"Heavens, it nearly killed him to take Phyla and the rest of Thieron straight to Mortis," I mumbled, leaning back into the chair. Outside the glass house, I caught glimpses of Amelia's parents, Abby and Eric, coming from the extension's far end, where we held the Hermessi children. GASP seniors had been taking turns watching over them and trying to talk the loyal ones out of serving Brendel. It wasn't an easy feat. Brendel might've been a mindless fanatic herself, but she sure knew how to radicalize these creatures and get them to work toward her agenda. "He feels terrible for leaving you here like this."

"He did the right thing," Sherus replied. "Not that I'm in any way eager to leave this world, but if I have to die for him to succeed and save everyone else, I figure it's a fair price to pay. Don't you think?"

Tears welled up in my eyes. "You're asking me a very difficult question. I don't want you to go anywhere. But yeah, I get it. I suppose becoming parents sort of killed our selfishness, didn't it?"

He smiled. "For the most part. I admit, there's a reason why I'm not too bummed out about dying, and it's rather selfish, given the many lives that are at stake besides mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"The deal our son made with Death. He's essentially immortal until Thieron returns to Death. He can't die. Neither can Eira or Lumi. I think it was some kind of safety feature Death inserted into the pact, just to make sure this ends her way, sooner or later," Sherus replied.

"If the Hermessi win, it won't end her way because she might not be able to kill them afterward," I said. "They'll be too powerful. However, I do understand your point. It is good that Taeral cannot die. Frankly, this whole Death and Reapers thing is still something I'm struggling to wrap my head around."

"It's rather complex," my husband agreed. "Can I be honest, though?"

He made me laugh. "I really hope you're not pulling a slew of last confessions on me, Sherus. I am not ready to say goodbye to you yet."

"No, no, nothing like that, I promise. There's no Reaper in sight to take me away. And I'm still hoping Taeral finds Death before my expiration date as a ghost."

I would've given anything to be able to hug him, to kiss him and feel his arms around me. To take a deep breath and inhale his spicy, masculine scent. Sherus was the only creature who'd stirred me beyond repair. If I were to lose him for good in this war, I doubted I'd ever be able to find someone who'd make me feel the way Sherus did. And to think I'd barely given him a second thought when we'd first met…

"Tell me, then," I said. "What is it that you want to be honest about?" I stifled a smile as he straightened his back, perking up like a proud papa bear.

"I'm over the moon that our Tae is going to be a Reaper when his time is up in this world," he said. "I'm not sure what kind of afterlife the rest of us are looking at… whether we'll ever see our loved ones again over there—wherever 'there' is. But I know our son will make a fine Reaper."

I nodded slowly, finding myself in agreement with him on this. It was an honor, though I'd yet to figure out exactly how random the Reaper selection system was. There was hardly any time to discuss such details now, in the midst of the hell we were dealing with, but I did hope to find out more about the Reapers and their existence once this was all over.

How this would all end, I did not yet know.

But I shared my husband's thread of relief, comforting myself with the thought that, regardless of whatever came next and how many of us died, our son would still live. The more I thought about it, in fact, the better I understood why Sherus was so upbeat about everything. It was the love for our son that kept him going. The thought that Taeral would survive this, one way or another.

Taeral

With Amal, Amane, and the others in our Stravian GASP division back in The Shade, my team and I were left with Kelara, Dream, and Nightmare in the Faulty twins' laboratory. I felt sorry for all those who'd been left behind, but I maintained a teeny drop of hope that the Perfects might survive the apocalypse, should it come to pass. Their species was, by far, the most resilient. Maybe they'd get lucky, somehow.

I shook that thought away quickly, refusing to consider such an ending. I was not ready to admit defeat and to watch billions of innocent creatures die. On the contrary, I was all the more determined to make a plan and organize an effective search for Death.

We'd spent the past hour going over possible routes and places to visit, assuming two scenarios were possible: that Death left Mortis on her own, which was highly unlikely, or that she was drawn or taken away from it by someone else, like the Spirit Bender, who was now our main suspect as the traitor who had been working with Brendel since Thieron had first gotten stolen.

"We need to get organized," Seeley said.

Amelia was reading through the constant stream of incoming messages from GASP, which confirmed the return of our troops to The Shade from all over the federation. None of us felt good about this, but we did understand and accept the judgment of our superiors. If the worst did come to happen, we'd all have to focus our forces on protecting the Earthly Dimension.

Until then, however, Seeley made a point. "I'm all for organizing," I replied. "But we need a premise on which to function. If we assume Death left by herself, we'll have to search places where she might've gone to… I don't know, hide? Like Phantom mentioned before, planets where she's settled in the past."

