“Not hearing from Taeral is putting me on edge,” Claudia replied. “I asked Nuriya to try again, but she’s yet to get an answer from them.”
We also knew not to push it with the comms systems. “They’ll get in touch when they can,” I said. “You know they can’t waste a second out there just putting our worries to rest.”
“Varga is resourceful and incredibly driven,” Sofia added.
Mona chuckled. “Oh, honey, that boy will cut the Fire Star in half by whatever means necessary, if he has to.”
Yuri smiled, holding Claudia in his arms. “I keep telling her that,” he said, glancing down at his wily wife, “but a grandmother is still a grandmother.”
“Jeez, you sure know how to make a girl feel young.” She scoffed, her head resting on his chest.
“Claudia, Mona is right,” Corrine replied. “Varga is as sharp and as determined as Elonora. She pulled through on Strava, didn’t she?”
Claudia nodded slowly, but her frown didn’t go away. “Strava ain’t the Hermessi…”
“I’m anxious about Amelia, too,” Sofia said. “She’s basically like a daughter to me. I love all the Hudsons as much as my own family. But I know she can hold her own. I’ll bet Horatio and Aisha are just as nervous about Riza. Gah, not to mention poor Nuriya…”
“Where are Horatio and Aisha, by the way?” Ibrahim asked. “I thought they’d be joining us here.”
“They stayed back and joined Nuriya in running the Fire Star. Riza doesn’t know it yet. They got there after her crew left,” I said. “Upside is they will be more than happy to zap over wherever she may be to help her, if needed. And it’s good for Nuriya, too. She’s overwhelmed.”
“Any word on Sherus yet?” Claudia asked.
I shook my head, wishing I had something better to tell her. “Nothing yet. Brendel is definitely the one who took him. We just need to figure out where she might’ve planted him. Phoenix and the others in the intelligence branch are looking into this. Hopefully, they’ll have some news soon.”
Mona sighed, her lips briefly pressed into a thin line. “Do you think she’ll hurt Sherus?”
“I doubt it,” Ramin interjected from Kafei’s side. “She’s using him as leverage. She won’t kill anyone she can use.”
“But Taeral won’t give in to her demands, if she makes them,” I said. “We all know he’s not going to stop until he gets Thieron, and that’s exactly what Brendel is trying to prevent. It’s why she took Sherus, in the first place.”
Silence settled over the ship. Ramin seemed to take a moment to think about it. “I’m not sure how I can answer that. I don’t know what Brendel will do once she understands Taeral’s determination is unbreakable. She just doesn’t strike me as an entity capable of killing out of pure vengeance. There is always a precise purpose in her actions. A goal she must reach. She had Brann destroyed when he made contact with his daughter because she knew she could use Inalia in his place. She had Mount Agrith torn down to send a message to GASP about repercussions from using the pink waters. She is ready to destroy entire dimensions, simply to fulfill a ritual tradition… She’s likely to use Sherus more, going forward. I just don’t know how.”
And that was what scared me the most. Sherus was our friend and one of the most trusted allies of GASP. We’d been through so much together, and we’d shared incredible moments over the years. His fate hanging like this made my skin crawl. He deserved better than this, and so did his wife and son.
Hopefully, our intervention on Yahwen would deal a powerful enough blow to Brendel to make her slip up. We needed our enemy to make significant mistakes, now more than ever.
“Everyone, brace yourselves,” Kafei finally announced. “We’re about to reach Pax.”
From there, Kafei would do another interplanetary spell and take us to Yahwen. I could see the planet of Pax clearly—a silver marble that orbited a small, reddish star. It was lonely in its path, surrounded by several random asteroids that had been caught in the star’s gravitational pull. Pax’s air was not breathable, but we’d come prepared for that, as well.
Claudia brought over a portable tank of oxygen and a connected helmet for Kafei as the spell began its descent toward Pax. The young swamp witch would then go outside and draw another pentagram for the interplanetary spell, and I would use the shuttle’s thrusters to position it smack in the middle.
