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“And you didn’t think to mention it sooner?” Sherus finally replied. “Ideally before my son collapsed, grieving and crying his heart out?”

Soul chuckled. “Where’s the fun in that?”

The Widow Maker groaned with frustration. “On behalf of Death and all of us in her service, I apologize for him. He’s irredeemable, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t really care right now,” Taeral said, a glimmer of hope lighting the embers in his eyes. “I know I have a way of saving my dad. That’s all that matters.”

Corrine settled next to Sherus’s body. “I’ll keep him safe. Preserve him with all the magic at my disposal. You get Phyla and bring him back, Tae. Okay?”

Taeral nodded, giving her and Sherus a warm but sad, heartbreaking smile.

“All in all, it’s just one more reason to retrieve Phyla, if you think about it,” Herakles chimed in. “Save the world, save Sherus… save all of us.”

We still had a shot at this, and that was all that mattered. The Hermessi had some limits, and we’d delivered a crippling blow to Brendel, despite her evil retribution. We had two pieces of Thieron in our possession already. The number of influenced fae grew slightly every day, but all of us were making efforts to slow the process down, to derail the enemy and to give Taeral and his crew the time they needed to pull through with this mission for Death.

There was one last hurdle left. Once Taeral got Phyla, he could resurrect his father before handing a completed Thieron over to Death, who, in turn, would stop the ritual. Easier said than done. Nothing had ever come easy to us, and, given what we’d done to Brendel, she was bound to come after us with even more fire and fury.

“You should be aware of one teeny-tiny little thing,” Soul added. “And I think Widow here will agree. Out of the three of us, the Phantom is the absolute worst.”

“You think we can’t defeat him?” Varga replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Just letting you know,” Soul said with an innocent shrug.

“As long as he’s got Phyla, I will drag him out of whatever hole he’s hiding in, and I will resurrect my father,” Taeral said firmly, his chin up.

It made Sherus smile, his entire ghostly figure twinkling with fatherly pride. Even in death, Sherus glowed with all his might—not just because he was a Hermessi child. His character and his very soul were precious and unique in this world, and the universe seemed to know it, having blessed him with such an inner light.

What could the Phantom do that could possibly be worse than everything else we’d come across until now? I figured he’d be resourceful enough to surprise us, but none of the other challengers had ever made it this far.

If anyone could pull this off, despite all the adversities, it was Taeral. And he wasn’t alone in this. He had his crew. An extremely old and powerful Hermessi in Fallon. Three Reapers. The whole of GASP by his side. Ramin and the other rebel Hermessi, too. Oh, Taeral definitely wasn’t on his own. We all had his back, for our future was in his hands.

Ready for the *PENULTIMATE* book of Season 9?

Dear Shaddict,

Thank you for reading A Blade of Thieron.

The end of Season 9 is nearing… ASOV 76: A Phantom of Truthis the penultimate book as we move toward the grand finale, and it releases May 24th, 2019!

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