“And then some,” I replied, my hands alight as I cast all the fire I could summon from within.
The flames served to heat up Spirit’s diamond wall. Death had taught me that fire, if used properly and in combination with other spells, could transcend the realm of life. Fire purified everything, even in the afterlife—not to mention in between, where death magic dwelled. And just as I’d suspected, the fire served me well.
Each of my projectiles pierced the diamond-like membrane that Spirit had put between us. They shot through him, puncturing his black tunic and leaving literal holes in him. A Reaper didn’t bleed, but he could still feel pain with the appropriate magic. Spirit cried out as the last of my projectiles punched through. The sheer force of multiple impacts sent him flying backward.
I zapped myself across the stretch of sand to reach him and pressed Thieron’s blade against his throat. I couldn’t stop the smile that crept across my face. “Sorry. I’m not supposed to enjoy this.”
It was my chance to do more. I had the weapon for it, too. Death had told me that if I had no other option, I could destroy the Spirit Bender. It was not to be my first option, she’d specified. She’d hoped to have the chance to deal with him herself before ending him. But this felt like the right moment to finish him off once and for all. There was fear in his galaxy eyes, and for a second, I fed on it. I allowed it to burn through me like sunlight on a bright summer day.
I raised Thieron above my head. Spirit was too hurt to fight me. His torso looked like a chunk of Swiss cheese. “So, you’re the one who killed me the last time, huh?” he asked, his breath ragged as he struggled to look at me. I’d weakened him significantly.
“Yes.”
“It’s not fair,” he mumbled, defeat finally etched into his features. He’d gone from arrogant monster to nimble and withered soul in a matter of seconds, and it was hard for me to process such a monumental shift.
“Everything you’ve done isn’t fair, either,” I replied, then brought the scythe down with all the force I had left. He snickered when the weapon bounced off him. The whiplash effect pushed me back, and I was momentarily dazed.
By the time I figured out what was happening, Spirit was back on his feet, the holes in his body slowly closing. He dusted himself off and retrieved his scythe from the ground while I telepathically cursed Death. She’d meddled directly this time. She’d reached beyond her seals and silenced Thieron, making it impossible for me to kill the Spirit Bender.
“What the hell is her endgame?! I don’t get it!” I gasped, distraught and exasperated. At every turn, Death had turned out to be both a great help and an irritating obstacle. Destroying Spirit was supposed to work in her favor, so why was she stopping me? Why had she been holding me back where he was concerned?
“I guess Mommy Dearest doesn’t want me gone just yet.” Spirit sighed, catching his breath. “Just as well. I intend to take advantage of her shortsightedness and finish what I started.”
“Damn it, I don’t… I’m not following,” I replied, still trying to figure out why Death had stopped me.
“We’re all toys for her to play with,” Spirit said. “She doesn’t want us gone. And when she does, it’s only for a minute or two. That’s the problem with entities like her, my friend. We don’t really matter. The people suffering. The lives lost. The so-called balance of the universe that you’re all so adamant about. None of it matters. If Death finds something enticing in a situation, she will go to great lengths to see it through. To find out how it ends. In this case, I’m guessing she wants to see which of her precious children will win. Me or Unending.”
I kept Thieron up, locked and loaded with a defensive spell. I didn’t trust anything that was going on, including Spirit’s sudden openness. “So you think she’s keeping you both alive by any means necessary just so she can see which of you crosses the finish line first? Is Death really that heartless and twisted?”
“For the billionth time, Death does not abide by your foolish moral codes,” Spirit groaned. “She doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what’s right and what’s wrong. She’s secretive and proud. She’s stubborn and mercurial. Why do you think I’m so determined to screw her over? Death has allowed me to get to this point, little prince! She wanted to see how far I could go. With the Hermessi, with the Thousand Seals, with my resurrection. This is a spectacle for her. An interesting show to watch. She has been playing you this whole time.”
“Then why am I here?” I asked, all the more confused.
“That’s something you need to take up with her, if she’ll even bother to answer.”
