“You did both, even though she couldn’t take Thieron just yet,” Lumi said, a faint smile settling on her bright face. Her white eyes glistened in the moonlight, the bluish rings shimmering with hope. “But Herakles is well within his rights to feel like this is all just… unbelievable. I’m still grappling with it, myself.”
Eva exhaled sharply. “I think we’re going to be okay, in the end. We lost five million people, among many others, but at least we got them back, right?”
“It’s better than nothing. It’s certainly better than spending the next few weeks organizing mass funerals across the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension,” Varga said.
“We got a pretty sweet deal, if you think about it,” Nethissis chimed in. “Considering who we were dealing with. These higher powers are not usually so easy to approach or to talk to. Death creeps the hell out of me, to be honest. The Reapers, too. I know we had them as allies, but remember what the Soul Crusher said. They’re not our friends. So, bottom line is—”
“You’re just glad it’s over, and we don’t have to see them again.” Raphael chuckled. “I’m with you there, sister. All the way.”
We linked hands. It was Riza’s turn to teleport us straight back to The Shade. I braced myself for the flurry of emotions I knew I’d deal with—after all, my father had been resurrected, and my mother was dying to see me back. The whole GASP federation was ecstatic and eager to get back to work, to fix the damage that the Hermessi had done. Everyone was ready to return to living, tired of just struggling to survive against entities we’d had no control over.
“Prepare for the weepy part,” Varga warned us. “We’re about to see all the people we thought we’d never see again.”
“Oh, yeah, your grandma’s going to freak out.” Riza giggled. “You were always the apple of Claudia’s eye.”
“And I know Lenny will be happy to see me. I’m just worried Nevis will want to hug me. He might be as cold as ice—literally speaking—but I’m pretty sure he likes me more than he lets on,” Varga replied.
Herakles shot him a grin. “Or you’re just hoping he’ll hug you, because deep down you’re fond of him and you thought you’d never see him again.”
Varga thought about it for a moment and lowered his gaze. “I’ve always wanted a brother,” he admitted, prompting all of us to laugh.
What a sound this was! Pure laughter, unbroken by grief or sorrow. I’d missed it. I’d missed the nonchalance of an existence without fear. Riza zapped us out of the Amazon and straight into The Shade’s beach extension.
I felt my boots sinking slowly into the golden sand, the salty air brushing against my skin. I breathed it all in, thrilled to feel it all like this. Glancing around, the darkness of a Shadian midnight soothed my aching, tired soul. The ocean lapped at the smooth shore, its sound music to my ears.
Raphael patted me on the shoulder. “Listen, I’ll take the crew back to the grand hall. I bet the whole of GASP will go back there soon.”
“Yeah, Derek and Sofia are probably on Calliope now, welcoming back half of their family from the dead,” I said. “But they’ll definitely want to go home soon. I’ll see you all there in a bit.”
“Your mother and father are waiting,” Lumi said, smiling as she gazed at the first extension glass house. Two figures were outside, partially darkened by the night. I knew I was looking at my parents, and they were both waiting for me.
“We’ll catch up later,” I replied, giving my friends a warm smile.
Eira moved to go with them, but I caught her wrist. “You should stick around,” I said slowly. “My dad would probably love to hug you.”
Her cheeks turned rosy, a reaction I was hoping to elicit many times more in the future. She looked so beautiful when her shyness took over. What a gorgeous contradiction Eira was—a fighter, a military figure, a warrior by all accounts, yet so delicate and soft on the inside, her heart too big for this world or any other. No wonder I’d fallen in love with her.
Maybe it was too soon for an official “meet the parents” moment, even though she’d already been acquainted with my mother, and my father’s spirit, shortly before our departure to get Zetos, but after everything we’d survived, this felt like a most fitting conclusion to our adventure.
Eira gave me a faint smile, and we walked toward the glass house together. Behind us, Raphael and the others disappeared into the redwood forest. I would’ve expected them to teleport straight into the grand hall, but walking made sense, too. They wanted to take their time, to absorb every sensation around them. They certainly deserved every bit of enjoyment they could get, from wherever they could get it.
My father was the first to come down the extension’s steel steps, beaming as he caught me in a tight bear hug, breathing deeply as he held me close. I hugged him, my heart close to bursting open like a water balloon, filled with nothing but love and relief as I felt my father in my arms again. I could only imagine the joy and relief that my mother had felt upon seeing him alive again. They were bound to tell me all about it soon enough, anyway.
