"Where is Death?" I asked, my tone firm, my body quivering before him.

He took a deep breath. "It's over, Taeral. The ritual has been completed. You should learn to adjust to these failures, my friend."

"You helped kill five million innocent people," I shot back. "I'm not going anywhere until you and I sort this out."

"Is that why you brought the Word with you?" he replied, his galaxy eyes reduced to slits as he glanced at Lumi and Nethissis. "Because you want to… sort this out?"

"No, the Word is here to undo the mess you've made, brother," Time said.

Spirit chuckled. "Look at you, walking and talking. You lucky scab." He shifted his focus back to me and the witches, who were flanking me. "The Word cannot harm me until Death speaks and agrees to join forces with him," he added. "Unfortunately, my maker is a tad… indisposed."

Dream and Nightmare moved closer, craning their necks to get a better look. Phantom vanished and reappeared behind Spirit, her eyes wide as she glanced down below the ice.

"She's trapped down there." Phantom gasped. "He's got her under the Thousand Seals!"

Specters appeared and jumped Phantom before she could even raise her scythe against her treacherous brother. Thieron was thrilled, vibrating in my hand, illuminated from within—it was a new and more intense reaction, I realized, as we were finally within Death's reach.

Seeley intervened and reaped the specters, helping Phantom pull back. The Reapers were all shocked.

"What the hell did you do, brother?" the Soul Crusher demanded. "The Thousand Seals? Seriously? And specters? Have you gone off the deep end?!"

The Spirit Bender laughed. "The specters only serve to protect me. Did you really think I'd be out here on my own?" He snapped his fingers. Suddenly, thousands of specters appeared, former Aledrasians who'd been harvested for this particular stage. They growled and hissed, surrounding us on all sides, eager to cut us down. Spirit kept them at bay, though I doubted they'd stay still for much longer. All he needed to do was let them loose. "I've worked too hard to get to this point, my dear brothers and sisters."

I glanced at Lumi. "Is he telling the truth? Can you not do anything at all?"

"Not until Death is released, I'm afraid. All I can do is give my witches an extra kick in their heels. You'll have to break Death free before anything else can occur," Lumi said.

Widow leaned in from behind. "Or find a way to get one of us close enough to break the first of the Thousand Seals. It's Silence. If we remove that, Death will be able to at least speak and consent to the Word's offer of direct assistance."

Looking back, I noticed the Time Master was gone. "Where did Time go?!" I hissed.

"Don't trouble yourself with him," the Soul Crusher replied, moving past me as he took out his scythe. "Let's give this ass the beating of a million lifetimes. I've had enough of his nonsense."

The Spirit Bender raised his hand. Behind him, I caught a glimpse of Death's hands pressed against the ice. Oh, she was definitely down there, under some kind of ancient seal. I wanted to know how he'd pulled this off, in the first place, but the entire planet was gradually working itself up to send out the devastating pulse that would ignite the fae sanctuaries, turning them into lethal weapons against entire civilizations.

"I think you missed the part where I said I have spent a long time preparing for this, brother. Did living inside Zetos ruin your ability to comprehend basic sentences, Soul?" Spirit asked.

"I may be a little rusty, Spirit, but I am superior to you," Soul said. "It's time I reminded you of this simple, indisputable truth."

Something tugged at my heart. At the same time, Death slapped the ice. Thump. Thump. Thump. I wanted to move closer, but I couldn't. The specters were riled up, staring at Spirit's hand as if waiting for his signal.

Oh, crap. They are literally waiting for his signal. The hand in the air. That was it. But I needed to get closer to Death. I had a feeling she needed me.

"Can I use Thieron to break the seals?" I asked, looking at Phantom, who brushed off her frilly nightgown, visibly disgusted by how close the specters had gotten to roughing her up.

She shook her head.

"Thieron is but a toothpick without Death," the Spirit Bender said. "I must say, you're all overreacting. Why don't we just sit back and watch the rest of the ritual unfold? It's not like you can do anything about it anymore, anyway."

Amelia charged him, raising Yamani's scythe. "You're destroying my world, you monster!" she shouted. The Soul Crusher waved a hand and threw her to the side like a limp ragdoll.

