“From what we’ve learned, Unending and Spirit were the only ones with near-complete knowledge of death magic,” I said. “I mean words, sub-words, sounds. Like ninety percent or more. But if Joy’s been around as long as Unending and Spirit… it would be reasonable to assume Death might’ve taught her almost as much, if not just as much, for the sake of keeping the soul fae safe.”
“I think so,” Unending replied. “I’d certainly teach Joy everything she needs to keep even the likes of us at bay. Especially after Spirit found out there were still some soul fae alive. I wonder if he ever confronted Death about it.”
Anunit shrugged. “I’m so used to Death keeping secrets and telling half-truths—if not outright lies—that nothing surprises me anymore. I reckon it’s part of why Spirit was so against her. It wasn’t just that she refused to let him go. She preached this sanctity for our kin while she went ahead and did everything she’d asked us not to. Leading by example was never Death’s forte, hence all the calamities that transpired. The terrible consequences of her decisions.”
“What can you tell us about Joy, as a person?” Unending asked. “What is she like?”
“She’s cold. She’s a cold bitch. Joy doesn’t care who you are or what you want. Her sole objective is to protect the soul fae, and she will stop at nothing to do that,” Anunit said. “I told her, quite clearly, that I had absolutely no intention of touching or even interacting with them. That I only needed the Mixer. She did not care. Actually, I think my request annoyed her, since she couldn’t give it back to Death without telling her how she’d gotten it, in the first place. How she’d kept it stashed here for Spirit, Death’s arch enemy. In Joy’s defense, she didn’t know what Spirit was plotting at the time, but our maker was never really the merciful type, if you think about it. So, Joy got angry. She came at me with everything she had and nearly destroyed me. Which is why I need you. Perhaps now you understand.”
Unending nodded slowly. “I do. Well, we will hopefully see you soon.”
“Good luck,” Anunit said.
We continued up the path without her, but I could still feel her watching us from afar. “What do you make of Anunit so far?” I asked.
“She’s not to be fully trusted,” Unending said, echoing my own thoughts. “I feel like there’s something missing from her story, but Death wasn’t able to fill in those blanks, so we’ll have to figure it out ourselves. It doesn’t mean Anunit isn’t telling the truth, though. We have something she needs—we can try to fetch the Mixer and who knows what else the other two trials entail. She has something we need in return, so we’re operating on the basis of a trade.”
“So, it just means she might not be wholly forthcoming, perhaps to make sure we get her what she needs and can’t get on her own,” I replied.
“Probably. We’ll have to meet Joy for ourselves and see what kind of Reaper she is. Maybe Joy will have a different side of the story from what Anunit has told us. It’s just hard for me to believe anything a friend of Spirit’s says, especially a friend he trusted with so much of his knowledge. We’ll see where this leads, I suppose.”
Looking around, I noticed more eyes opening on the trees. They followed us as we made our way up the path, their branches rattling in the nocturnal wind. Long black shadows stretched across the moss carpet, blending into the nearby darkness. Only then did I realize what was happening here. “Hold on,” I said, stopping for a moment.
The light from the luminescent veins was concentrated around us but dimmed in the distance. The glow also followed us as we moved, as if the jungle were lighting our way through. That was why there was still darkness dominating the area, yet we had the courtesy of the green glow to keep us company.
“The forest… it’s giving us a guiding light,” I said, looking at Unending.
She quickly understood I was onto something. “Oh, wow. You’re right. This is interesting.”
“Won’t that give us away when we get closer to the village? Joy will see us coming from a mile away,” I replied.
“I think Joy will see us coming with or without the glow,” Unending said. “You heard Anunit. There are charms all over this place. Traps, too. I don’t think it’s just the jungle that makes our presence known.”
“You think maybe she already knows we’re coming.”
“Yes, so we must be careful,” Unending said, and we linked hands as we continued our journey north.
Unease festered inside me with every step I took. I was afraid, and I had every reason to be, but Unending’s presence by my side soothed me. I’d married the most powerful Reaper in existence, and I knew she’d stop at nothing to keep me alive.
Something clicked under my heel, and I froze. Unending gave me a terrified look. “Do not move,” she whispered, then dropped to her knees and cleared some of the moss around my boots, revealing a stone plate with familiar symbols carved into a pentagram pattern. “Oh… crap.”
“What is it?” I asked, my voice barely a wheeze. Sweat began dripping down my face and seeping into my already moist shirt. My blood ran cold, and I wasn’t sure how I’d get out of this predicament. I didn’t really need Unending to tell me what the plate was, since I already knew it had been designed to hurt people. It didn’t take a genius.
“It’s similar to the landmines used by humans,” Unending said, cautiously running her fingers over the runes. “But it’s loaded with a Reaper’s personal energy. It’s weaponized against Reapers, and it will easily obliterate a living person. You won’t stand a chance.”
I gave myself a moment to let it all sink in. “Okay. What do we do?”
“I can teleport you away, but we need to make sure we don’t end up on another one of these. We also need to be as far from this plate as possible, because I have no idea what the blast radius will be.”
