She exhaled sharply. “I’ll have to get up.”

“Go easy. Use your arms, your elbows. Get into the corner, first. Take advantage of that angle,” I replied. Amelia nodded slowly, bracing herself for what was bound to feel like agony.

She grunted as she managed to pull herself up, putting a bit of weight onto her broken legs, too.

“Okay, good, good, now reach out,” I added, straining to bring Eirexis as close to her as possible.

With one fast breath, she hopped and cried out, but she caught it. First with one hand, then with both.

“That’s it! That’s it, baby!” I encouraged her, my heart swelling at the thought of holding her again. I gripped Eirexis tightly as she locked both hands on its other end. Inhaling deeply, I pulled Eirexis up, now significantly heavier with Amelia hanging from it.

My arm muscles burned. My position and the tight rope messing with my blood circulation were definitely making the whole endeavor much more difficult than it should’ve been. But it was worth it. Moments later, I had Amelia in my arms, along with Eirexis.

“Okay, pull us up!” I shouted. “Now!”

She wrapped her arms around my neck, Eirexis poking out from between us. “I owe you a lot for this,” she murmured in my ear.

“You owe me nothing. You’d do the same for me, and then some,” I replied. “I’m just glad I have you back, Amelia.”

“You know I’m crazy in love with you, right?” she asked, both of us feeling the tug as the crew joined forces to pull us back up the stone shaft.

“Is that the truth serum? I thought it wore off.” I chuckled, doing my best to make light of a horrific situation. She laughed lightly and kissed me, the softness of her lips reminding me of why all this was worth it.

“No, it’s just me, broken legs and open heart and all.”

“You’ll be okay,” I said, tightening my hold on her. “We’ve still got some healing potions.”

“I’ll need a lot for this,” she murmured, giving me a sad look.

By the time we reached the top, Lumi had already taken the cap off one of the remaining vials, with four more waiting to be used for this. Amelia pointed at the one in her hand as I helped her settle into a sitting position. “Just the one, Lumi,” she said. “You’ll need the rest for later.”

“Honey, with those fractures, you won’t heal fast enough,” Lumi replied.

Amelia sighed and handed Eirexis over to Taeral. The moment he touched it, its symbols lit up white, and we all heard the cracking from Amelia’s legs. She grimaced from what had to be some kind of pain but didn’t let go of Eirexis, even as Taeral tugged it.

“Wait,” she said, staring at her legs. “Guys. I think… I think my bones are fusing back together.”

“How?” Taeral asked, but quickly got his answer when Amelia pulled her hand back from Eirexis, and it stopped glowing. “Oh. Oh!”

He handed it back to her, without holding the other end. It didn’t do anything. The rest of us were astonished by what we were witnessing. Personally, I was relieved by this discovery and couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “Taeral, I think it only works if you touch it, too,” I said.

Taeral nodded and resumed the physical connection to Eirexis and Amelia. She laughed as her legs regained their healthy, natural form. Inside, the bones had healed in full. “This is new… and fantastic!” she exclaimed.

My head felt light. Not just because of what we’d now learned that Eirexis could do, but also because of Amelia’s earlier confession. I’d been so busy holding her and trying to make her feel better that I hadn’t fully grasped the meaning of what she’d said to me.

Sliding down on my knees, I took her in my arms again and held her tight, as Taeral and the rest of the crew were left marveling at Eirexis. I could hear them talking about it, but I was too busy relishing this sensation of Amelia snugly fitting in my embrace. “I love you, too,” I whispered. “Still figuring out what it all means, but… I do. I love you.”

She was about to say something, her gaze soft on me, when Herakles interrupted us. “That’s sweet and all, but we really need to talk about this Eirexis business. Did anyone know it could do this?”

“Obviously not, otherwise I would’ve used it sooner,” Taeral shot back.

“It has to be Eirexis’s own ability, separate from Thieron as a whole,” Lumi said. “It’ll come in handy later.”

“But why does it only work in Taeral’s hand?” Riza asked. “Yamani’s scythe worked for Amelia, too.”

