He chuckled softly, leaning in closer. I had never seen him like this, so… warm. He’d been charming and funny and friendly. Sometimes he’d made me feel as though there was something more between us, but he’d never touched me this tenderly. Even last night felt like a light breeze compared to the way he was looking at me now, or the way his fingers brushed against my skin.
“We both knew Trev would be in the palace garden at that hour. And I knew you’d be there, even though I wouldn’t be able to see you. I figured out your little magic trick. I almost lost you both behind the curtain, as I didn’t have the advantage of invisibility to sneak down into the basement. It’s why… It’s why I was late in coming for you,” he said, his voice wavering. “I am sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner.”
“It’s okay, Kalon. You saved my life,” I replied, squeezing his hand. “You saved my life, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay you.”
“No need,” he whispered, then got up and dropped a kiss on my forehead. His lips were so warm and soft, I nearly fainted. Luckily, I was already lying down; otherwise, I might’ve made a fool of myself. “Now… rest up, Esme. Your brother will be back soon. And I’ll come around later. I need to consult with Derek, Sofia, Corbin, and Valaine. The Darklings may have gone into hiding, but their threat is still very real.”
I suddenly deflated like a sad beach ball abandoned in the sun. I would’ve wanted him to stay, but he had work to do. Important work that would get us closer to the Darklings. Catching them and wiping them off the face of this planet had become a priority for all of us. We could leave Amal and Amane to handle everything else regarding the protein and the Black Fever.
There are pulverizer weapons on the shuttle. The thought crossed my mind like a flying arrow as Kalon walked out and left me to my own devices. There were pulverizer weapons on the shuttle, with plenty of ammunition. It was time to think of a way to bring it up with the Lord and Lady Supreme, because if push came to shove, I wanted to be able to destroy every single Darkling out there and rid Visio of this horrible threat.
Maybe then, I’d be able to relax and really look at whatever was brewing between Kalon and me. There was something… something deeper than I’d thought. But the Darklings loomed over our heads, ruining everything.
I’d ruin them first, before they inflicted any more damage on me or anyone else.
Lumi
“I should’ve been on Visio by now,” I muttered.
We’d been wandering from planet to planet for three days, following Maya’s trail. At least she wasn’t an exceptional ghoul, since she’d left traces for Sidyan to pick up on. But this was taking too long, and I had serious business to attend to. If, at first, I’d been sympathetic toward Maya’s situation, my patience had begun to thin. I’d heard the communications between Derek and GASP through my earpiece. I knew Zoltan had killed Nethissis. I had to find him and kill him. It was the only retribution fit for what he had done.
“Your snippy attitude isn’t helping,” Sidyan replied.
The sequoia-like forest rose around us like sleeping giants, with trees as tall as mountains and trunks bigger than The Shade’s redwoods. It was magnificent, and, on a different occasion, I might’ve enjoyed a walkthrough, but this was not the right time. Vengeance called out to me, begging me to go after Zoltan. I could find him. I knew I could find him, especially with Sidyan by my side.
He held out his scythe, its blade glimmering, as it had caught another trail of Maya’s. She’d been through here recently, judging by the intensity of its light. Sidyan’s mood was as foul as mine. He didn’t enjoy this any more than I did, especially since he’d been blackmailed into helping me, to begin with. I did feel sorry for him, but that wasn’t going to get me to Visio.
“She’s around here somewhere,” he added, cursing under his breath. “You scared her away.”
“What the hell did I do? It’s not like I went all ooga-booga-booga on her!” I replied, downright exasperated. “It’s not my fault she’s skittish.”
“Shush.”
“Don’t shush me!”
But he did shush me again, this time bringing an index finger up to his lips while using his scythe to point somewhere northeast of our location. Squinting, I managed to pick up on movement between the massive trees. A small figure with translucent skin and scarce black hair, tearing into a small animal and eating its skittish and terrified soul. For a moment, I felt queasy, until I realized we were looking at Maya. We’d finally found her!
After three bleeping days!
Sidyan motioned for me to stay put. He vanished and reappeared behind her. Before Maya could react, he snapped a thin red collar around her neck, the runes lighting up yellow for a second. She screeched and growled, quite unhappy with her predicament, but she couldn’t run away anymore, as Sidyan used his hand movements to control the collar.
“Your fault, sweetie,” he said to her. “You are making me do this. Our relationship is based on trust, and if I can’t trust you, well… the collar says it all.”
