s shoulders dropped as he realized what had just happened. I wrapped my arms around him, and he softened in my embrace. His tears seeped into my shirt, burning hot with heartbreak. Dream watched us for a while, but eventually she couldn’t take it anymore and walked out, cursing under her breath.
I’d never seen her so emotional before. She had struck me as aloof, maybe a little psychotic, but definitely not sensitive in any way. There had to have been something in Petra’s words to trigger such a reaction. Maybe Reapers could still be surprised by the depravity of some souls. Maybe Dream had yet to meet the absolute worst among us until she’d seen Petra in death.
Either way, the world was a better place without the high priestess. She had been a terrible mother and an even worse Aeternae. I would do everything in my power to make sure Kalon got over this. We’d made it this far. We would find our way forward together.
My faith had been renewed by Kalon’s sacrifice. Unfortunately, he was also still sick with Black Fever, so he’d have to go back to sleep soon. Until then, I allowed myself a welcome reprieve, melting in his arms and thanking all the gods and stars that we’d survived this deluge of misfortune. We were stronger now. Stronger than ever. The kids would be okay, too. I knew it. They were fighters, and they had a better sense of right and wrong than their mother ever did.
We had two shards from Petra and Ramus, plus the one still lodged in Thayen’s heart, but our work was nowhere near finished. Danger burned brightly ahead. But we’d make it. Together.
Lumi
I followed Dream out of the room because the look on her face was disconcerting. She wasn’t telling us something. Instead, she was trying not to draw attention to herself, taking advantage of the overwhelming mixture of emotions that had overtaken everyone once Kalon was saved. But Dream was troubled, and I wanted to understand why. A Reaper on edge didn’t bode well for any of us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, trailing her up the stairs.
We stopped outside Tristan and Valaine’s room, since this part of the tower was clear. Most of the people were gathering below to check on Kalon and make sure the worst really had been averted. While their concern was endearing, I worried our troubles would only get worse, and Dream’s expression confirmed it before she even answered my question.
“Nothing,” Dream said, tucking a lock of white hair behind her ear. Her galaxy eyes seemed blurry. The stars in her irises had faded, as if darkness would soon swallow them whole.
“Your whole demeanor says otherwise.”
She glanced to the side, perhaps gathering her runaway thoughts, before looking at me. “I’m glad none of you could hear what Petra had to say. I’ve never met such a vile creature before. And I’ve been around for a very long time, so that’s saying something.”
Murmurs emerged from below. The Visentis boys had made it into the room, and I could hear them sobbing as Kalon tried his best to comfort them. I hoped someone had covered Petra’s body prior to their arrival. This whole situation made me feel uneasy, but the sooner we got it out of the way, the better for everyone involved. Especially Kalon, who needed to heal both physically and emotionally.
“What did Petra say? I can imagine she spewed plenty of angry garbage, considering how she got her ass handed to her by Kalon,” I muttered, eyeing Dream intently.
“That Corbin is smarter than all of us put together, for starters.” She sighed. “The moment he heard that we—Spirit’s equals—were here, he started digging through the chronicles that our brother left for them. His sacred texts, in their minds at least. It’s as if Spirit foresaw his own demise and used the Darklings as a backup option. Petra claimed he wrote about all of us in those pages. Therefore, Corbin knows as much about me and the other First Tenners as Spirit did. Trust me when I say this… that’s a lot of knowledge for the Master of Darkness to have.”
“How does that impact us and what we’re doing?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. But arming Corbin with so much information will make it more difficult for us to fight him. He already has words and sub-words most of us never learned. If my suspicions are correct and Corbin is aware of our weak spots… well, let’s just say that could make it even harder for us to complete our mission.” Pausing for a moment, she allowed herself a deep breath, holding back tears. “I swear, what Petra was willing to do—killing her own son… I can hardly fathom it. And she was ready to kill all of them if it meant she’d live forever. Kalon wouldn’t have been the only one if Ansel, Tudyk, and Moore had turned against her.” She struggled for composure before continuing. “You see, Lumi, I have fed on the dreams of so many mothers since my inception that I… I can feel what
some of them felt when they had to bury their children. Petra’s mindset, it’s… it’s incomprehensible to me.”
I felt my eyebrows arch in surprise. Truth be told, I was having a hard time imagining Dream as anything other than the mildly sociopathic Reaper who fed on people’s subconscious minds and influenced their dreams. Yet she bared her soul to me, and I couldn’t help but feel honored. Humbled, even, that she’d told me this much about her own emotions.
“You felt their grief? Their fear?” I asked.
“Yes. Like it was my own,” she murmured, clearly pained. “Like I lived through their lives and experiences myself—because that is what dreams are. Mixtures of memories and wishes, lost thoughts and persistent ideas. So, with the mothers whose dreams I fed on… I ended up understanding the struggle of creating a life and carrying it to term. In my heart, I felt the love, the pure and endless joy they experienced upon holding their child for the first time, which is why I cannot comprehend any mother being as cold and as ruthless as Petra. Or Danika, for that matter. I just can’t.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She gave me a weak smile and exhaled as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “Does anyone else among your Reaper siblings know about this sensitive side of you?”
Dream shook her head. “Not really. Well, Nightmare has a clue, but that’s because of our twin-like bond. Among us First Tenners any kind of weakness isn’t advised. The Spirit Bender’s actions are clear proof as to why. So, I’ve kept these emotions mostly to myself, and seeing Petra just now… I couldn’t stop it from coming back to the surface. It’s been a while since I’ve fed on a mother’s dream, but the memory of those sensations persists. It intensifies if awakened.”
A Shade of Vampire 85: A Shard of Soul Page 5