My father sucked in a breath, wheezing sharply, and Corrine and I jumped back and away from him, out of sheer reflex. He sat up, glowing brighter than before as he cracked open the crystal casing from the inside. I wanted to get to him, but I knew, deep down, that it wasn’t him.

“Tae,” Corrine murmured.

Behind us, the crew, Derek, Sofia, Fallon-Kabbah, and the Reapers mobilized. They’d already seen what had just happened.

“Don’t move,” I whispered to her, horror gripping my heart so tightly, it would soon explode. I knew who this was, possessing my father. The fear had tagged along with me from the Fire Star, as much as I’d tried to keep it at bay. “It’s not my dad.”

He turned his head to look at me. Raising one hand, he flicked his wrist and sealed the glass house around us. No matter what the crew did, they couldn’t get in. Not Kabbah, not the Reapers, not even Riza. It didn’t stop them from trying, but whatever magic Brendel was using, it was powerful even in the Earthly Dimension. This was new and unexpected, to say the least. She’d made it here, somehow.

I knew this was Brendel. Only she’d be savvy and determined enough to pull something like this off. Naturally, I had a lot of questions about how quickly she’d recovered and what methods she’d used to find us, but keeping my father safe was still a priority.

“Did you really think you’d get away from me?” she asked, using my father’s raspy voice.

“What… Who are you?” Corrine replied, her eyes wide with shock.

“You are lucky, Taeral. I don’t have as much power as I’d like in this place, but it’s enough to hold your friends at bay and to kill your father, if I want to,” Brendel said, ignoring Corrine.

“Please, stand back,” I said to the witch. “It’s Brendel.”

The Fire Hermessi sneered at me, and it felt awfully weird since she was doing it through my father. My blood ran cold, as my worst nightmare threatened to come true, all the way down to a most dreaded epilogue. “I’ll ask you one last time, Taeral. What will it be? Your father’s life? Or Thieron?”

“How did you get here?” I replied, trying to stall while I thought of a solution.

Her power was limited here. She’d said so herself. It meant she couldn’t get to the Hermessi children. She clearly couldn’t get the other Hermessi through, either. But she’d made it all the way here, just to exact her revenge—because that’s what this was. Revenge.

“I could waste a minute or two to explain, but what’s the point?” she muttered, gritting my father’s teeth. Ugh, the creep factor was up to eleven. What Brendel was doing was downright appalling. “Last chance, Taeral. Your father or Thieron? What’ll it be?”

I took incomplete-Thieron out and pointed its blade at her. My hand was trembling. I’d lost my edge the moment she’d entered my father’s body. “I could hurt you again.”

“You could, but you’d be killing your father in the process,” she said. “Is that what you want, Taeral? To kill your father?”

“No!”

“You should’ve said so from the beginning!” she continued, completely ignoring me. “Here, I’ll do it for you. And then, when I catch you near Phyla, I’ll kill all your friends and make sure you never complete Thieron. You’ll have lost your father, your loved ones, everyone that ever mattered to you, and you’ll have lost the world, too.”

“Stop, Brendel, don’t do it,” I murmured, frozen by the inevitable that was about to unfold.

“You’ve messed with me for the last time,” she added. “I’ll get the children back, soon enough. Don’t you worry. I know where they are. I’ll finish the ritual, and I’ll bring all my might into this universe, too. I’ll wipe you all out. But, until then, let me leave you with a parting gift.”

I couldn’t use Thieron here. It wouldn’t kill her, anyway. It would just kill my father. There were no options left for me. My father’s body shuddered, and I cried out in pain, almost feeling the link between us being severed.

In an instant, Brendel was gone, and my father fell back into the crystal casing. Only, he no longer glowed. His breath… was gone.

“Dad… no…” I managed, my vision getting foggy.

Something in my chest broke into a billion pieces which I’d never be able to put back, ever again. I heard the others shouting and screaming outside, banging their fists against the glass walls. I dropped to my knees, unable to even look at my father, because I knew what was left of him. Just his body. His soul had been severed. He was dead.

