Lumi and Nethissis put their glowing hands through the interplanetary spell bubble's incandescent fabric. That was a first. They wouldn't have been able to do that before. Clearly, the Word was working here.
We were but a blip in all of existence, yet this incredibly powerful entity had chosen us to move forward, to push through.
Light erupted from the witches' hands and shot through space until it stopped and flattened into a disc. Everything warped and trembled around it, the fabric torn wide open. Lumi and Nethissis cried out, their hands as white as the disc. Sweat beads dripped down their faces, but they didn't stop. They kept pushing, fueled by the Word itself, until our spell bubble shot through the white disc and the In-Between opened up before us in all its colorful splendor.
"Death is in the In-Between," Seeley said, his breath short.
The interplanetary spell darted across the realms of ethereal creatures and rivers of pink and purple and orange stardust. Lumi and Nethissis pulled their glowing hands back, which they gathered into fists, whispering magic on behalf of the Word.
Something surged through the bubble. The five ghouls that had volunteered began to shine as though liquid light had filled them to the brim. The unconscious ones didn't move, but the fifth growled softly, looking at his own hands. He seemed shocked, but not in pain. Not from where I stood, anyway.
The glow intensified until the ghouls' forms melted, revealing what I could only assume were their Reaper selves, before their descent into madness and endless hunger for the souls of the living.
"They're reverting back to their old selves," Kelara exclaimed.
The fifth, still conscious, looked at me with his galaxy eyes. He smiled, before the light took over again and consumed him and the others from the inside. They dissolved like droplets of pigment in water and seeped into the spell bubble.
Suddenly, we moved faster. Much faster.
Hell, we were well ahead of light and sound and anything else that crossed the universe in mere minutes or years. Everything vanished around us. I held on to Raphael with all my strength. Nothing had changed inside the spell bubble, except my perception. I had a feeling I'd fall apart and disintegrate from the speed, but I was okay. It was merely the shock of experiencing it, of seeing something like this with my own eyes.
Raphael held me close, and we all gazed out into the flickering distance.
The spell bubble hummed, powered by the Word and the five ghouls it had sacrificed, and steered by the tracking spell embedded into the magic.
"Holy crap. I should've seen this coming!" Taeral managed, his eyes bulging.
Ahead, the In-Between's oldest solar system unraveled, with its twenty planets and dozens of small, pearlescent moons, as they all orbited around an ancient, reddish sun. I recognized Yahwen first, then Aledras.
We seemed to be headed toward the latter, and my pulse went on a vicious race through my body, making my limbs tingle with an even mixture of dread, hope, and excitement.
"We're going to Aledras, it seems," the Word said through Lumi and Nethissis. "It's where the ritual is fated to end, after all."
"Rather fitting, if you ask me," the Time Master replied.
Indeed. It was where the ritual's final stage would unfold. The beginning of the end, in a most literal sense. Once the last fae was touched by the Hermessi, the apocalypse would be unleashed, and it would start right there, on Aledras.
We just needed to get there before that happened. Easier said than done, I thought.
A bright flicker enveloped the small planet for a fraction of a second. A pulse spread outward from its core, and we all felt it in the pits of our stomachs. The universe reacting, as the five millionth fae finally came down, somewhere in the In-Between.
The grief was insurmountable, my stomach clenching in agony as I understood what this meant. Five million fae had been affected. After weeks of turmoil and racing against what Brendel had often referred to as the inevitable… it was done. The Hermessi had finished it.
Vesta
Zeriel and I looked at each other, with no need for words.
We'd said everything we'd had to say, and we both knew our love would transcend everything, including death, life, and all that was between them. Now, we only had to wait—for salvation, or for our last breaths.
The sanctuary's hum persisted, but I'd already learned to ignore it. Rudolph stood by my side as whispers rustled across the great hall. Our bodies glowed brighter than ever, sealed inside the charmed crystal casings. Light rushed across in bold accents as a dull pain settled in my chest.
"Vesta, what's wrong?" Zeriel called out.
