“This is incredible,” Caia exclaimed and ran to me.
She wrapped her arms around me, and I felt my entire being tingle, as the same light I’d seen between them finally emerged from my life-chain, as well. I heard the crackle of blackness as it fell off, landing on the floor in dark flakes. We both looked down and laughed.
“I can’t tell you how much I wanted to see you all,” I said, looking at her, at Ben, at Grace and Vita. I couldn’t get enough of them now—all of us stuck here in this spiritual limbo, in the same room for so long, yet only now able to see each other.
“You scoundrels! I knew you wouldn’t be too far away!” Lucas’s voice boomed through the sanctuary.
We all turned around to see him, joined by Kailyn—she seemed stunned and shaken, and I figured she’d not seen her Reaper until now. She’d had no idea we were all here. I felt sorry for her. Not knowing in a state like ours was simply awful. At least I and, apparently, the Novak bloodline had been aware of our suited companions.
The jingle of life-chains tickled my ears and delighted my soul as we shared another round of hugs and well wishes. We laughed and encouraged each other, emphasizing that our journey wasn’t over, not by a thousand years, even. I could see Kailyn relaxing gradually, as one of the links on her life-chain shed its blackness.
“You look all surly and ready to punch someone in the face.” Ben chuckled, gripping his uncle by the shoulders.
Lucas scoffed and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “That’s because my Reaper, Sidyan, over there, is a complete schmuck who’s kept me in the dark about you all!”
“I thought I was weirdly special for being able to see my Reaper,” I said. “Now, I see all you Novaks can see your Reapers, too.”
Kelara sighed, resisting an eye-roll. “You’re a four-element fae, Vesta, powerful enough for your spirit to see your Reaper. The Novak fae are… yes, special, I suppose. Ben and Lucas cheated Death, so we’d make ourselves seen to them, whether they would be able to see us or not… as for Grace, Vita and Caia… Yes, you can pin that on their Novak genes.”
“I cheated Death, too,” Kailyn replied. “And yet I didn’t see my Reaper until now.”
“Emera,” her Reaper said, introducing herself. Kailyn gave her a timid nod in return.
“You’re not a Novak, and you’re not as powerful either,” Seeley shot back, aiming a smirk at Kailyn. “I’m kidding. That’s not on you. Emera’s a little shy.”
Indeed, Kailyn’s Reaper blushed, lowering her head.
“Don’t worry, Great-Uncle Lucas,” Grace said. “Malleus didn’t tell me anything, either, until Kelara showed me my dad.”
Ben took her in his arms, as if fearful he might lose her again. Given how unpredictable this near-death state of ours was, he wasn’t being at all paranoid. Heck, he and Lucas had been ghosts, once. They understood this better than most of us, for sure, as did Kailyn.
“I had to obey the rules,” Malleus said, his brow furrowed and his jaw wide and square.
“Yeah, I know. You’re all suckers for rules,” I replied dryly, and gave Seeley a sideways smirk. I would’ve hugged him, too, but I didn’t want him to come across as soft to the other Reapers. I figured he had a rep to maintain. “Thank you for this.”
Seeley bowed politely. “Least I could do. I should thank you, in fact. Your persistence opened my eyes,” he said. “I’m not sure how much this will help, but it’s better than nothing.”
Vita looked down at her life-chain. “It’s cleaned up two of my links, so far. It’s definitely something!”
“Just don’t expect it to work all the time, or on everyone,” Emera cut in. She wore her brown hair short, in deep contrast with her pale skin and cherry-red lips. Kailyn had a hard time taking her eyes off of her. Unlike the rest of us, Aiden’s wife had been in the dark, basically, and barely able to speak at the sight of all of us together, along with our Reapers.
“What do you mean?” Kailyn asked. Emera seemed a lot more delicate than the other Reapers. Kelara stood out with cold fierceness, for example. Despite the fact that Emera had not revealed herself to Kailyn until now, there was a timid familiarity between them, as if Kailyn had, perhaps, sensed her. It wouldn’t have taken her long to understand the state that she was in, and the humans’ lore was rife with stories of death and Reapers and lost spirits. It wouldn’t have been hard to put two and two together. Besides, Seeley had told me a while back that Reapers could easily and discretely suggest their presence, without revealing themselves. The expression on Kailyn’s face didn’t illustrate shock or bewilderment, but rather a faint “I knew I wasn’t alone!”.
“Look over there,” Emera said, pointing at a group of fae spirits on the opposite end of the hall, closer to the doors. They seemed rather distraught and confused, repeatedly hugging one another without any effect. Their life-chains remained the same, with only two or three links left before the blackness would take over. Before they would… die. “They’re not all as fortunate as you, I’m afraid,” Emera added.
“But why?” I asked, feeling a pang of a maybe-survivor’s guilt, all of a sudden. “Why do we get these links back, and they can’t?”
“It might have something to do with heritage,” a male Reaper said, staying close to Vita.
“Tomassin may be on to something,” Seeley interjected. “You’re all Novaks, for example. There’s a common bloodline in you, and a voracious appetite for life, in general.”
“Hear, hear.” Lucas chuckled, wearing a devilish grin.
“Yeah, you, Kailyn, and Ben are anomalies,” Kelara snapped, pursing her lips. The irritation was obvious. “I doubt that’s what my esteemed colleague meant. You cheated Death!”
Seeley smirked, cocking his head to the side for a moment. “Actually, I mean them, too. Though Kailyn married into the Novak clan. Oh, and let’s not forget Vesta, here, who will not go away, no matter what. I’m willing to guarantee it. She will haunt the crap out of The Shade until the end of time.”
I blushed, fire igniting beneath the surface of my spiritual form.
“Attagirl,” Lucas chimed in, giving me an appreciative nod.
“It’s a weird time, when we’re joking about death like this,” Grace murmured, holding her father tight. “I don’t want us to die. I don’t want any of us to get kicked out of our bodies by the Hermessi.”
“So, you think it’s got more to do with the will to live, maybe?” Ben asked Seeley, keeping the conversation focused on the fae who’d yet to recover any of the links on their life-chains.
“I’m inclined to say yes,” Seeley replied. “Will to live, probably genetic heritage, too, like Tomassin suggested. Either way, what matters is that it works, at least for most of you.”
“Look at you, all optimistic,” I muttered.
He scowled at me. “Would you rather go back to what it was like before?”
“Nope,” I said with a flat smile. “I’m good.”
Sidyan sighed, drawing our attention. “Okay. So, what now, then?” he asked. “We let them see each other, but it won’t save them. At best, they’ve gained a couple more days on top of whatever time they had left, and I doubt that’ll do much to diminish the Hermessi’s current power. All we’ve managed to do with this is slow them down a bit. The number of influenced fae will continue to grow until the five million mark is hit.”
“They might notice, though,” Kelara said. “The Hermessi might sense the stall.”
“They won’t be able to do anything about it, since they can’t come after us. They’ll keep spreading their influence, intensifying their efforts against Taeral and his crew, even, but that’s about it. As for us, we will continue to help the fae stay alive for as long as possible,” Seeley replied. “Death’s directive. She doesn’t want the Hermessi to complete their ritual, and, until she is able to do something about it herself, she’s asking us for our support. We’ll do whatever we can to stop the life-chains from blackening completely.”