"What the hell?!" Raphael blurted, rushing to get to Amelia.

Soul shot him a cold stare. "Unless you're one of us, you don't stand a chance against the Spirit Bender."

This felt like a standstill, and I didn't like it. I'd come here armed with hope and determination. I could feel Thieron aching to slice the Spirit Bender into little bits and pieces, until there was nothing left of him.

"Last chance before I let the Oompa-Loompas loose," Spirit said, quite amused, hand still in the air. "Shall we kick back with some drinks and popcorn and adjust to a new world? Or will you be stupid enough to challenge me?"

Thieron's energy burst through me like wildfire. I settled into an attack stance. There was only one answer to be given, and only one way in which this would all end. Against the odds. Against the fear, the despair, the crippling grief.

I'd had enough of a Reaper's tantrums. We'd lost too much. Enough is enough.

"Give me everything you've got," I said. "I'll pay you back in kind."

Riza

Seeing Taeral like this filled me with unexpected energy.

As he and the Spirit Bender clashed, the battle began.

Despite my fears and exhaustion, both physical and mental, I felt a renewed sense of self. Images of my parents flashed through my mind. They were depending on me, on all of us, to pull through. Glancing at Herakles, I knew that he was part of the reason why I'd been holding on with such fierce stubbornness. For us. For me. For every single living creature in this universe.

None of us had asked for such a titanic responsibility, yet it had been thrust upon us, nonetheless. I couldn't bring myself to walk away from it. The only way was forward.

As the specters jumped us, we all fought as hard as we could. Amelia, Taeral, and the Reapers had scythes. Lumi and Nethissis channeled the Word's amplified powers. The rest of us were in danger, because these modified spirits could potentially kill us—and there were so many of them.

But even so, we did not back down.

Herakles used every weapon in his arsenal. The blades. The sword. Even his claws. I cast magic and teleported myself around the frozen lake, helping my friends wherever I could. If there was a specter creeping up on Eva, I'd be the first there to knock it back. It wasn't our bodies that the spirits were responding to, I quickly realized. It was the steel in our weapons.

I'd gotten myself cut and scratched by these creatures already, but, since they were basically ghosts, kicking and punching had done nothing. The swords, however, those worked!

"Use your blades!" I shouted. "Use your steel! It hurts them!"

In an instant, the balance in this fight changed. We slashed and cut through the specter mess, even as they continued to pile up on us. Raphael's fire helped a lot, as well—not necessarily because it hurt the spirits. It didn't. But it distracted them long enough for us to move in and cut more of them down.

The Reapers got busy thinning the herd. Their scythes transformed every specter they touched into bursts of golden sparks. Kelara, Dream, and Nightmare had clearly done this before. They moved like shadows, vanishing and reappearing around the frosted battlefield. Seeley, Widow, Soul, and Phantom were hard at work, as well. Casting bits of Reaper magic between their hits, they managed to distract entire clusters before cutting them down.

I couldn't see the Time Master anywhere, and the ghouls were missing, too. I'd expected them to show up by now. Reappearing next to Amelia, I quickly analyzed our current odds against Spirit's specter hordes.

"Where the hell are the ghouls?" I asked.

"Damned if I know," Amelia breathed and took down another spirit. She wasn't a Reaper, but the scythe in her hands still caused damage to the ghostly mass. A Reaper always pitched in to finish the job—either Soul, Kelara, or Seeley, for the most part. We were spread thin against too many enemies.

Taeral took on Spirit with everything he had, swinging Thieron expertly while dodging the Reaper's blade. Soul had already advised him not to get cut. We knew that it was how the Spirit Bender controlled his ghosts. All he had to do was cut you once, and you were his. Of course, that usually applied to the dead, but the Soul Crusher had been specifically clear that it did the same to the living, as well.

"You selfish piece of trash!" Taeral shouted and dodged Spirit's scythe. He brought Thieron upward fast, missing the Reaper by only a few inches. It was enough to make Spirit look worried. It became obvious then that he did not want to get hit with Thieron. Chances were it would lead to his permanent death, the irreversible kind. "You've put all the living in mortal danger because you're angry at your mom! Do you not realize how foolish you are?!"