“Whoa. What just happened?” I asked him.
He shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “Oh, I just dropped them in a few tiny time-space hiccups. Or pockets. Whatever you want to call them.”
“You can do that? Of course you can do that,” Herakles replied, gritting his teeth, understandably exasperated.
“Nice. It would’ve come in handy much sooner, you know,” I said, glowering at the Soul Crusher. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just cut your head off, right now,” I added, raising incomplete-Thieron in his line of sight.
He giggled. “First of all, it’ll break the pockets and set the Hermessi I trapped in there loose, once more. Second, you can’t kill me with two thirds of Thieron, you noob. You need Phyla. Let’s get out of here. It’s a little too wet for my taste.”
“Also, there will be more Hermessi coming. What Brendel just did, it can’t have been without consequences,” Fallon-Kabbah replied.
I nodded, smiling at my friends. I knew they could only see my eyes since I had the breathing mask on. Nevertheless, I felt like smiling at them. They were still here, and so were Zetos and Eirexis. On top of that, we’d made some new friends, too—some more psychopathic than others.
“I take it you’re coming with us?” I asked the Soul Crusher.
“You look like fun to be around,” he replied.
Rolling my eyes for the millionth time since I’d met him, I slipped incomplete-Thieron into my thigh strap and reached out to the crew. We linked hands, and I teleported them out of this place. The worst was yet to come, as the Soul Crusher had warned me, but, even so…
We’d made it farther down the line.
Eira
We were back in the Fire Star’s royal fae sanctuary, having left the bottom of the ocean behind. I had yet to fully wrap my head around what I’d done earlier against the Hermessi, but there was one thing that had become clear in the meantime. Something had clicked inside me upon exiting the Soul Crusher’s puzzle. Whether it’d had anything to do with the old Reaper, I wasn’t sure—and I doubted he’d tell me. But I felt different. Stronger. I’d tapped into an internal force that I’d always known was there, yet I’d never dared to even consider approaching.
But push had come to shove back there, and I’d had no other choice. I’d pushed myself so far that I’d delivered serious damage to numerous Hermessi. I’d even kept Brendel distracted. Later, I knew I’d have to just sit down and think about this properly. There had to be a reason for all this.
Nuriya cried tears of joy when she saw us. First she took Taeral in her arms, holding him tight and laughing and sobbing at the same time. “I can’t believe you’re here, alive and well… My sweet, sweet, insanely stubborn child,” she said.
Taeral laughed, a weight lifted from his shoulders. “It’s good to be back, I’ll tell you that.”
Moments later, Aisha and Horatio burst through the door, thrilled to see their daughter. They’d been on the Fire Star lately, helping Nuriya out with kingdom-related issues. Without Sherus, Nuriya needed all the support she could get. In an instant, Riza was snuggled between her parents, the three of them giddy and crying at the same time—after all, who knew when they’d see each other again, given our complicated and dangerous mission?
Taeral brought them up to speed on everything that had happened down there, and they listened carefully—especially Nuriya, who digested every word while her gaze occasionally wandered across our enhanced group. She politely waited for Taeral to finish before nodding at the Soul Crusher and Seeley. “Who are these two?”
“I’m what your son just referred to as ‘crazy, older-than-time psycho Reaper’ in charge of protecting Zetos,” the Soul Crusher replied, visibly amused. The guy had a thick skin. “Actually, brief correction. No longer protecting Zetos.”
“And this is Seeley.” Taeral introduced the second Reaper, whom we’d all met previously, on Hellym. “He’s the one who saved us from Yamani.”
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.”