Sofia and I exchanged hopeful glances. Maybe this was our time to truly make a difference, or at least die trying. We’d agreed not to bring up the prospect of death, but we were both well aware of the possibility. I, for one, wanted to go back to The Shade once this was over and start planning for the nursery. We wanted a child and a better future, and we were ready to do whatever it might take to get there.
Most importantly, we wanted our son, our daughter, and our granddaughters safe and healthy again. Ben was waiting for all of us to pull through on different ends, and I looked forward to seeing him awake, to holding him in my arms and never letting him go. But first, we had some Hermessi children to abduct. It sounded so horrible, yet it was so necessary.
Harper
With everything that had been going on, I’d decided not to waste a single second without working against the Hermessi. I’d told Ramin about Derek and Sofia’s mission for Yahwen, and I’d prayed to all the gods and powers out there to watch out for Taeral and his crew. But I was still on Neraka, and Ledar was still in the Infernis prison.
He’d begged me not to take his powers away, and he’d even offered information if we let him loose. We’d told him he wasn’t useful to us anymore, but that had been solely to stop him from squirming. I didn’t want him to have any sort of leverage against us.
However, I did need to mine him for intel. He knew more than us about Brendel and her operations, for sure. All I had to do was make him talk. That, in itself, would be a challenge, because he was angry and bitter, stripped of his Hermessi heritage and reduced to living out the rest of his life as a plain ol’ daemon, stuck in prison for the rest of his life. Not that there was any shame in that. On the contrary, the daemons, while not particularly gifted in terms of supernatural abilities, were exceptional hunters and incredibly strong and resilient creatures. I saw glory in their existence, and I thought it was a shame that Ledar didn’t see it, too.
I walked into his cell unannounced, while Caspian and Zane stayed outside, ready to intervene if needed. I doubted that would be the case, since Ledar had a thick iron collar around his neck, impossible to break and connected to the wall through a solid chain. As long as I kept my distance, he couldn’t touch me.
“Are you sure you don’t want us in there?” Caspian asked from behind.
“No. I’m good. Stop hovering. I love you,” I shot back and motioned for him to lock the cell door behind me. I heard Zane chuckle behind him and turned to face Ledar.
The young former Hermessi child was understandably surprised to see me here. He sat on his bed, elbows resting on his knees. The inside of his cell was as gloomy as I’d expected—nothing but gray walls and a single square window with meranium bars that allowed him a view of the city. Always within his reach, yet so far away.
I shuddered at the thought of spending the rest of my life in a cube like this. Ledar, however, deserved it. Instead of siding with us living creatures and his brethren, he’d chosen to serve the Hermessi in their quest to destroy us. On top of that, he’d turned against his own father. Granted, Ramin had not been present in Ledar’s life, and that had been a big mistake, but still, it wasn’t enough to justify this level of treachery, especially since Ledar had gone as far as to try and kill him. It was unforgivable from every possible angle.
“What are you doing here?” he growled, but didn’t move.
Measuring me from head to toe, his gaze settled on my twin swords. He could see their hilts poking out from behind me. I also carried knives in my boots, but I hoped I wouldn’t have to use them.
“We need to talk,” I said. “You mentioned having information. It’s time you hand it over.”
His smirk quickly got on my nerves. “I thought you said I was useless to you. Is that no longer the case?”
“I figured you were just desperate to get out of the mess you got yourself into by showing up on Neraka,” I shot back. “Then, I heard you were trying to negotiate for better prison conditions, still claiming you had potentially useful Hermessi intel. So, I thought I’d come by and see what it is you’ve got to share.”
He stood up and leaned against the window’s edge, crossing his arms. “I don’t think I can trust you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh lightly. “Okay. Then let me make something clear. The Hermessi on Neraka have no use for you anymore, and therefore no reason to break you out of jail. Meanwhile, you’ve been running your mouth to the prison guards about intel on the Hermessi and the ritual, and Ramin isn’t here to protect you. Do you really think you’ll survive another day in here, unless I have you moved to another location?”
