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.
Whatever Visio planned to throw at me, I was ready.
What’s next?
Dear Shaddict,
Thank you for reading A Game of Death!
See the details for the next Shade book, ASOV 80: A Veil of Dark, right after the following announcement:
I’m excited to reveal my brand new supernatural romance called Darklight, which releases September 8, 2019. All new characters, an all new world… I’ve included a special sneak peek of the first 3 chapters in this book, so keep turning the pages if you’re curious! (P.S. And I hope you love the cover!)
Blurb:
"Vampires don’t exist. At least, not anymore..."
I celebrated when vampires were declared extinct.
