“I’m okay,” he replied. “You, on the other hand, should cover yourself back up.” Pointing up, he chuckled. “That’s a mean sun, babe.”

“Your concern is endearing,” I shot back, leaning into him. My shoulder pressed into his arm, his firm muscles offering mild resistance.

“Well, you’re a powerhouse all by yourself. The least I can do is worry about potential sunburns.” He laughed.

I let a sigh roll out of my chest, and his brow furrowed as an instinctive reaction. He didn’t need to ask me what was wrong. “I’m just hoping we survive this,” I whispered. “It’s constantly on my mind, nestled in the back of my head… this fear that… you know, we might fail.”

He nodded slowly. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“You have a wife somewhere and seven sentry babies?” I said, stifling a grin. His eyes glimmered gold as he used his True Sight to observe my expression. He often did that when I had my mask on, and I envied him, sometimes, for this ability to see through things so easily.

“Nine, actually,” he replied, calling back to an earlier joke I’d made about me having a secret husband and lots of baby Lamias. It made me giggle. “I recently realized something,” he said. “Out of this whole Reapers-and-Death thing. I didn’t really think about it before, probably because I’m more of an empiricist—I seek facts and proof for everything… Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it. There’s something after death. The existence of ghosts wasn’t enough for me, if I’m honest. Neither Ben nor Lucas or Kailyn ever made it to the other side, so they didn’t have any insights on this. However, almost everyone else who passed was ushered by Reapers into this… world of the dead. I never truly considered the concept. Am I making sense?”

“You didn’t think about life after death until the Reapers became a reality,” I replied. “Yes, I understand.”

“Now, I’m not the kind to get sucked into too much detail about this, but, I admit, I’m a little more at ease knowing that my journey won’t end with that last breath. I have no idea what’s on the other side, what this world of the dead is supposed to be like… it’s just nice to know we don’t simply fade to black.”

I lowered my gaze, a weight settling in my stomach. His reasoning was good and healthy, I thought. But I was nowhere near that mindset. “I can’t find any comfort in death, Varga. It would take me away from you, and, frankly, that’s the worst thing that could happen to me. You know, besides the end of the world and all.”

He put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. Warmth spread through me, relaxing my muscles and making me smile beneath my mask. “I get it. And I don’t want you to think I’m seeking any comfort in the prospect of an afterlife. I’m not. I have every intention of living for as long as I can. It just feels nice to know there is something after… the end. In the meantime, I’m looking at a minimum of three proper dates with you before I can start suggesting a more serious tone to our relationship.”

My head shot up as I stared at him with wide eyes. “Relationship? You used the R-word, Varga. That is bold, to say the least!”

“Hey, there’s an apocalypse out there with our names on it. Pardon me if I don’t think we have time to dance around one another in the old-fashioned way,” he replied, a golden twinkle in his eyes telling me that he was reading my aura. He knew how I felt about him—this transparency was actually healthy for the two of us, because I knew he was defining us as a couple while perfectly aware of my budding love for him. It meant a lot. “Live in the moment, Eva.”

I pulled my mask down, then his, and kissed him deeply. He’d earned it. The Widow Maker’s boots scratched the dry-leaf ground as he quickly turned away from us. Without parting from Varga, I gave the old Reaper a brief sideways glance. The rest of the crew didn’t bother to notice us, since they already knew we were an item, but the Widow Maker seemed flushed, even though I couldn’t see his face. His body language told me more than his expression ever would.

He just stood there, a couple of feet away, his back to us and his head down, one boot drawing an imaginary circle in the dried-up dirt beneath the crusty leaves from the previous warm season.

I pulled back and covered myself again as the sun worked its way through the rattling branches above. The ocean breeze had intensified, putting everything in motion once more. Varga kept himself close, as if feeding off my physical energy. I would’ve felt him syphon, of course. This was different, infinitely more subtle and certainly not harmful to me—I wondered if he knew that he was even doing it, but Lumi shot to her feet so briskly that the question slipped out of my mind before I could ask it.

“I think I know what to do!” she said, her white-blue eyes lighting up with sheer excitement.

Nethissis looked up at her, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

The group had been mostly quiet for the past ten minutes, resting and likely thinking about what lay ahead. I was quick to remember what had irked us most. It was the exact issue to which Lumi claimed to have found a solution.

“This whole search for Zetos!” Lumi replied. “Instead of chasing our tails, zapping around and wearing ourselves out, I can work up a flight spell.”

“What flight spell?” Taeral asked.

“I think the Word just told me about it. I don’t remember having this knowledge before,” Lumi said. I crinkled my nose, remembering how the Word popped in whenever it deemed it appropriate, and not always when we needed it the most. Then again, it was better than nothing. I should be thankful.

“What would you need for it? How would it work?” Nethissis asked, staring at Lumi as she slowly got up and shook the dried leaves and dirt off her dark-cherry dress. Knowing Nethissis as well as I did, I knew she carried different knives strapped to her thighs, beneath the fabric. Their blades were likely dipped in deadly poisons—a practice that Lamias continued, despite the peace on Calliope. Old habits died hard. I’d left most of mine behind, but I still carried a couple of short ones hidden in my boots.

“It’s a modification of the interplanetary spell,” Lumi explained. “It requires fewer of the original ingredients, and the pentagram is slightly different, as well. I think it’ll allow us to fly over the land. Nethissis and I can change its direction based on what Eirexis shows us, in real time.”