“I have Thieron. She’ll have to answer. And you… why are you stalling? What are you trying to do here?” I eyed him suspiciously.
The sky rumbled like a thousand lightning bolts had shot through it and broken it in half. Spirit muttered something under his breath as the aftershock pummeled us both into the ground. The island shook, and tidal waves rose in the distance. In a matter of minutes, the ocean would swallow this patch of dry land.
I pulled myself back up, sand falling from my hair and clothes. My whole body ached as I tried to understand what had just happened.
“And there goes the second seal,” Spirit said flatly.
“Why are you still here talking to me instead of going after Unending?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”
He pointed at the last healing holes. “You’ve made it hard for me to travel, so I need a second to recharge.”
“Oh, I don’t want that,” I said and proceeded to attack him.
Spirit waved me away with his scythe, launching a gust of icy wind that hit me hard across the chest. I felt the air leave my lungs, but I didn’t get my breath back. I ended up splayed in the sand again, a tidal wave looming to my right. The water was dark blue and opaque, the topside all white and foamy. “Don’t be foolish,” Spirit replied. “Now that I know how Death is playing this game, I plan to use every trick I have left. She’s going to regret it. You tell her that, because she hasn’t answered any of my calls.”
A second later he was gone, and I was left dumbfounded on an island that was about to get wiped off the face of the earth. “Death, if you’re hearing this, I need you to know that no matter how this ends, you and I are going to have a very serious talk when I get back!” I snarled up at the sky.
I had every intention of seeing this through—provided, of course, that I got off Visio alive and with Thieron still in my hands. The Spirit Bender was downright giddy about being in this situation. Death had found a way to spare him, and now he was going after Unending again. There weren’t words to describe the anger that had taken hold of me, but I’d be damned if I let the bastard win, even if Death herself had decided to give him another chance.
The helplessness was suffocating, but it was no match for my resolve, ironclad as ever. And as the wave came crashing down and swallowed the island, I teleported myself away, hoping that the tracking death magic I’d learned would get me back into the fight. My people, whether Death cared about them or not, depended on it.
Sofia
We were surrounded on all sides. Kailani and Lumi concentrated their magic on a smaller protective dome around Roano’s center, but it wasn’t enough. Darklings and Aeternae kept piercing through it. We fought them with everything we had. The Reapers were limited by wards that Corbin’s people had put in place as soon as they reached the city’s gates. Our ghouls had managed to break some of them—Trev had ordered a handful of them to go out and destroy the sigils as soon as the Reapers had noticed the hiccups in their spellcasting.
There were thousands of Aeternae coming at us now. The sounds of war and death were too much, and I was overwhelmed. My heart was the size of a flea as I emptied the last pulverizer clip into a Darkling, then switched to my sword. I left my claws and fangs for later, using most of my physical energy to hold up our defenses. Keeping the enemy at the end of my blade was better than close combat.
Derek was covered in sweat and
blood, but he, too, held his head up and kept fighting. Rose and Caleb were equally relentless. Seeley and Nethissis stuck together, their scythes glinting as they cast their attack spells. The air trembled and whistled with each ball of primordial energy that was fired at the Aeternae. Hunter tore through the crowd, leaving trails of torn limbs in his path. Amane and Amal worked together, using all the swamp witch magic they’d picked up from Lumi—blue balls of fire, luminescent shards that cut through bone, and firecracker spells that blinded and maimed those who got too close.
Ridan lashed his tail as he moved around our central compound, but the Knight Ghouls were constantly on him, scratching and biting and looking for his soft spots. More than once, they reached his wings and eyes, but the Widow Maker was quick to help him get them off. The enemy was strong, and our numbers were small.
The civilians were huddled together, smack in the middle of our makeshift base, and protected by double rows of Seniors and Orvisian Aeternae who’d promised to keep them safe. The fight seemed to go on forever as we resisted the constant flow of violence, but we weren’t going to last much longer.
