Death raised her eyebrows, genuinely curious. “What are you up to?”
“I think I’m dealing with a scythe seal, this time,” she said. “It will take all the energy I’ve got left, both mine and borrowed, to put into my blade, and I’ll probably sleep for the rest of the year afterward, but it’s worth a shot.”
Death nodded slowly, stretching out her left arm. Kelara used the scythe’s sharp tip to trace around one of the black runes, whispering an ancient Reaper spell. The outline lit up white, and Death hissed from what sounded like pain.
“We’ve tried several spells, so far,” Dream said, her gaze fixed on Death and Kelara. “This is pretty much the last resort. Nightmare and I had to give her some of our energy to do it.”
“That’s why you were sitting by the water hole together, like besties?” I asked.
Kelara continued to fill the rune with light from her spell, sweat beads already glistening on her forehead. Death cringed, closing her eyes. She was uncomfortable, to put it mildly. I’d never seen her like this. So… vulnerable.
“Kelara needed some First Tenner juice for this,” Nightmare replied with a shrug.
“Why couldn’t one of you do it?” I asked.
“It’s a spell I made up myself,” Kelara gritted out, still focused on her work.
The revelation hit me in the chest like a sledgehammer. “Whoa. What?!”
“It’s a spell I made up my—”
I cut her off. “Yeah, I got that part, Kelara. How is that even possible?”
Death smiled. “She didn’t know she had it in her. You’d be surprised by how many of you have this potential, if you only gave yourselves to it.”
“I’m confused.”
“You and me both,” Dream replied. “But our momma’s kind of right. No one ever said we couldn’t make death spells of our own. And the death spells we know didn’t all come from her.”
Nightmare chuckled. “Fun fact, right?”
Suddenly, I was the one on the outside, looking in and feeling like a complete stooge. “I’m sorry, when did this become common knowledge? Because I certainly wasn’t in the loop. I thought you were the one who gave us all these spells,” I said, scowling at Death. Maybe I wouldn’t have had the same courage, had she not been trapped under the seals.
Death shook her head. “I never said that.”
“You never not said that,” Dream retorted.
“Listen, you’re Reapers. That means you’ve got threads of my power inside you. Most of your kind have very little, like, say, the lower circles. Kelara, Seeley, and others from the fourth circle and above, well… you got a bit more. Enough to work with and make your own spell. You’d need a lot of spare time for that, though, which Kelara has had, since she’s been here with me,” Death explained. “She’s had time to push herself and explore.”
“We didn’t tell you because we weren’t sure it would work,” Kelara said, finishing her light-coloring work on the rune seal. “This is my first attempt, mind you.”
“I still don’t understand how the seals work, exactly,” I replied.
“No one really does.” Death sighed. “They are modified versions, made by the Spirit Bender. He took his time and learned some new tricks while he was plotting my professional demise.”
“Oh, so we’re not even dealing with the classic Thousand Seals,” I concluded.
“Bingo,” Nightmare said, grinning. “How’s it going, Kelara? Think we can drop it down to 998 seals before the turn of this century?”
Kelara was shaking, the spell draining her of every wisp of energy left in her Reaper body, but she didn’t give up. I had to admit, I respected her even more for what she was doing. She grunted as she scratched through the glowing rune with the tip of her scythe. As soon as the blade found clean skin again, a faint pulse erupted from Death—faint, yet powerful enough to knock Kelara back.
She landed on her hind, gritting her teeth. “Damn.”
“You did it!” Death exclaimed, breathing deeply. “I feel a tad lighter already!”
“Wow, you make it sound like the Atkins diet,” Dream muttered.
“I did it!” Kelara gasped. “Finally!”
“Yay! 998 to go! Pop the champagne, will ya?!” Nightmare sneered.
Death laughed lightly, shifting her attention to me. “Good. Now that that’s out of the way, tell me, Seeley, what news do you bring from The Shade?”
She sounded as though she’d just finished a waxing session at the local spa. Death baffled me beyond belief sometimes, but I’d learned not to dwell much on her moods and temperament. She was an entity beyond my full understanding, and I’d had to get used to it.
“Derek and Sofia have put together a small mission for Visio,” I said.
Kelara was still in awe of what she’d just accomplished, her smile bursting with sheer satisfaction. “I totally did it,” she mumbled, mostly to herself.
“They’re going after the source for the day-walking protein,” I added, noticing Death’s expression light up. I was giving her excellent news, it seemed, though I wasn’t yet sure what it all meant, in the grand scheme of things.
“Oh, Seeley, this is great,” Death replied, glancing to the side for a moment.
The wheels in her cosmic head were turning, and I would’ve given anything to be able to hear her thoughts. What drove her? What did she want from these people? What purpose did that protein serve for Death, and why did she need me out there, shadowing Nethissis and her team?
Whatever her next directive would be, I was determined not to go until she answered my questions. I deserved that much, after all the errands I’d run for her thus far.
Kelara