She snarled at him, and he snapped his fingers. In an instant, the collar dragged her down, forcing her to all fours. Maya whimpered, trying to rip the restraint from her neck, but nothing worked. Her claws couldn’t even scratch the red leather.
“Once you’re on your best behavior again, I’ll take it off,” Sidyan replied.
It took her a while, but she eventually accepted her fate. He came back to me, and she followed him. She took a moment to scowl at me, as if I were to blame for any of this. Which was ridiculous, but at least we’d managed to solve this one annoying problem.
Sidyan took my hand, and my whole arm nearly caught fire. Touching him was mandatory while traveling in Reaper-mode, but every time his skin met mine, strange reactions occurred deep within me, and I couldn’t figure out why he had that effect on my very being.
“Take deep breaths, and don’t let anything you see scare you,” Sidyan said, galaxies spreading in his eyes. Sunlight burst through the overhead crowns, drawing shadows across his face. He was a handsome creature, despite the chills his mere presence sent down my spine, and I knew he had a heart, given his weakness for little Maya.
The more time I spent with him, the more I began to wonder what he was like. I hadn’t experienced thoughts like this in a very long time. To say that I was intrigued would’ve been one hell of an understatement, but I trusted the universe in its mighty randomness. As chaotic as everything seemed, every piece, every moment had its place in the world.
There was logic in this madness.
So I went with the flow, having lived for too long to question such encounters. I did as Sidyan told me, taking deep breaths as everything warped around us. The giant trees disappeared, along with the rest of the planet.
The oceans swirled past us, the lava core with its flaming orange streaks.
And then darkness. The void of space, as Sidyan and I walked through the wormholes leading to Visio. Maya stayed close, but as soon as the solar system emerged before us, she became restless.
I gasped at the sight. It was as beautiful and as strange as Derek had described it. The reddish haze persisted around Visio and its two neighboring planets, Rimia and Nalore. The color display beyond that magic was extraordinary. Greens and blues so intense that my soul expanded with wonder. Whites and reds so pure that my heart tingled, ever so slightly.
Shuttles moved to and from Visio, their lights flickering yellow and purple.
It looked so beautiful. So… normal. Yet there was darkness dwelling in this place; I could feel it. As we got closer, Maya growled in protest, trying to get away, but Sidyan kept her close by force.
“There’s something here she doesn’t like,” I said.
“If what Seeley said about this world is true, then I would be as creeped out as Maya right now,” Sidyan replied.
“What do you mean?” I asked, as we finally set foot on dry land, the imperial city rising ahead with its majestic buildings and proud towers, ships glistening in the massive harbor to our left.
“According to him, and I know this from a brief conversation I had with Kelara not long ago, there aren’t any Reapers here. No souls, either. No ghouls or ghosts. Nothing. Literally nothing, except for the living.”
That struck me as odd. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. But since we’re here, we might as well find out,” Sidyan said. “Once you do whatever it is you’re planning to do with that Zoltan guy.”
I stared at him, then at Maya for a moment. “I get the strange part about this place, the absence of post-death entities… but how does that scare her? Why would it scare you, too?”
A smile tried his lips. He gazed into the distance, taking in the complex sight of a city brimming with life and culture, a world unlike his or mine. “Maya and I… we’re used to death, in general. Wandering souls, angry ghosts… Reapers, other ghouls. Death herself, as a concept, at least. Not having that around is scary, because we wonder… if death doesn’t exist here, what happens to the people who die on Visio? Or on Nalore or Rimia?”
I looked up at the sky, wondering about the magic used to conceal this place from our telescope. “Do you think it’s got something to do with the red haze?”
“It might, I don’t know. It felt a little strange passing through it.”
“Strange?”
“Familiar, but like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, at the same time,” Sidyan said, giving me a long sideways glance.
Only two minutes in, and we both had questions about Visio. Maya was shaking by Sidyan’s side, and I was dying to get my hands on Zoltan Shatal. Between the three of us, there was a lot to be done, and since nobody else knew I was here—except for Taeral and Eira, at least—I had a certain amount of freedom that Derek and his crew lacked.
If any of the Aeternae were hiding something… well, I was eager to dig deep, until all their secrets saw the light of day. There was definitely something fishy here. The Word hummed inside me, almost urging me to go ahead.
How could I refuse, with all this mystery in plain sight? Besides, I had a feeling I might come in handy later, even to Derek and the others. Unlike them, I had a Reaper in my service. And a partially obedient ghoul.