“Oh, it’s so good to have you back, my son,” he whispered in my ear. “I had all the faith in you. Deep down, I knew you’d somehow pull through.”
“Dad… I’m just happy you’re alive again,” I said. “For a moment, I thought I’d never see you again…”
“Tae, my baby!” my mother said as she put her arms around us both, tears tumbling down her cheeks. “You’re a bloody hero!”
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “I’m not a hero, Mom. I wasn’t on my own out there. We all fought hard to get here.”
“Speaking of, join us, missy!” my father exclaimed. His arm shot out and brought Eira into the fold. It made her laugh, but she didn’t fight it. The four of us hugged, thankful to be alive and near each other again, our circumstances infinitely different and better than the last time we’d seen each other out here.
“Death came through, Dad,” I said. “She brought you back.”
“At what cost?” my mother asked, pulling back with a frown. Her concern was so sweet and endearing, I couldn’t even roll my eyes over it, like I normally would’ve. She wiped her tears, ready to tear me a new one in case I’d gotten myself indebted to Death or anyone else. She’d always been adamant about not making deals with a bigger devil in order to defeat a smaller one, so to speak. Of course, we’d not known the Hermessi could be so evil when we’d initiated the Blackout.
“Nothing, Mom. She owed us. She said so herself,” I replied. “It’s over. We’re good. We’ll be okay.”
She pointed at Thieron, which was strapped to my thigh. “While I’m happy to hear that, what is that thing still doing on you?”
“Ah… Kind of a long story.” I sighed, offering an awkward smile. “I promise, it’s nothing bad.”
“Then explain,” she shot back.
“He’s keeping it for Death until she’s free,” Eira interjected, slightly alarmed by how this conversation had descended from joy to all kinds of motherly suspicions.
“Wait, what?!” My mother gasped, her eyes huge and golden. Her reaction made my father laugh. He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close, pressing his lips against her temple for a hot second.
“Nuriya, my love, relax. If our son says it’s okay, we have to trust him,” he replied.
“Yeah, but Thieron—”
“Honey, he just saved us from destruction,” my father interrupted her. “Cut the kid some slack. Go back to being his mom tomorrow, if you really want to reprimand him. Let’s just take this moment in, for now.”
As if suddenly reminded of where we were, my mother softened before my very eyes, a warm smile stretching across her face. It felt incredible to see her like this again. Less than an hour ago, she’d been grieving my father and worried sick about me and the rest of the world. It couldn’t have been easy for her to bounce back to this state.
It was in our most primal nature to stay on the defensive until all peril passed—often, we remained on edge even after it was gone. But our troubles were over. The cut on my back had already healed, thanks to Kelara’s scythe touch, shortly before we’d left her with Death, Nightmare, and Dream.
“What will you do next, Eira?” my mother asked.
Eira shrugged. “I’m not sure. I suppose I should head back to Cerix at some point.”
“You’d leave us?” my father replied, sounding downright offended.
“I… I don’t want to,” Eira conceded, giving me an apologetic look. “I’m just not sure where my place is. Where I belong.”
“Well, technically speaking, you’re both Cerixian and a Hermessi child of that world,” I said. “But you’re also a pretty big part of my life, and I’m sure you’ll be given an honorary GASP member title, too. Your contribution to our victory is undeniable. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”
“That’s my son’s way of saying he loves you and he doesn’t want you to go away,” my mother said, much to my horror. I gawked at her for a moment, wondering what had set her loose. She gave me a wink in return, as if that would fix it.
Eira, however, didn’t seem at all surprised. “Yeah, I kind of figured that one out already,” she replied, a smile fluttering across her lips. “I suppose I could stick around for a little while longer. I mean, my father, whom I might not see again, since he’s back at his usual Hermessi status, will look after Cerix. I’m not really needed there.”
“We’ve established diplomatic relations with your planet, though,” my mother said. “Surely, you can go visit whenever you want. The witches will set up a portal as soon as this whole mess clears out.”
“Meanwhile, I’m more than happy to help out here and in the other parts of the GASP federation.” Eira sighed. “I’m sure you’ll need all the assistance you can get to rebuild and reassure people everywhere that the danger is over.”
My father nodded. “Plus, there’s the matter of returning the Hermessi children to their worlds. New civilizations to reach out to. We’ll be quite busy in the next few months.”