“Won’t it leave a hole in the jungle itself, if it’s a big one?” I asked, my tone uneven, my throat scratchy with anxiety. “Would she do something so extreme?”
“Nature recovers,” Unending said. “But you’d be pulverized, and I cannot let that happen, my love.”
“I understand. You should zap us somewhere off the beaten path, then,” I suggested. “I assume these traps are more limited where the terrain is harder to cross.”
Unending stepped back, her brow furrowed. “Give me a second.” She vanished, and I was left on my own. I tried not to shiver or make even the slightest movement. Taking deep breaths, I waited while she scoured the woods for a safer place to drop me. The traps would hurt her, too, so she had to be extra careful as she briefly scanned the increasingly hostile terrain just to save my bacon.
My wife was an absolute badass, I thought to myself. She reappeared and took my hand, smiling with sparkling confidence. A split second later, we vanished, and only the faint echo of the blast reached us as we were teleported a mile farther north, smack in the middle of the untamed wilderness. The trees suddenly came to life, veins illuminating and eyes opening to find us standing and shaking like leaves. We’d escaped a terrible, violent fate.
“Are you okay?” Unending asked.
“I’m alive. I’m whole. Yes, I’m definitely okay.” I chuckled, though I was still very much on edge. She didn’t let go of my hand as she guided me deeper into the woods.
“This will be slightly safer, I think,” she said.
We trekked through the untamed and uneven jungle, keeping away from any noticeable paths. Other people may have come around at some point or another, in smaller or larger numbers, for a variety of reasons. Some may have survived. Others perhaps had died, while the rest would have scattered upon dealing with Joy’s many hidden traps. But the forest floor seemed to have remembered them all, keeping their paths from being swallowed by the sprawling ferns with succulent-like leaves.
“Have you told Death telepathically about this place? Or about Joy? I mean, about you knowing about it?” I asked as we carefully advanced through the wilderness, the glow persistently following us around.
“But you will tell her, right? I doubt Joy will keep this a secret,” I said.
“Of course. I do wonder if she’ll be okay with me taking the Mixer.” Unending chuckled. But that raised a different question for me.
“What if she says no?”
Unending stopped, giving me a sideways glance. “I’m not sure what we’ll do. We can still try to take it and deal with the consequences later. Let’s see what this place is about first. Then we’ll handle Death.”
“But if we don’t or can’t get the Mixer, what then?” The prospect of halting the mission here bothered me more than I’d originally thought it would.
“Then we’ll stop our quest,” she said. “And we’ll adopt. I’ll find a way to exist with this yearning. Maybe a child of another world will keep me busy enough to stop my mind from crumbling. I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers, my love. Let’s just take this one step at a time and see where it leads.”
Finally, we reached a clearing that looked rather strange. It was empty, and the air rippled all around it. I needed no magical skills to figure out that we’d found the warded edge of the village. “It’s an invisible shield,” Unending murmured, analyzing it carefully.
“We found it, then.”
“Which means we must pay extra attention to anything and everything from now on,” she replied, slowly reaching out a hand to touch the transparent membrane. The surface shimmered ever so slightly, barely bothered by the physical contact. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be easy to breach. Beyond it, the soul fae were probably going about their lives, unseen and unheard by the outer world. Joy was likely patrolling the area which, judging by the wide arch of our side of the membrane, was probably at least a few miles wide.
In there, somewhere, was the Mixer. Our first trial had begun, and I couldn’t see myself turning away from it now. We’d made it this far. Unending’s expression spoke of confidence and wise concern. I squeezed her hand and gave her a wink.
“We’ve got this. Right?”
She smiled. “Hopefully, yes.”
I was fine with a hopeful yes. It was better than a no or a maybe. We just had to figure out a way in. It seemed doable in theory, but without a full understanding of the death magic that had been keeping the village safe for so long, I doubted we’d succeed. But I was with Unending, one of the brightest of her kind. That had to count for something.
Thayen
Astra and I remained outside “Isabelle’s” room for a while. We’d agreed I’d give myself a longer break before trying to glamor the clone again. I needed time to recover. Kailani had taken the others to the nearby terrace to eat. They’d all been so worried and focused on these strange events that nourishment had been the last thing on their minds.
Kelara and the ghouls had joined Lumi and the living, though she had no need for food. But our people required comfort and kindness, company and reassurance more than anything, and the Reaper had understood that. Besides, Stan and Ollie could do with a chunk of fresh meat, as well. Isabelle’s clone didn’t need this much attention from us, anyway, and I doubted it did Serena or Draven any good to stick around and watch her. Especially when their daughter was still missing. Isabelle’s clone was a mean and unforgiving creature. She’d mess with their heads given the chance, so I was more than happy to see them leave with the others.
Soul, on the other hand, had gone to do a sweep around the hospital perimeter, just in case there might be a portal opening nearby. It was a long shot, but I knew he just didn’t have the patience to stay in one place for too long.