“You think?” The Widow Maker scoffed. “I thought you swamp witches were a tad more secure than this.”

Lumi shot him a cold stare. “What do you know about swamp witches? You’ve been locked inside a stick for what, eight, nine, ten million years? More?”

“Your kind has been around for almost as long as I have. I’ve come across your predecessors, lady, before I committed myself to protecting Eirexis,” the Widow Maker replied, his chin high. There was pride in his voice, booming through the forest.

I made a note of this particular moment. The Widow Maker’s skin wasn’t as thick as he’d made it out to be. Fortunately, my mask concealed my grin.

The winds began to rise, howling over the woods. The ocean’s rumbles got louder, as well, crackling and swooshing as if a terrible tempest was about to unfold. The hairs on the back of my neck curled up, a sign that something dangerous was coming. Varga and I exchanged glances. We both knew it.

“The Hermessi are circling in,” I said. “I think they caught on about the decoys.”

“I can confirm they’re getting close,” Eira replied, the color gone from her cheeks.

“Then let’s get this show on the road.” Raphael sighed. “I am in no mood to fight elementals again. My ego can’t take another ass-whipping.”

Herakles snorted a laugh. “Never thought I’d hear you say that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. My odds of survival against Brendel are still higher than yours,” Raphael retorted. It earned him a scowl from Herakles.

“We’re all dead meat if she finds us,” Riza interjected. “Well, most of us, anyway. Mr. Older-Than-Time-Yet-Still-Donning-Leather over here can’t die, since he’s already dead. And Taeral, Lumi, and Eira were marked by the Death lady.”

Lumi and Nethissis prepared the ingredients for this flight bubble—mostly rare herbs and crystals they always carried around for interplanetary travel. Once they were done, we gathered in the middle of the pentagram. My nerves were stretching once more, warning me that danger was afoot. It was inevitable, and we all knew it, but we’d grown tired. The Hermessi had been hunting and hurting us for too long, and, while the mission was crucial, it was also exhausting.

To me, there was a pattern of rinse and repeat as we got closer to a conclusion in this quest. As the final and greatest prize shifted within our reach, the elementals’ attacks grew bolder and deadlier. Heck, Brendel had even taken Sherus to discourage Taeral from pursuing Thieron. I had a feeling she had even dirtier tricks up her fiery sleeves, and I was also convinced that not all of us would survive this, in the end.

Lumi whispered the spell, and light expanded around us in a perfect sphere. Following her instructions, Nethissis put her arms out. Lumi showed her the movements, and Nethissis followed. Soon enough, they were both in perfect unison as they guided the spell bubble off the ground and out of the woods.

Bringing both arms up caused the spell to move forward very fast. It slowed as they lowered them and came to a complete and hovering halt as they rested them at their sides. “Get it?” Lumi asked Nethissis, and the young Lamia swamp witch nodded in return.

They raised their arms again, prompting the spell to regain speed across the forest. Around us, the winds raged with impressive strength, but not enough to knock us off our trajectory. Taeral stayed close to Lumi and Nethissis, so they could watch Eirexis and its intensifying glow. The witches moved their arms left and right, depending on what Eirexis wanted. The brighter the light, the better the course.

We left the ocean behind and headed north, farther away from the rocky coast. The spell was remarkably fast, and it put some distance between us and the Hermessi. They were bound to catch up, eventually, and we knew it. There was little time left for us to reach Thieron’s blade.

“Notice how the glow begins to steady now,” the Widow Maker said, his galaxy eyes fixed on the sculpted handle in Taeral’s hands. “The closer we get, the more accurate it becomes.”

Lumi nodded. “I can tell from the decreasing amount of arm movements that we need to make. The trajectory is straightening, isn’t it?”

“I think so,” Taeral agreed.

The world beneath was extraordinary. The sight left me breathless. We darted over dark woods with rippling canopies and red lava rivers that trickled down from stony mountains. Hot springs and volcanic lakes, surrounded by lush greenery and a plethora of bright colors. Foamy seas. Reddish stone clusters sprinkled across the golden desert. Thousands of miles passed in a few blinks of an eye. Hours compressed into minutes as the flight spell gained more speed, its trajectory firm and straight as an arrow.

It broke my heart to think of all the fae that would be destroyed in the ritual. They would never see all this beauty, ever again. They’d never smell the spring flowers or dip their toes in the hot springs. They would never harvest the summer grains or taste the sweet fruits of the rainy season. It would all end for them. For us.

“This is amazing,” Eira murmured, eyeing Eirexis. The symbols were almost incandescent, their light white and bright enough to make us squint. My heart was pounding with excitement, as the thought of retrieving Zetos became central to my existence.

This is it. We’re almost there.

Something invisible rammed into us with such force that the spell bubble simply broke. Thousands of sparks erupted, like slivers of a glass bauble thrown against the wall. We plummeted toward the ground. There was enough of a distance to at least break some crucial bones in my body.

My pulse raced as I tried not to scream. Eira drew water from a nearby stream and used it as a jet—the water smacked us to the side, then shifted into a frosty slide as she dropped its temperature. I hadn’t even known she could do the latter, and it all happened extremely fast. The only thought I could form before hitting the hard ground was a thank-you to Eira for being a Hermessi child and for having such exquisite control over water and its properties.