It was as if he'd sensed my attention had been grabbed by something terrible. The reality was impossible to ignore at this point, as I first looked down at him, then at the Novaks, whose expressions of dread mirrored mine. The Reapers gathered closer to our spirits, shadows nestled beneath their eyebrows as they stared at us. Waiting.
"The last fae has fallen," Rudolph announced, his voice echoing through the sanctuary. First, he addressed the Reapers. "Brothers, sisters, the moment we've all been dreading has arrived. I am not sure how we came to this point, or what we can expect of Taeral and his mission, but we cannot forsake our duties, regardless of how we might feel about this situation."
"What… what are you talking about?" I murmured.
"Five million fae have been taken by the Hermessi's influence," Rudolph said to me. "No matter what happens next, we must be ready and at peace with our fates—mine, to reap you, and yours, to let go and move on."
"No!" Grace screamed. "I'm not moving on. I'm not going anywhere. It's not over yet. No! Dammit, no!"
Ben held her close, though he wasn't in much better shape. Vita and Caia sobbed, hugging each other. Lucas had an arm around Kailyn's shoulders. All the other fae in the sanctuary looked broken and abandoned, barely visible wisps plagued by hopelessness and despair. It hurt me deeply to see them like this, and I couldn't do anything to help them.
"Vesta!" Zeriel shouted from below. "Something is happening!"
I glanced outside and noticed the pulse as it traveled across the darkening sky, like a moving crease in the fabric of our existence… an omen of something worse to come. Thunder boomed in the distance, like giants clapping from the clouds, laughing and jeering as death came for us.
"Zeriel… I think this is it," I said to him. "I'll… I'll see you again soon."
"Vesta…" he mumbled, unable to say anything else.
I moved back from the edge, my heart breaking slowly and painfully. I couldn't look at him anymore. The murmurs and cries of the fae in the sanctuary were too much to bear. Turning to face the Novaks again, I smiled. Though I was shaken to my core, I didn't want my death to be choked in struggle and grief. I'd been born and raised a warrior, mostly by circumstances I'd had no control over.
This wasn't all that different, if I were to think about it.
"It's starting," Malleus said grimly.
We could all feel it. The hum of the sanctuary got louder. The air denser, heavier than lead. Energy crackled around the building like whiplashes of lightning. Snap. Crackle. Pop.
It coincided with my life-chain breaking. I held my breath as I stared down and watched the blackened link split in two, the pieces falling on the marble floor with an insufferable clang.
That was it. My life gone, in the blink of an eye.
A chill ran through me, my soul no longer connected to my body. It felt empty and lonely. I was a solitary rock in the heart of a desert. A thorn fallen from a rose's stem. A broken dream abandoned on the bottom of existence.
I was not alone, though. No, not at all.
The last links cracked on every fae left living in the sanctuary. Snap. Crackle. Pop. Like the thunder exploding outside, the life-chains came down, severing the connection between the souls and the bodies of five million innocent creatures—not only here, but all over the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension.
My head felt light
as a feather. A sense of relief threatened to skew my resolve, because I was not yet ready to say goodbye to anyone. Not Zeriel. Not any of the Novaks. Not my life or my world or my parents and friends.
"I am sorry, Vesta," Rudolph said to me.
A single tear escaped his dark, starry eyes, and it surprised me. I'd never seen a Reaper cry before. I hadn’t even thought they were capable of such emotions, not after everything they'd experienced, even prior to this calamity.
The droplet landed on the floor, seeping through the marble. Its surface crackled, and a green seedling poked through, with three vibrant and daring leaves as it reached for the sky and the sun.
"What… How?" I wondered aloud, not yet able to accept the harsh truth of my condition. I'd yet to say it aloud.
"The Reaper's Tear." Rudolph sighed. "We don't normally cry, you know."
"But when we do, life comes through," Sidyan said, one hand resting on Lucas's shoulder. "Our tears are special, I suppose. When we cry for the end of one thing, we cause the beginning of another."
