“Are you sure?” Eira asked me.
I smiled gently. “I’m positive. You’re not here just for me to protect you, Eira. You’re not some damsel in distress. You’re a Hermessi child, and I think it’s time you start using that position to its full potential.”
“Taeral makes a good point,” Lumi said. “And he’s more than equipped to be a spokesperson for GASP, as he’s half fae and there are five million of his people’s lives at risk before the ritual is even completed. Not to mention afterward.”
“That, plus the fact that he’s got the scythe,” Raphael replied with a cool grin.
“I appreciate the endorsement,” I said, giving Lumi a polite nod. “But I feel like you’re even more important in this endeavor. If the Word reacted against the Reapers, it might have something to say before Death, as well. That, along with your many years in this world, makes you an equally qualified spokesperson for GASP.”
Lumi laughed lightly. “Fine, we’ll share the credits.”
I couldn’t just teleport us all inside the castle because we didn’t know what might wait for us in there. We could easily get zapped into a potentially deadly trap, and Varga had been unable to see through the castle walls, regardless of the shrinking distance. We’d agreed on a calculated and cautious approach—weird spirits and cranky Reapers, we could handle, but we couldn’t risk pissing Death off before we even saw her.
“It sounds like a good plan,” Eva said. “Which means the rest of us will have to work out a good strategy to keep the Reapers and the ghosts distracted. Out here, I don’t see any spirits willing to attack us, which means the real work is closer to the castle.”
Looking down from the cliff, I was able to confirm her theory. “You’re right. I can see them. Fewer than before, though. And they’re not even watching us anymore. I bet we’ll have their full attention once we reach the palace again.”
“Okay. So how do we do this?” Varga asked. “We’ve got two swamp witches to work with, along with one jinni to zap us here and there. I think we need to calculate our resources carefully on this one, if we want Tae, Lumi, and Eira to make it inside.”
Baethal’s voice cut through the night like an unforgiving sword. “Or, and just hear me out here, you could all just turn around and get off Mortis before we have to take drastic measures against you.”
We all froze, our heads turning slowly to find Baethal, Wrik, and Theoth standing about fifty yards away from us, on the southern edge of the cliff’s peak. Their scythes were out, and they didn’t look like they’d come back to talk things through.
“Or I could give you another whiff of the Word for you all to understand that it really isn’t a good idea to piss off a swamp witch,” Lumi replied, her tone clipped.
Wrik grinned. “Our boss says we shouldn’t be scared of you. That a swamp witch is merely a conduit for the Word, and that the Word is quite capricious.”
“You’ve spoken to Death since the last time we met,” Lumi breathed, her eyes wide.
“Of course. We had to seek council,” Baethal replied. “Which is why I’m asking you one last time to leave, before I make you.”
That made us understand that Death didn’t want to see us. Then why did I still feel that strange pull coming from the palace? It didn’t make a lick of sense.
“We didn’t come all this way to be refused an audience,” I said.
“If we let anyone get near her, our necks will be on the line,” Theoth replied. “We really don’t want to do this, but if you insist, we will. And you know by now that one puny scythe won’t stop us.”
“Besides, our colleagues are here to reinforce the general message that you’re not welcome here,” Baethal added.
Surely enough, as soon as he spoke those words, we all saw about two dozen Reapers appear around us, each of them armed with a scythe. Their uniforms varied, though all were in shades of black and white. The one thing that was consistent about them was their clear order to keep us away from Death.
Despite the fear gathering in my throat like a ball of coarse yarn, I couldn’t bring myself to cave in, to turn around and leave, as they’d asked. We’d come too far, and we’d been through too much. Most importantly, our survival and our worlds depended on this one audience I wished to seek with Death.
The only challenge now was to get away from these Reapers, ideally unharmed, and find my way into Death’s palace, where I knew she was waiting for me. Why is she sending her agents and the ghosts after us, then? That was a question only she could answer. Regardless, I only had one option from this moment onward. Find Death and talk to her.
