“Discretion for what, exactly?” I asked. “Who’s pulling the strings over there? We don’t even know who that is or why they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing. We’re completely in the dark here!”

“What Kelara is trying to say is that you’re withholding precious information,” the Time Master interjected politely. “And it’s counterproductive. If you tell us more about what you know or think is happening on Visio, perhaps we will be less persistent in requesting additional Reapers to go there.”

He was definitely more eloquent than me. My very soul was cluttered with anxiety and concern, and Death’s annoyingly calm demeanor and refusal to answer the most basic of questions wasn’t helping.

“It’s not that I know more, or that I don’t want to tell you. I have a hunch, but it is worthless until we get more information from Visio,” Death said. “I appreciate your concern, Kelara, and I understand where you’re coming from. However, my previous statements stand. If there is a culprit involved, we do not want to spook him—or them, as the case may be. A discreet reconnaissance mission is the best way forward, until we learn more about that place.”

Resting my hands on my hips, I breathed out. It didn’t make me feel any better. “What if something happens to Rudolph, too?” I asked.

She thought about it for a moment, stealing glances at the First Tenners. Each of them wanted to say something, but they were genuinely frightened of her. They didn’t have to show it. I could tell from their hesitance alone, since they, too, believed a greater presence on Visio might get faster and better results as to what the hell was going on there.

“We’ll carefully discuss the next steps, should that come to pass,” Death finally said. “I know you’re upset and worried. I know you would like to do things differently. But if my suspicions about Visio are correct, any number of Reapers will be absolutely useless.”

Above us, the blue sky was clear, an endless mass of frosted azure. Around us, there was nothing but ice and pure white snow. Aledrasian cities rose in the distance, but a blizzard was brewing on the horizon, soon to swallow them whole. It all seemed so quiet and peaceful—the complete opposite of what was happening inside me.

“I wish you would tell us more about these suspicions of yours,” I muttered, glancing at the chains that bound her to this world. Spirit had done a spectacular number on her. I was still in awe of what he’d achieved, often wondering how long it had taken him to pull it all off. It had nearly ended the worlds.

“All I can tell you is that we need to find the other First Tenners,” Death replied. “Should my theories prove true regarding Visio, I’ll be the only one who will be able to do something about it.”

“I am so confused right now.” The Widow Maker groaned, crouching next to her. “Why don’t we get more Reapers involved with the seals, at least? Or with finding our siblings?”

Death shot him a cold glare. “Because they would be useless. It takes the strength and talent of the First Ten to break a seal made by one of their own. You saw how exerted poor Kelara was after the second seal. And the Night Bringer, the Morning Star… the Unending… they won’t speak to any regular Reaper. They’re very good at hiding, as you all know by now.”

“So what do you suggest, then?” I asked.

“You need to be patient about Visio, first and foremost,” she replied. “You also need to take Soul, Widow, and Phantom with you and go find the others. Unending, Night, Morning… I need them back here, with me.”

“To help break the seals faster,” I said.

She nodded once. “And not just that. It’s time we bring the family together as a whole.”

“What about us?” Dream replied, raising an eyebrow as she looked at Nightmare and Time. “Do we stick around and keep working the seals?”

“That is exactly what you will do,” Death decreed.

“I still don’t like this.” I sighed, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear. It had been tickling my cheek for the better part of a minute, thanks to a cold northern wind blowing in. “You holding back on Visio. I don’t like it.”

“I will not spend another minute trying to convince you to follow my lead, Kelara,” she said, her tone frosty and sharp. “You either obey or you go back to your regular duties.”

“She clearly has a plan,” Soul mumbled, visibly dismayed. “And she ain’t sharin’.”

“Exactly,” Death shot back. “Frankly, I am tired of having my authority and decisions questioned. You’re all forgetting that I will be free again—if not with your help, with other Reapers’ assistance, since our society cannot function without me at the helm for too long. Someone will get me out eventually. You’ll want to be on my good side when that happens.”

Sooner or later, Death was going to regain her freedom and full power. She was right about one thing: I definitely wanted to be on her good side when that came to pass. But I also didn’t want to be another cog in her machine, a drone that didn’t at least ask questions or object to her decisions.

Whatever she was hiding from us regarding Visio, it had to be big; it had to be important to her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have cared. But I could no longer risk angering her. I had to do my job, which was now about finding the Unending, the Night Bringer, and the Morning Star. The sooner we set Death loose, the faster we could resolve whatever it was that had occurred on Visio.

Aware that my curiosity might be the end of me, I knew I wouldn’t stop asking questions about that planet and its Reaper abandonment. Luckily, I had a direct line to Rudolph. All I could do for now was get Soul, Widow, and Phantom together for a search mission, while praying that Seeley would be in touch again soon.

Lumi

I’d lost Acantha to the Thieron challenge, and it had nearly broken me. Nethissis’s death was infinitely worse. The sigh of relief I’d breathed upon her surviving the Hermessi war had now come back to pummel me into the ground, each blow more painful than the previous.

My heart ached in a way that made my eyes sting and every inhalation downright agonizing, and there was nothing I could do to move past this. It was done. Nethissis had been killed, and regardless of what the Aeternae had suggested, I refused to believe that a damn venomous fox had been the one to topple her. No. Not my Nethissis.

I chose to focus on setting the record straight for her, instead of mourning. I refused to spend a single second grieving, not ready to surrender to my emotions just yet. There was too much torment waiting just around the corner, and if I were to cave in, I’d fall apart at the seams, unable to ever pick myself back up again.