Ben, Grace, Vita, Caia, Lucas, and Kailyn all looked at me, their life-chains gone, quietly blackening at their feet. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry this is happening to us."
"It's not over yet," Caia insisted, even now. She amazed me. Though, I had to admit, I wasn't sure whether she was truly resilient, or maybe just delusional.
"We've all just died," I said, using the D-word for the very first time. It crushed me.
"It's not over, I can feel it," Caia replied.
Everything brightened around us as the sanctuary's hum got louder. I gripped Rudolph's wrist for a moment and glanced back down at Zeriel. He'd taken a couple of steps back, worriedly looking up at us, but he couldn't see us anymore. I shot Rudolph an angry stare.
"What did you do?" I asked him.
"You're dead, Vesta. Stay dead. Please," he replied, genuinely tormented. He'd made me invisible to the living again, and, as much as I hated it, I had to admit… I could see the reason behind his decision.
The light swelled, almost blinding me as everything turned white.
"It's about to begin," Malleus shouted. "Everyone! Stay calm, please! The Hermessi can no longer hurt you!"
As if that mattered.
Sofia
When the news broke from the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension, we were all floored. I couldn't even stand anymore. Derek held me up, his arms firmly gripping my shoulders.
We'd all gathered in the grand hall of The Shade. My husband and I, our daughter, Rose, and Caleb. River, joined by Lawrence, Bijarki, and Blaze. Jax and Hansa. Jovi and Anjani. Harper and Caspian. Vivienne and Xavier. Victoria and Bastien. Aida and Field. Corrine and Ibrahim. Claudia and Yuri. We were all here—all of the first, second, and third generations of supernaturals who'd fought against the odds for as long as we could remember.
Yet fate had trumped us this time.
Five million fae had been touched by the Hermessi. Killed in the ritual, which was now entering its final stage. We'd held on to our hopes for as long as we could, but there was no denying it anymore.
Silence filled the hall, while the realization of what had happened and what would come next drew tears from our eyes. Rivers of sorrow flowed quietly down our reddened cheeks. I gave out a heartfelt cry, from the bottom of my chest, as I'd lost my son, my baby boy, in this war.
"Ben…" I sobbed, hiding my face in Derek's chest.
River was devastated, broken and kneeling on the floor, flanked by Lawrence and Field. They couldn’t do much to help her, though. No one could. She'd lost a husband, a daughter, and two granddaughters in this. Tears flowed, but she could no longer speak, lost in a catatonic state. Her family was gone.
"Shh… Sofia…" Derek whispered, and I felt his tears dripping, joining mine in their seemingly endless stream.
We cried for a long time. All of us. There wasn't a dry eye in the entire Shade, as we came to terms with the colossal loss of life we'd just suffered. Our families, our close friends and allies… Creatures who'd never deserved such a fate to be thrust upon them.
"All hell is about to break loose," Corrine said after a while.
At first, I didn't even register those words. Grief had rendered me speechless, eating away at me like a cancer, consuming my very soul and replacing the holes it left in its wake with pain—the kind of pain that would never heal or go away. If, by some fortunate twist of fate, we survived what came next, I doubted these wounds would ever fade.
Nearly half of the family I'd built with Derek was gone. How would we ever recover from this? How would I find the strength to get out of bed in the morning? How could I even breathe?
My gaze wandered across the hall until it found Rose, nestled in Caleb's arms and crying her heart out. There she was. My resolve. My strength. The one creature I could still fight for, along with those who'd come from her, whom we'd raised and loved as our own. Our family wasn't dead yet.
The Hermessi had not annihilated us all. The Novaks were still here, dammit. And we had no intention of going down without a fight!
"Let them try," I said, wiping my tears. "Let the bastards try and come after us!"
"Sofia!" Corrine said, downright astonished by my outburst.
I kissed Derek on the lips, drawing courage from his love, and decided to channel my energy into something I still had a remnant of control over. Our Shade. Our beloved home. Our planet. And the entire Earthly Dimension.
