"The air feels different," Vita added, her eyebrows furrowed. She was onto something. I felt it, too. Thickened with foreign energy, the kind that foreshadowed nothing but death and destruction. The ritual was so close to wrapping up that we could all sense it.
"I doubt it's the Earth and Air Hermessi keeping the sanctuaries up," Rudolph said as he came back to us, rubbing the back of his neck. "They'd have to spend a considerable amount of time focusing on this process, and I doubt it's what they're supposed to be doing."
"What do you mean?" Kailyn asked. I worried about her the most. The last link on her life-chain was fading from a bright amber to a pale yellow. She didn't have much left, and we already understood that some of us might die before the last of the five million fae fell under the Hermessi's influence.
"I think it's an automated spell of sorts," Rudolph explained. "They're powerful enough to pull it off now. You see, GASP rescued the Hermessi children from Brendel, so for the likes of Wei, this planet's Earth elemental, there is no point in cooperating with the ritual if he doesn't want to. He'd be more inclined to be on your side, not Brendel's. I have a feeling it applies to the other Calliope Hermessi, as well. So, with that in mind, they wouldn't be lifting the sanctuary off the ground."
"Truth be told, I do remember River saying the Hermessi rebels' ranks had thickened since their children were rescued," Lucas replied. "And it makes sense for the sanctuaries to be simultaneously lifted through a spell, especially since the Hermessi have access to insanely ancient knowledge. If they could come up with the ritual, they could've easily engineered this sanctuary-in-the-sky crap, too."
"Does it even matter?" Grace murmured, letting a deep sigh out as she leaned against her crystal casing. "We don't know where Taeral is, or whether he made it. Meanwhile, the Hermessi continue with their ritual, literally killing millions of us off before they wipe out entire civilizations."
The desolation in her voice broke my heart—not because I didn't feel it, too; we all did. But Grace was the most vocal about it, and the tears streaming down her cheeks made it all worse. Her spirit wasn't crying, but her body was, as if reacting to her emotions. Her eyes were closed inside the crystal casing, yet we could all see the tears twinkling.
"If there is one thing that has made us push through, no matter what, it's our ability to stare death in the face and postpone our appointment with it," Lucas said. "Look at your father and me. We did the unimaginable. We made our way back."
Ben put his arm around Grace’s shoulders. Vita and Caia stayed close, as well, but their mother could not be swayed. "Easy to say, but look at our Reapers," Grace replied. Glancing around, the only one who even dared to look us in the eye was Rudolph, probably because he'd been busy looking after Ben, Vita, and me. Too busy to let the situation bring him down. Tomassin, Malleus, and the others, however, looked downright glum. "They've lost hope. They're not saying anything. They know what's coming."
Sidyan stepped forward. "It's because we know more than you."
"What do you mean?" I asked, a sense of panic creeping up my spine.
"Sid, don't," Tomassin advised him.
"See? I told you," Grace said, shaking her head. "I don't even need to know what it is to understand how screwed we all are."
"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked Sidyan, equally concerned.
Looking at my substitute Reaper, I realized that he, too, knew more than us. I didn't like that. "Rudolph, what is it that we're missing here?"
"Death has gone missing," Sidyan replied, visibly upset. "Your friends got Thieron back. All of it. But Death is nowhere to be found."
"How the hell do you know that?!" Ben croaked.
"Seeley told me." Rudolph sighed. "It was a brief telepathic transmission. I felt it my duty to tell the other Reapers, as well. We all deserve to know what's happening."
"And so do you," Sidyan added, looking at me. "We honestly don't know where this will lead. Death stopped the ritual before, over and over. We've never made it this far into the challenge. It's uncharted territory, even for the Reapers."
"We all thought we would do our jobs, no matter what," Malleus said. "As the ritual draws near to its end, however, I have to admit… I'm seriously doubting that this is the right thing to do. That you die, and that the Hermessi get their stupid do-over."
"It's not right at all," Rudolph muttered.
It struck me then that the Reapers were as lost as the rest of us. They were conflicted, no longer certain that the rules they'd been following throughout their existence were right in this particular case. Then again, what could they do? Reapers were agents of Death, bound in her service, with limited powers against the Hermessi. And if their creator was missing, the one entity who could put an end to all this, where did it leave them?
