Page 59 of Woven Souls

“Yup, every time you guys have thrown a monster from the Third Realm or a demon into the Veil, he kills them for us.” The pride in her voice is unmistakable. “Before you guys showed up, he’d been accepting souls on a massive scale, just like this. He’s always so sweet and patient with them. I’ve never seen him get annoyed or frustrated at the ones that linger between realms.”

Willow steps closer to me before lifting her hand to wave at the figure. There’s a short pause before the grim reaper returns the gesture.

“Willow, can you communicate with him?” Theo asks from somewhere behind us.

“No, without a name, I can’t communicate with beings in the Realm of the Dead.”

“Can you ask one of these spirits to carry a message for us?” Theo comes up on her other side. “Maybe he can do some scouting for us.”

I look over at Theo in surprise. As does Willow.

“Theo, you’re a genius!”

The man’s ears turn pink at her compliment, but his face remains impassive. Willow turns to the spirits moving past us to ask, “Can anyone do me a favor?”

Three girls who look like they could be siblings of varying ages pause.

“What can we do for you?” the eldest asks.

Willow opens her mouth but pauses to look at Theo. “How do we explain everything?”

“We’ll just have him know the important part,” Theo suggests. He turns his attention to the three women, who wait patiently. “Can you ask that reaper if he would look into any unusual activity in that realm? There is a warlock who may be alive, casting magic and reaching through the realms for Willow here. His name is Fulton Noir. If the reaper finds anything, tell him that he needs to go speak to Death immediately. Death will know what to do from there.”

The girls all exchange looks with one another.

“Death is a person?” the youngest of the three girls asks. There’s no way she’s older than twelve.

“Death is an amazing person,” Willow assures her with a smile. “Trust me, I know.”

The girl nods slowly before looking up at her two older sisters.

“We can do that,” the eldest assures us. “Thanks for helping us cross over.”

Willow nods and watches as the three of them, the last of the spirits to cross over, step through the Veil. They pause to speak to the reaper, who turns its attention to the girls. The swirling mass of mists fades before dispersing into the gentle breeze moving through the back yard.

For a moment, we’re all silent. I stare at the space where I just witnessed all those spirits move through and where a real, honest to God grim reaper stood. Is this going to be my new normal? I mean, I think I’ve gotten used to seeing spirits, as weird asthatis. Having recently spent a lot of time with a necromancer, who’s not really a necromancer, has really dulled the awe behind seeing one or two. But on a mass scale like we’d just witnessed? Will that ever be normal?

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Hanging around a bunch of dead people and having my soul welded to the daughter of Death makes me think I should probably reconsider what I believe is ‘normal.’

“Well, hopefully he can figure something out for us.” Willow turns to the rest of us. “Now, what—”

The ground beneath her feet explodes.

I throw myself at her, taking Willow to the ground as the hole left in the small explosion’s wake begins to plume with dark smoke.

Wait, that’s not smoke. That’s the same mist that opens the Veil. As we sit up it grows thicker and spreads over the ground.

“Go, go, go!” Willow screeches at the others as it reaches their feet.

The three ex-Ghosts stumble in various directions, out of reach of the mist as Willow and I scramble to our feet. Before we can move around it, the mist reaches Willow’s ankles. She yelps and is taken to the ground with a hard “umph.”

Before I can reach down to grab her, Willow is yanked towards the Veil. Her scream carries all around us as half her body is pulled into the darkness.

“Willow!” Kwil leaps forward as if to grab her.

“No, don’t, you’ll get sucked in!” As Willow is yanked downwards, she uses one hand to claw at the stone to slow down her descent while the other hand flies towards Kwil. An invisible force hits him, and he’s thrown into the bushes on the other side of the yard.