"Amelia was right about this. Surely Death would’ve left a message or something if she’d taken off on her own. If we assume that the Spirit Bender had a hand in her disappearance, however, we'll have to think more like him, not like Death." Varga completed my train of thought, almost down to the last word.

"Good point." I nodded and shifted focus back to Seeley. "We only have one interplanetary spell left to use. So we'll have to travel through the pink waters, which isn't exactly a problem, but we should keep that in mind for our own movements."

"Side note, and pardon me for asking, but shouldn't we find more swamp witch supplies here on Strava?" Eira asked.

It was a good question, but I doubted she'd like the answer. "All the swamp witch supplies were given to an evacuation team of Perfects that led the people away from the fae sanctuary here. They're to use them in case they need to get off the planet. It's the last-resort protocol, and it’s being led by the agents who chose to stay behind. It's been put in place on every GASP planet. I guess it was Derek and Sofia's way to make up for the fact that they withdrew most of their troops into the Earthly Dimension."

"So, we can't use any of that, then? It's a pretty special situation," Eira replied, frowning slightly.

Eva shook her head. "We'd need a lot, considering all the locations we have to visit. The one interplanetary spell we have left is the only one we'll use, and only if we don't have any other choice. We cannot tap into the evacuation resources of innocent civilians. It wouldn't be fair to them."

"Plus, we actually move faster through the pink waters," Herakles added.

"The only downside to the interplanetary spell evacuation is that all the worlds they'll escape to will also be subject to the Hermessi rule. So it's not exactly an escape, rather a prolonging of the inevitable." Amelia sighed, putting her tablet away. "That being said, how are we operating, going forward? Shall we assume Spirit Bender found a way to snatch her?"

“There’s no better explanation,” I said. “You called it the first time.”

"Even so, how the hell do you kidnap Death?” Raphael asked. “I still can't fathom the possibility."

"Oh, with the right knowledge and understanding of one's opportunities, an experienced Reaper like, say, one of the First Ten can, in fact, orchestrate a successful abduction, provided she is without Thieron," Soul replied. "It's what Spirit Bender would have banked on if he did, indeed, do such a horrible thing."

Kelara got up from her seat, putting her scythe away. She'd spent the past twenty minutes polishing its half-moon blade with a silken napkin she kept in an inside pocket. "We need to find the Time Master. Regardless of our course of action, he's the only one who can give us the time we require for this operation."

"We could all use a bit more time," Phantom replied, a smile fluttering across her face.

"I can take Dream and Nightmare with me for this," Kelara said. "We'll turn the entire universe upside down, if we have to."

"I hope you don't mean that in a literal sense," Nightmare interjected, one hand resting on his hip. "My hamstrings are out of shape."

Kelara groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I think I'm making the obvious sacrifice here, taking these two off your hands," she said, nodding at Dream and Nightmare.

"No need to be a drama queen about it," Dream retorted. "My brother and I will come along. No one knows Time better than the two of us."

I went over to one of the laboratory's main windows, which offered a full view of the jungle surrounding our GASP base. Layers of wild green rolled beneath a clear blue sky, the window's transparent filter making sure no vampires were affected by daylight while indoors. It was a beautiful world, filled with some of most fascinating creatures I'd ever seen. It was unique, much like my Fire Star, and the more I thought about it, the more desperate I became in my need to save them all.

From a logistical point of view, Kelara's suggestion made sense. "We do need the Time Master's abilities, for sure," I said. "He might very well be our best shot at stopping the ritual. Where do you think he might've gone, Dream, Nightmare?"

They glanced at one another and gave me a double shrug. "No clue," Dream replied. "But he's got to be somewhere in the In-Between. Most of us chose to stay here, albeit scattered to the very ends of it. See our Desplan home, for example."

"Speaking of which, you two are in for a world of pain when Death gets her mojo back." Soul chuckled. "You have been living large and way out of the rule spectrum."

By now, we'd all learned about Dream and Nightmare's feeding habits on Desplan, so chillingly described by Kelara. I wasn't the Reaper twins' greatest fan, but I did admire their abilities. From their expressions, however, I could also tell that they feared Death's retribution more than anything.

"Which is why we're here, helping," Nightmare retorted. "Brownie points and whatnot."

"What are brownie points?" Widow asked, prompting Dream to giggle.

"Ugh. Living inside Eirexis made you miss out on a lot of the good stuff," she said.

"Okay, so Kelara, Dream, and Nightmare will handle the Time Master," I said, drawing focus back to our main issues. "I take it none of you have been able to reach him through your Reaper telepathic connection?"

Dream shook her head. "Not for lack of trying. He's either unable to talk to us, or he doesn't want to. Frankly, I'm hoping for the former, not the latter. I have a problem with lack of communication in people."