Meanwhile, Astra and I struggled to figure out our next steps. We didn’t have much to go on, which made any action risky without all the data. At least Isabelle’s clone was still sleeping, her head resting on the table. My glamor push had done quite the number on her, apparently. I was already looking forward to trying again, having acquired a taste of my ability’s growing strength, and I wanted to make myself truly useful. Soon enough, I thought, dealing with a certain lingering feebleness—a sign that I had absolutely overexerted myself earlier.
“You’ll dig deeper when she wakes up,” Astra said, as if reading my mind. “I wonder if there have been any more portal sightings since Richard’s clone escaped.”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Our people are constantly combing The Shade and the redwoods, but they haven’t seen anything.”
“I wish I could sense the portals from afar, but alas… I cannot.”
“It’s not like you can wander through the forest day and night on the off chance one will pop open,” I replied. “You need a break.”
“And you need to rest, too,” Astra said. “Stop stressing over the doppelganger.”
“How do you know I’m stressing?” I shot back with a faint grin.
“I can tell,” she grumbled. “Your spiritual energy is a mess, though I’m barely able to read it. The weight of the world should not be on your shoulders.”
“I just want to sort this out before it gets worse. We’ve all agreed there’s a chance more clones will show up at some point,” I said. “And the more I can do with my glamoring, the better for everyone. If I can train myself to be able to make them tell us everything, then we’ll have an undeniable advantage. Don’t you think?”
Astra sighed. “That nosebleed was a symptom, Thayen. You cannot exhaust yourself in this pursuit. Take it easy; give your ability time to expand and grow without it whittling away at your health. There is no point in you glamoring a clone if it eventually reduces you to a bleeding mess.”
“What am I supposed to do? Give myself a day or two? Kick back with a book?” I was irritated by my inability to overcome these physical limitations. What good was a Reaper’s power if I couldn’t use it like a Reaper could?
“Maybe start with a deep breath,” Astra said, eyeing me worriedly. “Unwind for a moment. Stop assuming it’s your responsibility to fix everything. Isabelle’s clone will cave in eventually. Whether it happens in the next few hours or days, it doesn’t matter. It will happen.”
“What about Isabelle? She’s still out there somewhere,” I insisted.
She looked down, as if uncomfortable to hold my gaze. “If she were dead, I’m sure we’d have found her body by now.”
“What if they took her body to wherever the clones came from?” I asked.
“Whoever is pulling the strings here already knows we have their clone. I think we would’ve come across… the real Isabelle if that were the case. They would have no reason left to hold on to it. Given how practically evil they are, as evidenced by our ‘friend’ here, they would probably throw her back into this world just to get back at us for taking their clone,” Astra replied.
I didn’t like the sound of Isabelle’s body not having turned up so far, but I had to admit it was a solid line of reasoning. A mild sense of peace came with it—a faint reassurance that maybe Isabelle was very much alive and waiting for us to save her.
“Let’s not mention any of this to Draven and Serena,” I said. “The corpse part, I mean. They’re dealing with enough as it is.”
Voss came down the hallway, carrying a duffel bag on his shoulder. “Hey, you two!” he called out. “Sofia and Derek want you back at the Great Dome. They couldn’t get through to your comms pieces. Apparently, your Telluris connections aren’t working, either. I was on my way to start the patrol shift, passing by the Great Dome, when they called out to me. My comms aren’t working, either, it seems…”
“So, they only sent you?” I asked.
Astra tried her earpiece first, then Telluris. “I’m not getting an answer.” She gave me a concerned look.
“No. They told me they sent Chantal and Soph ahead, too. They’re not here?” We shook our heads, and he pursed his lips as he reached us and dropped the bag on the floor. “There’s somethin
g funky going on here... I obviously have no way of reaching the girls now…”
I tried my own comms lines and Telluris, but just like Astra, I wasn’t able to contact anyone. It bothered me. Something was definitely about to happen. I could feel it in my bones. And I didn’t want it catching us split up like this.
Astra gave me a curious look. “Do you think we’re dealing with more clones?”
“I wouldn’t put it past them. Dad did say we should expect more fakes, though we’re not yet sure how many of us they were able to replicate, in the first place. Not to mention how,” Voss replied. “It’s all very confusing to me. I wish things were normal again.”
“Things were never really normal here, though.” I said as I got up. “But this warrants further investigation. Before we head for the Great Dome, Astra and I will rush over to the terrace and pick the others up. We’ll have Stan and Ollie come over to keep you company and make sure no one tampers with the doppelganger’s room. It’s virtually impenetrable, anyway.”
He eyed me intently. “Yeah, I’ll hold down the fort here, but hurry. The fact that our comms are down is a major issue. We need to get ahead of this quickly.”
“I know. Like I said, we’ll grab Lumi and the gang and we’ll head back to the Great Dome. You’ll have some ghoul backup soon enough,” I said, patting him on the back as I walked toward the exit with Astra. “The clone’s in deep sleep for now.”
“Just be careful, okay?” Voss replied, taking my seat.
I gave him one last look before we went through the double doors. Astra had a permanently raised eyebrow, as if something had been bothering her for a while. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing. I just think we’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle here, and until we find out what it is, we’ll keep hitting these glass walls.”
A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors Page 4