Harper
“You can’t hide that soul from us, Herbie!” Kill shouted as he lunged at us again.
Herbert managed to turn himself invisible and sneak out from the tight circle that the original ghouls had formed around us. He started running, his feet barely touching the thin layer of white moondust on the ground, as he moved faster and faster. After a few seconds, it felt more like flying at a low altitude.
Gripped by terror, I stayed quiet while using Herbert’s eyes to find the fastest way out of this mess. Sure, we’d gained extremely valuable intelligence just now, but it was worthless if I didn’t get back in one piece—and Herbert was bound to pay a deadly price for having made this detour. While I’d understood his decisions so far, I had to admit, this was a piss-poor way to end the whole trip.
“Don’t worry, I’m trying to get us to a high spot so I can jump off,” Herbert breathed as he glided across the barren field smattered with small craters. An asteroid shower had hit this moon a long time ago.
“You can run, but you can’t hide!” another ghoul hissed, not far to our right.
Kill whispered a word, something that sounded like, “Revellis,” but maybe I’d heard it wrong. He managed to touch Herbert—a mere slap on the shoulder—before Herbert dodged and moved away, the adrenaline pushing him to glide even faster. Whatever that word was, it had an unexpected effect. It made Herbert visible again.
What the hell? I thought, gripped by shock and fear.
It’s a trick he’s picked up from an ancient swamp witch. I’ll tell you about it when we get to safety, Herbert managed. He cursed under his breath and sped up. They were gaining on us, and they could see us now. This was some potent magic, to mess with a ghoul’s subtle form like that! I wondered if Ibrahim or Corrine or any of the other GASP witches were aware of it—from what I’d picked up, it was ancient, and I had not heard of it before.
Herbert dashed over the field and snuck through a cluster of stony hills. I could hear the ghouls’ steps just forty yards back—tap, tap, tap, tap. They were fast, and they seemed to be toying with us. They laughed as they directed each other to spread out.
The hills rose higher around us, then dropped, almost suddenly, and so did the ground level. It took Herbert by surprise. One of the original ghouls made it close enough to throw a leg out. It made Herbert trip—a downside to being stuck in his physical form. We fell and tumbled down into what looked like a steep ravine.
My field of vision changed rapidly—ground, stones, sky, then ground, stones, and sky again, over and over, until we came to a painful halt. Herbert grunted from the pain. His bony knees were scraped. His ankle was swelling rapidly. And the ghouls were getting closer.
I was helpless inside him. I didn’t have my abilities. I couldn’t use Telluris to reach out for help. My worthlessness was close to throwing me into a full state of panic, until I noticed a narrow crevice not far from us. “Herbert, look to your left,” I whispered.
He did and saw it. I could feel his hope blossoming, his dark blood pumping as he pulled himself up. He made a run for it, and Kill missed us with his claws by mere inches. The others came in from the sides and moved in on us. But Herbert bolted and slipped through the crevice.
He didn’t stop, snaking between the few inches of space we had, his shoulders occasionally scratching the rough stone walls. Oh, I miss my subtle form already,
I heard him grumble internally.
When will you get it back? I asked.
A few minutes, maybe. It’s a short-term spell, but these few minutes might be the end for us right now.
The darkness swallowed us, and all I was left with was my hearing—the incessant scraping and tapping of original ghouls’ feet and claws as they climbed through the crevice to catch us.
Light burst ahead, and I prayed to all the gods that we’d survive this. Images of Caspian and my parents and my siblings flashed before me as the light grew bigger. We got out of the crevice and bolted to the right, higher up the ridge that stretched in front of us now.
“I need a higher altitude,” Herbert said, panting. “I can’t just jump from here, as malleable as space is for me.”
I understood that. He needed a certain velocity with which to pierce through the many holes in space he’d told me about. And that wasn’t helping, given that the ghouls were hungrily chasing after us. Herbert glanced back for a moment and spotted them—mere ripples through the air, invisible, as they were on the hunt.