The door sprang open, Brendel’s magic finally worn off. Boots thundered in my ears. Rushed steps as they gathered around him. I leaned back on the glass wall, crying. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t control myself. Derek tried CPR. Corrine struggled with magic. Lumi gave it her best shot.

Nothing worked. I was deaf and numb and inconsolable. Brendel had just killed my father.

Sofia

To say that we were all devastated would’ve been an understatement. This had been a blow to all of us. Not just to Taeral, but to the whole of GASP. My heart ached as I wondered how we’d even break the news to Nuriya. How could we tell her that after we’d managed to save her husband, our dear friend, Sherus, Brendel had somehow found a way into The Shade and killed him?

Minutes passed in grieving agony for everyone present. Even Fallon-Kabbah was unable to speak, astonished by the feat that Brendel had accomplished. The Reapers were equally befuddled, simply staring at Sherus.

“She can’t use him here,” Taeral managed after a while.

“What do you mean?” Derek asked.

Eira was on the floor, next to Taeral. Raphael and Amelia joined them, as did Eva and Varga, and Riza and Herakles. Nethissis and Lumi were shaken up, keeping Corrine company. She, too, had been crying. I’d completely ignored the tears that I’d been shedding. My pain didn’t matter, compared to what Taeral had to be feeling.

“She can’t use him as a weapon here, like she did with Crane, back in the Calliope sanctuary,” Taeral clarified, his tone low and flat. He was all cried out and ashen. Unable to move. And there was nothing we could do for him. “That was all the power she could use here. To keep you out and… to kill him. I don’t know how she got here, she wouldn’t say, but it had to be something she’s never done before. A trick we knew nothing about.”

Despite her murderous rage, Brendel had, in fact, let precious information slip earlier. None of the Hermessi could come through into The Shade—not until the ritual was completed. The children were still safe here, at least for a while.

“How did you get through, Kabbah?” I asked, trying to make sense of a few things. Wrapping my head around Sherus’s death was simply too much. I chose to focus on everything else, so as not to collapse.

“Fallon. He’s my body,” he explained. “Brendel doesn’t have a fae hybrid to hitch a ride on. None of them do. Taeral and Fallon are the only two who can actually carry us.”

“What about other Hermessi children?” Derek replied. “Could the elementals use them?”

“The children are already here, so no,” Fallon-Kabbah said. “If they find others in the In-Between or the Supernatural Dimension, they could try, though.”

“We’ll seal off The Shade, then. Close the portal. Open it only when necessary, and under strict supervision,” Derek concluded, his brow furrowed as he sat in the chair next to Sherus. He gave the fae king a slow nod. “I’m sorry, old friend. I truly am.”

“I should’ve seen this coming,” Taeral muttered, staring at his father.

“You couldn’t have,” I said. “Tae, none of us saw it. Brendel was ahead of us, somehow, at least where The Shade is concerned. Someone told her. Someone betrayed us.”

“Someone helped Brendel, far beyond telling her where to find you,” Seeley interjected. But the look on his face told me there was more, but he wasn’t ready to share. I’d not met Reapers before, but there was a sense of wisdom coming from Seeley—he seemed like the kind of person who’d only speak if he had something concrete.

Taeral’s back straightened, as if jolted by a rush of electricity. “I can’t see him.”

“What do you mean?” Amelia asked him.

Thieron was still in his hand. He touched Yamani’s scythe, too, just to be sure. But it didn’t seem to work. “I can’t see my father’s spirit,” he said, then glanced at Seeley. “Surely, he wasn’t reaped so quickly.”

Seeley sighed and shook his head. “After your Mortis episode, all the Reapers across all the dimensions were instructed to hide the spirits from you,” he replied. “Of both the living and those under the Hermessi’s influence. It’s why you couldn’t see anyone, not even your father, in the fae sanctuaries. Why you can’t see him now.”

Taeral’s eyes grew wide. “I hadn’t even thought of that, but… now that you mention it, I understand. Why were such instructions given?”

“Because you’re one of the living, in possession of a scythe. It’s technically against the rules and considered cheating,” Seeley said. “Hence, you’re blocked from seeing Sherus or any other spirit.”

“I want to see him,” Taeral declared.

“It wasn’t my rule. I can’t override—”