“It’s not a regular scythe. And Tae here isn’t a regular fae-jinni hybrid,” Lumi replied, smiling. “He’s a future Reaper. I suppose it has something to do with it.”

With that knowledge, my mind seemed to relax a little. Taeral could use it to heal us, going forward, even after we ran out of swamp witch potions. It made our challenge with the levers far easier, and it probably pissed the Soul Crusher off—he’d been quiet. He had to be fuming.

I helped Amelia up, and she giggled enthusiastically as she stood on her own two legs. “This is so cool,” she said.

“Eirexis is a gamechanger,” Taeral replied.

Oh, it was more than that. It was a lifesaver. Suddenly, this room filled with levers and deadly traps didn’t feel as intimidating or impossible to get out of. We could still finish this, I thought, taking Amelia’s hand into mine.

And I still had a shot at a future in which she and I could further explore this beautiful thing between us. All was yet to be lost.

Taeral

It felt nice to be on the winning side, for once. Granted, we’d yet to secure victory, and my father would’ve berated me for thinking like this, but I couldn’t help it. With all the short ends of the stick we’d gotten until now, having Eirexis on our side was most fortuitous.

“Guess your puzzle dream is over,” I shouted, hoping the Soul Crusher was watching and foaming at the mouth with pure rage. I wanted him to feel twice as much misery as what he’d inflicted upon us.

At the same time, I couldn’t truly hate him. Not with every fiber of my being, anyway. Technically speaking, he was just doing his job as the protector of Zetos. Rules had been put in place, their power spanning millions of years, unbreakable by cosmic default. The Reapers of Thieron were acting on their principles and functions, and so were we.

In the end, I’d felt the same about the Widow Maker, and he’d turned into an ally. We shared the same desires. We wanted Thieron back in Death’s hands, her powers full and aimed at the Hermessi. I also had to accept that these ancient Reapers were different not just from us, but probably from other Reapers, too. They’d been locked away for so long… sanity was a luxury, in their case.

“Okay, I think I know what we can do next,” Lumi said. “We pull all the marked levers. One right after the other, two at once, even. Go all out.”

“If we get hurt in the process, Eirexis will heal us,” I replied.

“I couldn’t take that away from you, unfortunately. You’ve already claimed it,” the Soul Crusher grumbled, making me grin. “But you should still be careful. The traps aren’t the same. Some might still surprise you.”

“There’s no time,” Herakles said. “Forget this fool, and let’s get crackin’!”

The Soul Crusher had a point. The rules about Eirexis stood, even in this invented reality. I had claimed Eirexis. If I dropped it by accident, I would lose it. I’d given it to Raphael, though. This probably had something to do with certain conditions. I’d willingly loaned it to Raphael, if I were to be technically correct. I hadn’t relinquished it. Therefore, these rules had loopholes in them, and that would help me in the future, for sure—my instinct had yet to fail me on this.

Of course, I would’ve appreciated more clarifications from Death herself, but, for the time being, I had to make do with this. I slipped Eirexis back in its straps on my thigh and glanced at the crew. Lumi was still smiling, her gaze fixed on me.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You’re wondering how Eirexis works,” she said, and I nodded slowly. “Don’t get bogged down in too many questions. We function as a group. You claimed Eirexis, but as part of this team. I don’t think you can lose your claim over it if you pass it around. I wondered about it while we were pulling Amelia and Raphael out of that stupid shaft. We’ve been so busy trying to rescue and help each other, we didn’t have time to think about certain things, especially about Eirexis.”

“It makes sense,” Nethissis murmured, gazing at Eirexis. “It’s part of us, for now, until it’s reunited with Death. Any one of us could carry it, I think. But only you can actually use it, Taeral.”

“Let’s go,” I said.

We spread out to cover all four walls. As soon as I pressed two levers at once, the others did the same. One after the other, the clangs and the clicks of internal mechanisms rolled out in layers, and we didn’t stop until all the marked levers were pressed.