Kalon was with the Orvisians, holding his brothers close while Esme fought by our side in the trenches. Several of our Senior fighters rode the Vision horses we’d brought with us from Orvis, roaming through the wretched crowds and slashing left and right. There was so much blood, it made me feel queasy, but the thought of losing this war was even worse.
“We have to do more,” Derek said. “We have to cancel the civilian protocol altogether.”
“Ridan can handle that!” Esme replied, then proceeded to take down a Darkling. I’d lost count of how many Aeternae we’d killed at this point. We’d been able to hold most of them back through swamp witch and death magic, but it didn’t seem to end. In fact, it was only getting worse.
“We said we wouldn’t hurt the civilian Aeternae, but they’re basically trying to slaughter us,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “We have to at least force them back.”
We’d killed plenty of them already, and Ridan had already let his fires rip by the southern gates, but we’d also agreed to control the intensity of our attacks. At least Nightmare and the other Reapers had sent their souls beyond. The Aeternae were being foolish and desperate, and we were still hoping that once all the seals were broken, they’d be forced to stop on their own. The problem was that Unending’s work was taking longer than we’d hoped, likely because Spirit was still after her.
“I agree,” Derek grumbled, then glanced up at Ridan. He shouted at the top of his voice, “Ridan! Fire at will!”
The dragon stilled upon hearing the command. For a moment, I noticed a glimmer of doubt in his amber eyes, but he dove right in, rising on his hind legs and spreading his wings. He released a devastating column of bright orange fire right into the Aeternae crowd beyond our trenches. We all ducked, as the heat from his flames made it harder to breathe.
I heard screams of agony. The Aeternae trampled one another in a mindless stampede as they tried to get away from Ridan, who kept throwing fire all around us. Within minutes, the dragon had cleared a large swath of land, putting about fifty yards between us and the enemy. They’d all moved back, watching those hit by the fire as they collapsed and burned to a crisp. It broke me to have to do this, but they’d left us with no other choice. In hindsight, I remembered Danika had not suffered the same—then again, I also remembered she’d had death magic tricks up her sleeve. It had stopped her from dying like these Darklings.
“They’ll set their sights on Ridan next,” Amane warned us.
“Say no more,” Widow replied, yanking Phantom by the collar. They both vanished and reappeared alongside Ridan. At least he had Reaper protection. I hoped it would be enough.
I turned to face Trev, taking deep breaths as I tried to hold back the shivers. “Have any of the ghouls returned yet?” I asked him, and he shook his head.
“There are too many Aeternae beyond the city walls. Even in their subtle form, our friends have their work cut out for them because they don’t know where the sigils are,” he replied. “They’ve found some, and that has certainly helped, but we still can’t teleport out of here.”
“They’re going to hold back for now,” Esme said. “While they figure out what they’re going to do about Ridan. This is one crappy limbo we’re in.” She scowled at the Aeternae army. Some wore gold or silver armor, but they looked positively frightened. Even so, I knew this was only a momentary respite.
“It’s better than nothing,” Derek replied. “I can’t get ahold of Tristan or Taeral. They cut off our comms and Telluris since before they initiated the attack.”
“Figures.” I sighed. “They took precautions. They’ve fought us before.”
“Yeah, they know some of our tricks,” Amane said, wiping the blood from her twin knives. Amal watched, her orange eyes wide. I wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, but who was I kidding? We had zero guarantee of survival at this point.
Mira and Kemi came back from the western side of the compound. Scratches were healing on their faces and torsos. There was caked blood in Mira’s hair as she tucked a lock behind her ear with a trembling hand. “We’ve lost a dozen people so far,” she said, her breathing ragged.
“Once they launch another assault, I imagine more of us will fall,” Kemi added. “We won’t stand a chance unless the ghouls clear all the wards, your ships come in, and Unending breaks the seals.”