With this investigative mindset, I made myself unavailable to the rest of GASP. Ben and River had offered to stay with me, as had Kailani and my other apprentices, but I’d shut everyone out. As far as GASP was concerned, I was in my summer home, a couple of miles down from Stonewall, grieving and processing what had happened. Of course, I was lying through my teeth, but the fewer people who knew about my intentions, the better.

What I was about to do could imperil Derek and Sofia’s mission as well, and that was one of the things I aimed to avoid. Secrecy was paramount if I was to get any closer to the truth behind Nethissis’s death.

The summer house was something I hadn’t considered having before the Hermessi apocalypse. I’d never thought I’d need a place away from the world, far from the madding crowd and neatly carved into the shore’s massive, gray stone wall. I’d built it with the help of a couple of Bajang boys, and it was connected to both the mainland, through a series of narrow steps, and to the rocky beach below.

I’d wanted it to be as inaccessible to the others as possible, mainly because I cherished my privacy more than anything. Situated approximately fifty feet above the beach and about fifty feet below the mainland, my little crib was perfect. I’d built a terrace for it, as well, which was wide enough to host a decent dinner party—provided I decided to invite anyone for dinner. It was also a good launchpad for my interplanetary spells.

It was a good day on Calliope, bright and sunny and wonderfully breezy. The complete opposite of how I felt, but it didn’t really matter much, as long as I did what I’d set out to accomplish. Drawing the pentagram on the solid wood terrace, I placed all the spell paraphernalia in the appropriate brass bowls and checked my supply bag once more.

I’d packed everything I thought I might need on this journey, including a considerable amount of invisibility paste. My ability to blend in and disappear was crucial to this mission. Nethissis’s image kept appearing before my eyes, like a sullen mirage, as if beckoning me to come to her. I knew she wasn’t real, but my heart didn’t care.

“I’ll find your killer,” I whispered, sitting in the middle of the pentagram.

The salty wind blew over the coast, making the windows tremble behind me. There were strong currents at sea. In the blue distance, I could see the boats—long and slender giants with pale yellow sails, their incubi sailors casting nets far and wide.

Life was much simpler here on Calliope. Sometimes I’d wondered whether I’d be better off on my own, out here, away from GASP and all the many ways in which my other apprentices could die. This was a good place, by the foaming water, and I could easily add more rooms to the summer house. It was big enough to keep the entire swamp witch culture safe. Sure, I enjoyed playing a bigger part in the grand scheme of things, protecting supernaturals and saving innocent people, but… where would it all stop? When would it end?

The more we fought, the more trouble there seemed to be ahead, and I was getting genuinely tired. Something needed to change, eventually, and I wasn’t sure I’d live to see such a day.

Uttering the interplanetary spell’s incantation, I placed a piece of Fire Star rubble in front of me, smack in the middle of the pentagram. My destination was set, and the light bubble swallowed me and my bag of supplies.

It hummed softly before it took off, raising me above the entire world in a matter of minutes. Looking back, I could see Stonewall farther up the coast, settled atop the wall and towering over the ocean with its dark gray walls and robust towers, where the morning fires still burned as beacons for the sailors out on the water.

Deeper into the mainland, the beautiful castle of Luceria rose proudly above the thick emerald woods. Mount Zur was about a hundred miles to its right, a thin plume of smoke connecting its glimmering amber peak and the clear blue sky. For a moment, I remembered my younger days as a pixie, still figuring life out, wandering through those forests, climbing those mountains, and cozying up to the Dearghs around a midnight campfire.

Those had been good days. Difficult, sure, and rather demanding, but I could sleep better back then. As soon as I’d put my head down, I’d drift off to other worlds, and I’d dream of the travels I’d go on, if I ever got the chance. Now, about ten thousand years later, not much had changed in the landscape itself. But the people were different. I was definitely different. Time had a way of doing this to us.

Warping us, molding us to the events that had the greatest impact on our hearts, then making us remember what we’d been like. I almost couldn’t recognize myself anymore. Nethissis had been one of the few creatures who’d made me feel more connected to that younger version of me—her passion for living, her curiosity, her determination and titanic ambition. Her fearlessness… the way her yellow eyes sparkled whenever the Word taught her a new spell… I’d never see that again, and it hurt so much.

Soon enough, I left the Eritopian system behind, with its streaks of pink and orange stardust. Maybe I’d never see it again. I certainly couldn’t exclude the possibility, given what I was about to do. At least I would leave a true legacy behind. Kailani and the girls would carry on with the work of the Word. Some measure of peace was welcome, in these circumstances.

The spell bubble darted through the In-Between, the cosmos unraveling around me with its colorful galaxies and voluminous asteroid fields, its endless rivers of stardust and exploding red stars. I’d modified the interplanetary formula to a new level, and I could now breach the very fabric of time and space with it. It ate up an entire serium battery and about eighty percent of my own energy—which was a lot more than what had been used to additionally power an interplanetary spell, to begin with.

It was also extremely volatile and dangerous, as passing from one dimension to another with this spell bubble was an unstable process. I risked instant disintegration, but I’d had no other choice. All the portals that the witches had built in the In-Between for GASP had security cameras on them, all fitted with red lenses and motion sensors. Using an invisibility spell to get to the Fire Star would’ve landed me in the spotlight, and I wanted everyone to think I was out by the sea, away from the people and not wanting to be disturbed.

This journey had also been a good opportunity to test this spell. Fortunately, it worked, though the pressure of the passage from the In-Between into the Supernatural Dimension had given me a nosebleed. Everything stretched around me, coming apart in swirls of black and light and neon colors, before it all went back to normal.

The spell bubble was now capable of producing a wormhole through which it could pass from one dimension to the next. My heart was in my throat for the briefest of moments, before I saw the fae planets ahead in all their elemental splendor.

I’d made it.