Nuriya measured them both from head to toe, offering a soft nod. “I owe you my gratitude,” she said. “You brought my son back to me, which is more than I could’ve hoped for, given our wretched circumstances.”

“To be honest, Taeral did most of the work,” the Widow Maker replied.

Seeley smiled. “It was always about him, in a way.”

“You didn’t get to tell us exactly why you’re here, why Death wants you here,” Taeral said to him, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Oh, he’s been with you since you left Mortis. You just didn’t see him,” the Widow Maker blurted, drawing Seeley’s scowl.

“What?” I croaked, stunned by the revelation.

Seeley took a deep breath, raising his hands in a defensive gesture. “I wasn’t allowed to physically intervene until now,” he said. “Death had orders for me, and most of them I cannot discuss with you. Just know that I may or may not be able to assist you, going forward.”

“Are you serious?” Taeral snapped. “After all this crap, you may or may not assist us?”

“He’s yanking our chain, isn’t he?” Varga asked rhetorically and looked at Seeley. “You’re messing with us, right?”

Seeley shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I was ordered to interfere earlier, so you could get to Zetos in time. I can only do what Death commands, which is why I don’t want to promise something I might not be able to follow through with. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“What about you two?” Amelia asked the Widow Maker and the Soul Crusher.

“Widow and Soul are free Reapers now. Unbound by the rules, as part of the deal they once made with Death for their service in protecting Thieron. They can do as they please,” Seeley explained.

“Oh. Okay. So, how ‘bout it, Soul, Widow?” Amelia replied, narrowing her eyes at them. “Still with us, or will you scamper off like cowards now that the going’s getting tougher?”

“Hey, tone it down,” Widow said. “I actually helped back there. And I’ve already said yes. If you’ve got issues with Soul, by all means, rip him a new one, but don’t smack me down too.”

Soul chuckled, his arms crossed. “Poor Widow here has a point. I’m the one who tormented you. Tell you what. I’ll hang around for a bit, mainly to… let’s say make it up to you. To be honest, I cannot bring myself to not exact some misery on those elemental sons of bitches. It’s because of entities like them that Death sealed us into Thieron for its protection, to begin with.”

“Do you think she knew we’d serve against the Hermessi, specifically, when she got us into it?” Widow wondered.

“Probably. But you know the old hag would rather die than admit it,” Soul replied, then burst into laughter. “Well, you know what I meant.”

Since Death couldn’t die, I could see the humor in his statement. But something else drew my attention. Seeley was quiet, avoiding eye contact with most of us—particularly Nethissis and Lumi. I couldn’t help but wonder what that was about; however, I doubted I’d get anything out of him.

Taeral took my hand in his, smiling at me. “You did amazing out there. I didn’t even know you could do all that.”

I was literally drained of any power. I’d need weeks of sleep to recover what I’d lost at the bottom of the ocean. But I owed him and the rest of the crew an explanation for the sudden shift in my Hermessi ability. “I didn’t know it until we got out of the Soul Crusher’s puzzle. Once I got my powers back, it was as if they had come back with new layers peeled back. Like my father’s knowledge had transcended time and space to reach me, to force me to reach my full potential. I’d spent most of our time in the puzzle feeling useless without my powers.”

“You weren’t the only one.” Amelia chuckled.

“Still… I was always on the outside looking in, somehow,” I continued. “But I knew I could do more for us, for the world.”

Taeral wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, leaving me breathless. “You did more than that,” he whispered in my ear, not caring what anyone else had to say. I softened in his embrace, the entire world disappearing for a few moments. Enough for me to remember what had driven me to push myself the way I had, back in the ocean. It was him. It was all because of him.

“You are valuable to this team, Eira. Don’t you ever forget it,” Lumi said to me as Taeral moved back, his gaze still fixed on me.

“Thank you,” I replied, smiling. “I know it’s what Inalia would’ve wanted, as well. She believed in you all, and it would’ve been foolish of me not to do the same.”

“She believed in you, too,” Eva cut in. “It’s why she wanted Taeral to bring you along. Do you really think she considered you so vulnerable and defenseless that you couldn’t be left on your own after what happened on Cerix?”

Come to think of it, Eva was right. After everything we’d learned about Brendel and her operation, there was one thing that had become painfully clear. Her machinations had never been aimed at the Hermessi children as victims, but rather as successors in the worst-case scenario. As long as we were alive, she could kill our parents if they didn’t fall in line, all the while threatening them with killing us to force them into submission.

What a horrible being she was…

“Oh, speaking of,” I said. “What of Derek and Sofia’s mission for Yahwen?”

“We’ve been out for a while. Eira’s on point. What do you know, Mom?” Taeral asked Nuriya, who, in turn, smiled broadly. Aisha and Horatio were practically beaming. I instantly knew that they had good news.

“They’re back in The Shade,” Aisha replied. “It was a success, and Ramin and his rebels helped. Granted, it was touch and go for a while, but they made it. The Hermessi children are safely in The Shade, including your father.”

Our cheers could not be contained, especially Taeral’s. There was too much good news, and we’d forgotten how to deal with such successes, after all the hell the Hermessi had put us through. But it was about time that things swung our way. We’d earned it. We deserved a better shot at saving our worlds.

This only proved one thing. The Hermessi weren’t all-powerful. They could still be stopped. Brendel would come after us, eager to pay us back for what had been done against her. It would get messy and bloody and horrible… I knew it.

As Taeral took my hand in his, keeping me close to him, I realized that I was no longer that afraid. We’d made it through to this point in our existence. The future was just one more leap ahead. All we needed to do was measure our movements and outsmart Brendel at every turn.

“This leaves you with one last task, as part of your mission to Death,” Nuriya said, after a while. “Finding Phyla. Do you know where to go?”

The Soul Crusher cleared his throat, his lips pursed for a second. He had our full attention, if that was what he’d been waiting for. He was the only one who knew where Phyla was, after all.

“Care to share?” Taeral asked him, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Ooh, you’re not going to like it,” Soul replied, though he was clearly dying to tell us.

“Just out with it already.” Herakles sighed, shaking his head in frustration.

“It’s on Aledras,” Soul said. “Right next to Yahwen. There’s a reason why Brendel tossed it there.”

“There where, smack in the middle of the enemy’s lair?” Raphael blurted.

Soul nodded. “It’s where the ritual is meant to be completed. Aledras is where Brendel and the Hermessi will carry out the end of days, as soon as they acquire the five million fae they require to power it up.”

The thought was chilling, but at least we knew where we had to go next and what we were up against. Phyla couldn’t be easy to retrieve. We were all aware of it, though none of us dared say it out loud. We couldn’t stay here much longer. Pyrr and the local Hermessi had turned to our side, but Brendel and the others would soon come after us.

On top of that, we were exhausted. We needed to just sit down and rest for a bit. “If we’re to go after Phyla next, we’ll need to replenish ourselves,” I said.

Lumi nodded. “Absolutely. We cannot go to Aledras with empty batteries. But we can’t stay in the In-Between while we rest.”

“Let’s go back to The Shade, then,” Amelia replied. “It’s safer there than anywhere else, right now.”

“You go ahead, my darling,” Nuriya said to Taeral. “I know you’re looking forward to seeing your father again. Aisha, Horatio and I will join you when we can. I need to delegate here for a while first.”

Personally, I looked forward to returning to The Shade. I’d quickly fallen in love with that place. A haven for supernatural creatures from all known dimensions. Where eternal night stretched across most of the island, and redwoods rose proudly, reaching for the starry sky. Where people from all walks of life came together to celebrate life.

The very life that the Hermessi were determined to snuff out. Not on my watch, they won’t.

Taeral