It was all three things we needed, too, not just one. We needed the ghouls to succeed, we needed GASP to fly in, and above all, we needed Tristan and Unending to finish their job. Combing through my thoughts, I turned around several times, trying to take it all in. The Aeternae were so great in number, they looked like a blanket of black dots covering the land around Roano’s hilltop. Their war cries reached us in chilling echoes, but Ridan was kind enough to send back a few spine-tingling roars of his own. We’d reached a standstill, though not for long.
The Night Bringer cleared his throat. “I can try something, but I’ll need a little help.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, I’m limited by the wards, but I can draw power from a soul to amplify whatever spell I am casting,” he replied.
Derek and I exchanged glances before we both offered our own. “We’ll help,” my husband said. Night nodded slowly and motioned for us to stand beside him. I sucked in a breath as we flanked the Reaper, and he brought his scythe up.
His lips moved as he said the words and sub-words needed for this spell. “Put your hands on my shoulders,” he instructed us. We obliged, but Night suddenly stopped, shaken as he gazed at something in the distance. “Whoa…”
“What?” Esme asked.
She soon got her answer in the form of a crippling pulse that swept over the city. It knocked some of us down, raising waves of dust and ghoulish ashes in its wake. The sky growled and crackled even though it was perfectly clear and blue. Several of the stones still standing in Roano crumbled in the aftershock, while the Aeternae gasped, trying to understand what was happening.
“The second seal has been broken!” the Soul Crusher announced. “Unending is not only no longer bound to her rebirth cycle, she’s not bound to Visio, either.”
“All she needs now is her Reaper form back,” Morning murmured, a smile settling on her lips. And just like that, after days of struggling and fighting and mourning the losses of innocent lives, hope had returned with a vengeance.
“We’re so close,” Esme said to Kalon, her eyes twinkling. I wanted them both to be okay, just like I wanted to see Thayen back and alive. Esme was right—we were so damn close.
“Derek, look!” Caleb blurted, pointing up at the sky.
Finally, more good news on the horizon. Our GASP ships had broken through Visio’s atmosphere. Dozens of shuttles loaded with Perfects and Arch-Perfects, dragons, and a plethora of other allies from all over the Supernatural Dimension, the In-Between, and from The
Shade itself. Our whole federation had risen, no longer concerned with diplomacy on Visio.
The stakes were too high. The Aeternae had succumbed to desperation, resorting to violence and murder just to keep their immortality. What they’d done was unforgivable, and as much as it pained me, I rooted for the breaking of the third seal, which would mean the end of Aeternae and vampires alike. Once we were all mortal again, they’d have no reason left to keep fighting us.
I wasn’t sure how life would go for the rest of us, but it would be a life worth living, of that I was certain. Derek’s tense chuckle brought me back into the moment. “Look at that, babe. With the red haze gone, they found us in no time.”
“Soul, watch out!” I heard Trev shout.
I turned around to see Kelara jumping, headed toward something—it didn’t take long to figure out it was one of a handful of wandering souls that Nightmare had missed. There had been so much to do in a short span of time that some of the Darkling souls had managed to slip through his fingers. Kelara had lost it. She’d torn off the second rune collar, snarling and screaming, but Soul was quick to hook an arm around her waist and pull her back.
Nethissis moved closer to Seeley, almost out of reflex. I could only imagine the fear in the poor girl’s soul after she’d nearly gotten eaten by Kelara once already. Without hesitation, the Soul Crusher opened up a rip in the fabric of space. “I’m sorry, Kelara,” he said. Before she could react, he tossed her inside and closed it up, an unhappy expression on his face. Meanwhile, Nightmare cleared out the rogue souls.
“It’s for the best,” Dream tried to comfort him. “At least in there she won’t try to eat a soul. That means she still has a chance at salvation.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier,” Soul muttered, and I almost felt his pain as though it were mine. Few creatures in this world understood that kind of crippling hunger better than a vampire. Our first weeks after turning were incredibly difficult. Kelara meant well, but she was no longer in control, and if keeping her in an interdimensional pocket would save her, then I agreed with Dream.
A Shade of Vampire 86: A Break of Seals Page 10