“You’re not getting out of here with that soul,” Kill said from somewhere in front of us.
It brought Herbert to a sudden and dusty halt. The air shimmered lightly about ten yards up the ridge. Kill lunged at us, and Herbert’s body was paralyzed. He was no match for these original ghouls, and we were in so… much… trouble…
A distant bang made Kill stop just as he revealed himself to us, his long black claws out and ready to slice Herbert in half. It was quickly followed by a fireball—it came down and swallowed Kill whole. The ghoul screamed in agony and managed to scramble away from it. The fireball grew larger, the flames licking at the sky.
It was enough to scare the others back, as well. Herbert and I were equally confused, until a familiar voice beamed from the blazing manifestation. “Harper, you were supposed to go straight to Neraka,” Ramin said, and I almost cried with relief.
The original ghouls hissed and snarled at us, but Ramin moved around and positioned himself between them and Herbert. He assumed his humanoid figure, the flames burning menacingly hotter. It made Herbert move back, too, his body heating up beyond his comfort limits.
But it worked in keeping the original ghouls at bay.
“You don’t get to just walk away with a soul, you mangled little worm!” Kill bawled, frustrated and enraged, his chest swelling with every breath.
“I don’t understand what he’s saying,” Ramin said calmly, “but I think he will understand me when I say that he and his friends had best be off and on their way.”
As a Hermessi, Ramin didn’t speak the ghoulish language. “It doesn’t matter what he’s saying,” I said, knowing that Ramin couldn’t hear me anymore. We couldn’t really communicate, but Ramin’s intentions were clear.
He’d taken a great risk coming after us, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. Maybe he was worried about me. Or maybe he didn’t trust Herbert. Either way, I was beyond thankful to see him here.
“I suggest you and Herbert get away, as well,” Ramin said, advancing toward the original ghouls. He was well aware that I could still hear him, and that Herbert understood him. “I may not be able to kill them, but I can keep them busy for a little while.”
Herbert didn’t wait to be told twice and dashed up the ridge. As soon as we reached the top, he turned around, and we both saw the original ghouls trying to slip past Ramin. But the Fire Hermessi spread out like an angry forest fire.
“This is our chance,” Herbert said. “They’ll evade him eventually.”
He took the plunge into the abyss that stretched beyond the cliff, black and quiet and eager to swallow us. A moment passed in heavy silence, until Herbert opened his eyes again, and we found ourselves drifting in that little slice of space between Neraka and its moons.
The illuminated marbles orbited quietly around Neraka, but I could still see the small fire burning on the white moon. “We were stupidly lucky,” I managed, fear constricting around me like a hungry snake.
“I’m sorry,” Herbert replied. “We’re good, now. We’ll feel Neraka’s pull in a few minutes.”
I was closer to my body. I could hear my own heart beating, louder than ever.
Green light swooshed past us, headed straight for the white moon. It looked like a spear made of pure energy. A blue light joined it from behind. “Oh, no…” I breathed, realizing what was happening.
A white light shot from our left, coming from Neraka. These were the planet’s Hermessi, flying toward the moon. They’d sensed Ramin’s presence nearby, and they’d instantly reacted. They were going to destroy him.
Streams of pink stardust swelled around Neraka, and more lights separated from them, all aiming for the moon. Horror chilled me to the point where I couldn’t even speak, as Herbert and I watched the disaster unfold.
Dozens of Hermessi, not just the Nerakian ones, converged on the white moon, determined to catch and destroy Ramin. Brendel had likely instructed them all to be on the lookout, to wait for him, knowing he’d come back eventually.
“It’s not your fault,” Herbert said, picking up on my thoughts.
I felt guilty, of course. Had it not been for this detour, Ramin wouldn’t have had a reason to intervene. He’d probably been watching us from a distance. Oh, what a stupid thing we did…
“No, I did it,” Herbert replied. “This is on me, Harper, and I am truly sorry.”
