We were all speechless and motionless, watching Kelara as she completed her spell. As soon as the circle was locked, the ripples stopped. The blue glow dimmed but didn’t leave Crane’s body. Silence settled across the sanctuary as the Hermessi’s access into the physical world was, once again, limited.
Kelara scowled at Crane’s body, muttering something.
“I can’t hear her. She’s too far away,” I said.
Rudolph tapped his scythe with one finger. The blade zinged—a sound quickly followed by the amplified voices of Kelara, Mona, Arwen, and Kailani. The other living GASP agents picked themselves off the floor and spread out to get the fallen crystal casings back on their solid bases.
“You’re a Reaper,” Mona repeated herself.
“Whoa…” I gasped, looking at Rudolph. “What did you just do for me to hear them?”
“I enhanced the sounds’ ability to travel across this space, that’s all,” Rudolph replied. “You said you couldn’t hear.”
I smiled briefly, my tears already drying. “Thanks.”
“You helped us,” Arwen said to Kelara. “Why?”
“Because someone I know made a good point, and I was being too stubborn to accept it,” Kelara replied, eyeing me for a moment. “Crane is dead. His body was overtaken by the Hermessi. What I did is only a temporary fix, but, for everyone’s sake, I suggest you get him and his crystal casing as far away from here as possible.”
Mona scoffed. “The bastards made it through…”
“The ritual isn’t complete, though,” Arwen said, slightly confused.
“The affected fae can die before that. Their bodies can still be used as conduits,” Kelara reminded her. “Once they hit five million, they’ll have enough power to wipe out everything that is living in this dimension and the next, at least.”
Kailani made her way back to Arwen and Mona, her legs shaky and weak. “How do we get him out of here?” she asked. “I suppose that circle thing you made is what’s keeping the Hermessi contained.”
“I’ll help you,” Kelara said. “I’m not supposed to intervene like this, but…”
“What changed?” I wondered aloud.
Rudolph chuckled. “She grew a conscience.”
“She did the right thing,” Ben retorted.
“How can they see Kelara? Why’d she reveal herself?” Caia asked.
“It’s a complicated spell,” Rudolph said. “It required her physical form to be revealed.”
“Can any of you Reapers do it?” I replied.
He winced. “Not really, no. I mean, not all of us are strong or educated like that. I think Kelara speaks to Death. I think Death taught her.”
I remembered that little-known fact about Death. She didn’t speak to all the Reapers telepathically, though they were all aware of her, and they were linked to her. No, she only spoke to Reapers in certain tiers, and I knew Seeley was one of them. If Rudolph was right, then Kelara was like Seeley. She had Death’s attention and support. I’d bet on the right horse, it seemed.
“Are there more of you here?” Kailani asked Kelara, who nodded in return.
“It’s time you know what’s going on in this sanctuary. In all the sanctuaries,” she said. “It’ll help you prepare for the worst that’s yet to come.”
I breathed the heaviest sigh of relief. Finally, she was doing at least a part of what I’d been asking of her. She wasn’t going to reveal us—not yet, anyway, as I continued to hope I’d eventually convince her to do that, too. But she was about to tell Kailani about us, about the life-chains and the spiritual touches that helped heal some of the blackened links, and about the risks that some of the fae souls unwillingly posed to the living—like Crane. His Reaper stayed with him, and I knew it was only a matter of time before Crane would leave us, before he’d let go and allow himself to be reaped.
The Hermessi’s power continued to grow, and we were all still scheduled to die, at least for now. But GASP had finally gotten a thread of help from another Reaper. Kelara was coming through for us, telling them everything they needed to know to up their game against the next stage of the ritual.
All we could do was hang on for dear life. But GASP could do a bit more.
Taeral
We were faced with impossible choices.
The one time we’d fought a Reaper, we would’ve gotten ourselves killed, had it not been for that second Reaper’s intervention. And Yamani was infinitely younger than the Widow Maker standing before us. The guy’s name was a clear enough message on its own. It wasn’t even a proper name. It was a nickname. How would we ever fight him and win?
None of our abilities or the magic at our disposal were any match for him. No matter what angle I looked at this from, it wouldn’t go well for us. Normally, we’d have gone ahead and fought him. We’d have given it our best shot. But we stood to lose our one and only shot at Eirexis—the first of three things that could save our worlds from the Hermessi’s ritual.
As much as I hated even thinking about it, I knew that, deep down, we were all considering option B. One of us would have to willingly die as a sacrifice to Eirexis. It was our one chance to get it and continue our quest to complete Thieron. The glances we exchanged told me everything I needed to know, and it broke my heart, bit by bit, in slow motion, until tears made their way up to my eyes.
The Widow Maker stood on the edge of the pond, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“I’m giving you a reasonable choice,” he said. “Those before you were naïve enough to think they could actually beat me, unwilling to let any of their companions go.”
“They all came to you in groups?” Amelia asked, her voice weak.
“A quest like this requires teamwork, Blondie.”
“But Eirexis keeps itself hidden from people,” she said. “In our case, we had a scythe to guide us. How did the others before us see Eirexis, then?”
“Once the challenge to retrieve the pieces of Thieron is accepted, it becomes an invisible mark, of sorts. Eirexis, Zetos and Phyla reveal themselves once the challengers are close enough to touch them. Twisted, I know…Knights from all corners of the world have tried to get here. Many died on the way, unable to elude the Hermessi,” the Widow Maker replied. “The few who did… and there were…” He paused, counting with his fingers. He made it up to three. “Three. They came in pairs and squads. First, two high-ranked soldiers from Philloria.”
“Philloria?” I repeated, trying to remember whether it was known to GASP.