"No, I'm serious! Brendel thinks she can wipe us all out. We can't let her. This isn't the In-Between or the Supernatural Dimension," I said, raising my voice as I addressed everyone inside the great hall. "We may have lost the battle, but we have yet to lose the war. We still have an advantage here. Our dimension may be easy to breach, now, but our Hermessi stand strong in our defense! Taeral is still looking for Death. Even if we lost the other two dimensions, it doesn't mean Death will allow this one to be lost, too."
"But what can she do?" Rose asked, her voice raspy and low. I had a feeling her strength was on its last legs, barely holding on. "The Hermessi have full powers now. They can come in and do as they please. They're more destructive than ever."
"And so are Earth's Hermessi," I replied. "Whatever powers Brendel and her cohorts, it also strengthens the rebels and our elementals. We cannot, and we will not succumb to this! We… We can't."
A few nodded slowly but dared not make a sound. I knew what that meant. I was being hopeful again. I'd been hopeful before, and the ritual had reached its end, nonetheless. Was I fooling myself, despite my ardent desire to live and to help my family, my world survive? Had it all been for nothing?
Needless to say, I loathed the uncertainty.
A voice came through the comms piece in my ear. Amelia.
"Sofia, are you there?" she asked.
I straightened my back. "Amelia. Yes. I'm here. We all are. The Hermessi—"
"Got the five millionth fae. We know," she replied. "But we're not done yet. It's not over yet. There's a small window left."
I exhaled sharply, fearing my own hope might fool me again. "What… What are you talking about?"
All eyes were on me now, as they watched me, waiting to hear the news. Would I be giving them good news, though, or bad?
"The Time Master. We found him!" Amelia said. "It's not as cut and dry as we hoped, but we're almost on Aledras. It's where the Spirit Bender took Death, and probably Time's scythe, as well. He needs his weapon to stop time for long enough for us to stop this before it takes off."
"I'm… I'm confused. How can you stop it now?" I asked.
"It won't be easy. But we still have a shot. We just need to get Thieron back to Death. The Word supports us to the fullest. It will get Death on board, too. It will join forces with her, if it must, to stop the ritual from entering its destruction phase. Which, by the way, is set to start from Aledras."
A short laugh escaped my throat, and I covered my mouth for a moment, utterly embarrassed, as Derek moved clo
ser to me.
"What is Amelia telling you?" he whispered.
I looked at him, then at our daughter and everyone else. I thought of Nuriya for a moment, and of poor Sherus, too. "She's saying they're close to finding Death and stopping the final stage of the ritual before it's unleashed."
"Sofia, we're doing the best we can," Amelia added. "We haven’t given up yet. The Word is with us, and so are the First Tenners we've managed to get on our side. No one wants the ritual to happen."
Taking several deep breaths, I managed to stop my heart from pumping blood too fast through my body. I could feel a hyperventilation episode coming on. The last thing I needed was to lose consciousness in the midst of all this.
"Amelia, you do what you have to do," I replied. "I trust you. We all trust you, and Taeral, and everyone else who's out there with you. Do you hear me?"
She didn't answer right away, while I could almost hear the seconds pass us by.
"Tell Mom and Dad I'll see them again soon," Amelia said.
"I will. I promise."
"Oh, and Sofia? Just in case you or anyone else is thinking of giving up," she added, "tell everyone: Taeral killed Brendel."
The concept hit me like a runaway train. It slammed right into me, knocking the air out of my lungs. I leaned into Derek, who didn't hesitate to hold me. A grin stretched across my face as I looked at him, then at every other Shadian present.
The end was bloody nigh, right at our doorstep, but Taeral and his team had managed to do the impossible, against all the odds. If anyone could find Death and stop it all before it was too late, it was them.
Sure, we didn't know anything for certain. Not yet. But it looked as though life was not ready to surrender. Not while Taeral was still upright, his heart still beating, his mind and spirit still stronger than anything.
A Shade of Vampire 77: A Fate of Time Page 16