Explosions tore into the dark side of the moon, where I’d last seen Ramin. The light spectacle would’ve been a beautiful sight to any amateur astronomer, but to me, it was a dreadful thing to see. Ramin had risked his own destruction to make sure I’d be safe.
Like clockwork, Neraka’s pull could be felt. It was as if a magnet was sucking us farther away from the moons, from the sparkling flashes. “You’ll be home soon,” Herbert said. “And I hope, someday, you will forgive me. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
I sensed his remorse. It was genuine. I found it difficult to blame him because, in the end, we’d learned about Thieron. And as the darkness crept around and consumed me, my entire being relaxed. I heard my own blood rushing, the heart pumping stronger than ever.
Slipping into unconsciousness, all I could do was hope that, by some twist of fate, Ramin would survive that encounter. That Neraka’s Fire Hermessi wouldn’t perish. His son would replace him, then… and that meant one more enemy to add to our increasingly long list of elemental foes.
“Harper, baby… Can you hear me?” Caspian’s voice came through, like the sweetest music to my ears. I’m here, I wanted to say, my heart breaking for Ramin. I’m coming, my love.
Caspian
I held Harper close, her heartbeat drumming louder in my ears. We were both submerged in the hot water pool in the royal palace of Infernis. The heat seeped through my skin, my pulse racing as hope began to burn inside me.
“Come on, Harper,” I said, pulling us both back to the surface of the pool. I’d made a habit of holding us both down for as long as possible to make sure every single part of her body was warmed up. Zane was quick to remove the oxygen masks, while Fiona sat on the edge with baby Sophia in her arms.
“Any change?” she asked.
I nodded. “I think so. Her heartrate is picking up.”
“Attagirl.” Zane grinned with delight, gently touching Harper’s wet hair.
I’d been feeling her closer for the past hour or so. At first, I’d thought it was just my imagination, but it quickly became apparent that I wasn’t dreaming any of this. That Harper’s spirit was somewhere nearby, as she tried to make her way back to her body.
My very soul ached for her, and I prayed I’d see her open her eyes soon. Fiona reached out with one hand and gently pressed it against Harper’s face, while I settled her in a semi-seated position on the upper step of the hot water pool. Her lower body was still submerged, the bubbling spring foaming around her waist.
“Her temperature is okay. It’s not droppi
ng anymore. On the contrary,” Fiona breathed.
“She’s coming back,” I managed and looked at Harper. “Come on, baby. I’m here, I’m waiting for you. Follow my voice, if you can. Please…”
Silence reigned supreme for the following five minutes, until her eyes snapped open, and I gasped. She sucked in a deep breath, after having been out cold for so long. Wheezing and panting, she nearly jumped out of the pool. I held her close, my arms wrapped tightly around her as she came to her senses.
“Harper… Are you okay?” Zane asked, his voice low and endearingly filled with concern.
“I… Yeah, I think so,” she murmured, looking into my eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I cannot describe how happy I am to see you awake again,” I replied and kissed her with all the love and longing I’d bottled up inside me. The sublime taste of her made my lips tingle. It filled my heart to the brim with nothing but joy and relief, to the point where it hurt. She welcomed me, her tongue slipping through. I deepened the kiss, and we held on to one another as if the end would come soon, and we’d never have a chance to feel each other like this ever again.
I covered her face with soft pecks, grateful to have her with me again. My life was empty and meaningless without her, and the worst part was that I’d actually contemplated what such an existence would be like, while waiting and praying for her to return.
“I’m so glad to feel this again,” she gasped, raising her hands and stretching her arms. She began to shiver, her teeth clattering, and I helped pull her back into the hot water. “Ugh… bit of a shock there.”
“You’ll be okay,” I replied. “You’re adjusting.”
“Where the heck have you been?” Fiona asked. “I mean, Ibrahim and Phoenix gave us the rundown after your surprise visit, but girl, there are gaps you need to fill for us!”
A Shade of Vampire 73: A Search for Death Page 19