The irony was glaring enough to sting. Taeral and his crew had done the impossible. They'd completed the Thieron challenge, and now, Death had gone AWOL. How could this be? What kind of universe was this to allow such atrocities to take place?
"No matter what happens, at least we're not facing it alone," Vita ultimately said, giving her mother, her sister, and her grandfather a warm smile. "At least we're in this together."
"This is not the life I wanted for you," Ben replied.
"No one wanted this," Lucas interjected.
Thinking of Zeriel still out there somewhere, desperate to get back to me, I couldn't bring myself to surrender to the fear that had been circling me like a hungry vulture for days. Deep down, I knew Grace felt the same way. Lawrence wanted her back. He wanted their daughters back, too, and so did their husbands. Caia and Vita had children of their own who needed their mothers. River missed Ben. Not to mention his sister, Rose, who was spearheading GASP into any mission that could delay or prolong this stupid, horrible ritual.
But Vita was right, too. We were not alone in the darkness. We were together, and as long as our consciousness continued to exist, we could at least choose the way we'd go out of this world. I, for one, had no intention of crying or pleading for my life. Such endeavors would've fallen on deaf ears, anyway.
The sanctuary's hum grew louder, broken glass tinkling on the floor as the entire structure trembled mildly. Chances were this would end in tears and death, but it wasn't over yet. A part of me kept rooting for Taeral and his team. I knew they wouldn't surrender, either. They would scour the entire universe, if needed, until they found Death.
River
The evening set over Calliope in shades of gray and purple. A full moon rose over the woodlands surrounding Luceria, shadows sprawling across. Lights twinkled from the Mount Zur base, but few agents remained there. All the cult members had been left behind, with crystal casings on their hands and their cells locked down. We had our own people to worry about, and the Hermessi's followers were practically rooting for the end of the world, so there was absolutely no reason to bother with them.
The sanctuary could be seen in the distance, humming softly in the air. It was enveloped in darkness, but for the mild glow of the fae bodies inside. An emptiness worked its way through my stomach, scratching at the walls and spreading into a troublesome heat wave in my chest.
There was silence in the halls of Luceria. Most of the castle's inhabitants had been evacuated and dispatched farther east, along with the people who'd dwelled in the nearby camps and villages. We'd done our best to try to get them as far away from the sanctuary as possible—a protocol enacted across the entire GASP federation.
Only agents remained in Luceria, along with Draven and Serena. Jovi, Anjani, Jax, and Hansa had gone out to guide the refugees away from the area, but they would come back to Luceria as soon as they were done. I had Lawrence, Bijarki, Blaze, Marion, and Aiden with me, and Brock, Arwen, Kailani, and Hunter had also decided to stick around. The rest of our officers had either fallen back to The Shade or were wrapping things up on Mount Zur.
The mood was black and heavy with grief as we stood on Luceria's platform, wondering how long before it would all end. By now, we'd all been informed of Taeral's issue with finding Death. The irony of the situation did not escape me: they'd gone through virtual hell to find Thieron's pieces and bring them back to Death, only to find her absent, her whereabouts unknown.
All I could think of was how close my husband, our daughter, our granddaughters and friends were to death, while we waited here for… I wasn't even sure anymore.
"They've reached Strava," Marion said to me. "They're with Amane and Amal. Kelara got there, as well. They're working out a strategy."
"For what, exactly?" Bijarki grumbled, his jaw locked and ticking nervously as he stared at the sanctuary in the twilight.
"To find Death," I said, knowing exactly where Bijarki’s head was. Truth be told, I was one of the few people in the world who understood his pain and frustration. I'd lost Ben before, and I stood to lose him again before tomorrow's end, at the latest. "He's not giving up, and neither should we."
Zeriel sat on the stone floor, crossing his legs as he watched the blanket of stars settle over the darker parts of the sky. "Remember when defeating Azazel was our biggest problem? Life was simpler back then. The bad guy was obvious. We knew who we were fighting; we had an idea as to what he could do and how we could stop him. At most, it was just Eritopians whose lives were at stake. When did it all become so… big?"
