“You were right,” Fallon-Kabbah continued. “I can do so much more. Therefore, here I am.” He chuckled, his arms stretched outward.
“Thank you,” I said. “We are forever in your debt.”
“Speak for yourself,” Herakles grumbled, scowling at Fallon-Kabbah. “Why can’t you just come talk to us without possessing Fallon? I don’t get it. It’s messing with him.”
Fallon-Kabbah scoffed. “He’s a good conduit. I wouldn’t have been able to pull that dazzling number just now, had it not been for his strong, hybrid body. So zip it,” he said and shifted his focus back to me. “We don’t have time to dilly-dally, Eva. As we speak, Brendel is being advised by my virulent reaction to her lieutenants’ invasion of Nevertide. This puts my daughter at risk, so I need you all to move fast once we’re done with this conversation.”
Without a second to waste, we all nodded in agreement.
“What do you suggest?” I asked.
“Well, first of all, cover your asses,” he said, producing a fresh bouquet of Devil’s Weed from behind him. He tossed it over to us. Acantha caught it and distributed the sprigs evenly among us. “Brendel pulled a fast one on you between worlds, and you didn’t even see it.”
“That was a crappy magic trick,” Varga muttered.
“Brendel has bested many people, young vampire-sentry. Do not feel ashamed,” Fallon-Kabbah replied. “Making things disappear is just one of her many skills, when she’s in good shape. Which, I’m afraid, is the case. Her influence is growing. And that brings us to the next topic of our meeting. Word has it—and word travels fast among the Hermessi—that you met with Death and got yourselves a mission.”
I smiled. “You didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who listens to gossip.”
Admittedly, I did enjoy yanking his chain, even with the risks such lines implied. He seemed to like it, too. We’d established a strange rapport where, despite the constant possibility of him snapping me in half if I pissed him off, he still allowed me to poke and prod him. An anti-friendship, of sorts.
“You’ve been lucky so far,” Fallon-Kabbah said. “But now it’s time to be smart. I did some digging while you were away, and I figured out a few things. You know, the old-fashioned putting of two and two together. I believe you’ve been acquainted with a concept of Thieron, so far?”
“We were told about it, yes,” Taeral replied. “Finding it is our objective. Death needs it to stop Brendel and her Hermessi.”
Fallon-Kabbah nodded. “Indeed she does. But she doesn’t know where its pieces are. The thing is, you brave little things, if you find one piece, it will lead you to the next, then the third. All you need is to find the first, Eirexis.”
“Okay, that sounds fantastic. Where, though?” I replied dryly. “Where do we even begin our search?”
“Didn’t I just tell you that I’ve been doing some digging?” Fallon-Kabbah sneered at me. “You impatient, dazzling creature, you.”
I couldn’t help but feel flattered. The Earth Hermessi of Nevertide sure knew how to surprise and compliment me, despite his biting snark and evasive demeanor.
“I take it you know where Eirexis is?” I asked innocently.
“It’s been on Cerix for at least four million years, since Thieron was snatched from Death’s hands,” Fallon-Kabbah replied.
Eira sucked in a breath. “Whoa.”
“On Cerix?” I repeated, stunned by the revelation.
Was this the universe playing a trick on us? How could all the roads lead back to Cerix like this? We had a history with that place, and we’d only been there for a few days. We’d taken Eira away from it to keep her safe. We’d lost Inalia to it. And now, we were expected to just… go back?
Then again, what choice did we have?
The worlds that we knew and loved, along with the many others we had yet to discover, depended on us to do this, to find Eirexis, then the rest of that damned scythe, so Death could do her part in stopping the apocalypse. So, yes, if our journey was to take us to Cerix next, we had to go, regardless of the risks.
Taeral
Returning to Cerix was incredibly dangerous. Even Inalia couldn’t help us once we got there. Eira would be in danger, too, since Brendel had made a habit of abducting Hermessi children and keeping them hostage to force their parents into submission. Acquis’s intervention was out of the question, because of that. Eira had left Cerix for that precise reason, so as not to put her father at risk, so he could continue to do his secret work against the others.
But it seemed as though we had no other choice.
“Do you know where, on Cerix, exactly?” I asked Kabbah.
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at my scythe. “That pig-sticker might come in handy. Just pay attention.”
“Thank you,” Lumi said. “Kabbah, your support is incommensurable.”
Fallon-Kabbah shrugged, wearing a sheepish smile. “Least I could do. Not much else to expect from me, for now, though. I’ll have my hands full with Brendel in no time.”
“Good luck with that. Now, let Fallon go already,” Lumi snapped.
Kabbah chuckled softly. A split second later he was gone. Fallon exhaled sharply, his skin recovering its pearlescent shimmer as he gripped his own throat, coughing and catching his breath. “He really needs to stop doing this.”
Varga hugged his parents and asked the guards to take them to their safe spot. “The palace should be off limits until we resolve this,” he said. “The Hermessi have become far too brazen, even on Nevertide.”
“You be safe, my son,” his dad replied.
“I will do my best. I promise.” Varga smiled.
Amelia notified Rose of our impending arrival as we made our way out of the throne room and into the portal chamber. It was barely standing, parts of the ceiling and the roof above already collapsed, revealing a starry night sky. But the portal was there, seemingly unbreakable by the wrath of the ritual-obsessed Hermessi.
We bid our farewells to Ash and Ruby, watching them leave in the company of their sentry guards. There were underground tunnels connecting the palace to various locations across the empire, including a safe bunker where the emperor and his family would be housed, in case of emergency. This certainly qualified as that.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” I said as we stopped in front of the portal, its mist dark and gray.
Lumi prepared the coordinates for The Shade and completed the portal’s activation, while the rest of us watched her, lost in our thoughts. We were exhausted but pumped up, unwilling to let go, determined to keep fighting until we found our way out.
