Amelia gasped as soon as she touched me. “Holy moly, I can see them. Up there, on the cliff!”
I’d asked for them to touch me so I could teleport them to where the three figures were, but I hadn’t expected them to be able to see them simply from physical contact with me. Even so, I welcomed the development.
“So, touching someone with the scythe reveals Reapers,” Raphael concluded, his voice low. “But how come I can see them, too?” he asked. “I’m not touching you directly.”
“It’s got to be some kind of transference,” Lumi suggested. “We’re all physically connected. I bet the scythe affects all who touch its handler, even through indirect contact.”
“Mm-hm. Now, hold on,” I replied and zapped us all on top of the cliff.
This time, however, the Reapers didn’t move. They simply turned around to face us. Curiously eyeing them, Lumi broke contact, no longer connected to my scythe. She smirked. “I think they’ve made themselves visible to us all. I can still see them.”
“Who are you?” I asked them. “Why are you showing yourselves?”
From up here, the night sky was even more beautiful, though as peculiar as the first time I’d laid eyes on it. The view itself was astonishing. Lanterns seemed to light up parts of the forest, lining snaking pathways that led in one direction. Miles away, where the glowing trails met, was a massive mountain with a flat top.
On it, a majestic building had been erected, with pagoda-style modular roofs, put together like a mismatched puzzle. Waterfalls gushed from beneath it, on all sides, in clear and crystalline streams that stole some of the moonlight from above before they spilled into a ring-shaped pond that surrounded the mountain.
“Those lights weren’t there before,” Eira mumbled.
“And what is that place?” Amelia asked, unable to take her eyes off the waterfall building. We could see candlelight gleaming from inside, a soft sheen of amber that permeated what had to be thin, maybe paper walls. A chill slithered out of there, creeping through the woods, back down the illuminated paths, up this very cliff, climbing up my spine.
“I didn’t think you’d be so reckless,” the blond-haired Reaper said. Those flanking him looked like copies of him—they had the same type of black-and-white tunic, the almond-shaped eyes. Only the hair was different, though they all wore it long and softly combed down their backs. The second Reaper had black hair, as black as a crow’s feather. The third was redheaded, a delicate scarlet cascade. All males, all cold and eyeing us with a mixture of contempt and curiosity.
“We have nothing better to do,” I shot back, “since you won’t tell us where we are. So, who are you?”
The red-haired Reaper spoke first. “I’m Wrik. This is Baethal,” he said, pointing a thumb at the blond one. “And this is Theoth.”
“Okay. At least we have some names. Thank you,” I replied, giving him a polite nod. “It’s much appreciated.”
Wrik grinned. “It’s common courtesy. You’ll have to forgive Baethal; he’s a little antisocial. He’s been out here for a long time. Why, it took quite an effort for him to tell us what he’d witnessed earlier in the woods. I think you rattled him.”
“Though he’ll never admit it.” Theoth chuckled.
They seemed more relaxed than Baethal, who was clearly uncomfortable and not at all eager to talk to us. Even so, despite his earlier evasive maneuvers, he didn’t go anywhere. On the contrary, they’d all revealed themselves to us. Based on our previous Reaper experiences, I had to ask:
“What are you three doing here?”
“That is not your concern,” Baethal shot back, scowling at me as if I’d just insulted him.
“Baethal, my good friend, if you want to get rid of these people, you can at least tell them how to get out of here,” Wrik said to him.
“Where are we, exactly?” Lumi asked. “Nobody wants to answer that basic question.”
Wrik smiled, though I couldn’t consider it genuine. It was cold and necessary, not something meant to illustrate any kind of friendliness. With the little we knew about Reapers, to begin with, I doubted they were the buddy types. “You can go back through the pink waters, you know.”
“Again, you’re dodging my question,” Lumi replied.
“The pink waters will take you home, if you think of home,” Wrik continued, ignoring her.
Amelia frowned. “We’re not sure where the pink waters might take us,” she said. “We don’t know how they work. The risk of getting stranded elsewhere is worse than being stuck here.”
“Oh, but… Wait, you didn’t know.” Wrik chuckled. Theoth and Baethal seemed equally amused. “You had no idea, when you first jumped into that pink water, did you?”
“I’m confused,” Amelia said.
“The pink water reacts like a wormhole, but its destination is always in your hands. Whatever place crosses your mind, that’s where it will take you,” Wrik explained. “I can’t believe you just went in, without knowing where you would end up.”
“How did we get to Hellym, the first time, then?” Raphael asked, looking at Amelia.
“I… I have no idea. I didn’t know where it would… Oh, dear.” She paused, pressing her lips into a tight, straight line.
“Go on,” Raphael urged, as Amelia sucked in a breath and let it out, ever so slowly.
“I was thinking… I was, though just for a moment, thinking about possible destinations. Local destinations,” she said. “While we were swimming through that white space. But it was only a flicker, the briefest mention of Hellym in the back of my head, as I’d wondered whether the moons of Eritopia had pink water caves, too. Hellym’s name had been the first to come to mind. I didn’t even register that thought!”
Wrik sighed. “The pink waters obviously did.”
“It makes sense. Because while we were back down there, desperate to get as far away from Hellym as we could, I was thinking about finding Death,” Amelia said. She froze, her eyes bulging as she glanced at the three Reapers. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
The Reapers, however, didn’t look like they’d say much else. All three took out their scythes, prompting me to do the same with mine. “You should really go back to the pink water,” Theoth said. “Otherwise, we’ll make you leave, and you won’t like it.”
Lumi scoffed. “You boys are playing a dangerous game here.”
“You think you can take us, swamp witch?” Theoth shot back, pointing his scythe at her. “You haven’t danced with a Reaper, lady. You don’t know what it entails.”
“What in the world is going on here?” I asked, more and more confused. The rapid exchange thus far had only left me more baffled. Why were the Reapers so adamant about driving us away, all of a sudden? Why had Baethal said that we weren’t safe here? Was it because of this particular moment, which he’d perhaps seen coming? Or was it because of the strangeness oozing out of the waterfall building?
Lumi stepped forward. “What’s happening is that Amelia brought us to the right place without even realizing it. And now, these Reaper fellas think they can scare us away.”
