Page 15

Tristan and I were taken to a cell somewhere deep in the redwood forest. Ironically enough, it was just where he’d suggested earlier as a good hiding place. A structure had been erected here, made entirely of steel and concrete. There were bars on the windows, but I could at least feel the breeze on my face.

“You should make yourselves at home,” Hrista said, nodding at the double bed against one wall. There were twin nightstands, a table and two chairs present, along with a trunk of clothes. We also had access to a small bathroom, and I’d already spotted the fruit and blood vial basket she’d left for us on the table. The bitch was thoroughly prepared. “You’ll be here a while.”

“What’s the point of all this?” Tristan asked. “It’s obvious you’re behind the clone invasion, but how’d you pull this off? Where are the others?” His rage simmered beneath the surface. I couldn’t blame him. We were in a truly awful predicament, and I had no idea how to get us out of it. There was so much we still didn’t know. “My sister, my parents, what did you do with them?”

“Oh, they’re somewhere safe,” Hrista replied. “Locked away forever. I needed the whole island, and they never would’ve gone quietly. I’m not one to support unnecessary bloodshed, however, so here we are.” The hypocrisy did not go unnoticed, at least from where I stood, but there was so much she had yet to tell us. I couldn’t risk her shutting down, not while I still had a chance to probe for more information.

“But why? What is this all about?” I asked, gripping the steel bars that kept us imprisoned. The walls were covered in death magic runes and other foreign symbols. Naturally, Hrista would’ve taken many kinds of precautions to keep us submissive while in captivity. “I don’t understand why you had to drag me into whatever this is.”

Hrista sighed, giving me a look of genuine contempt. I was meant to feel stupid and inadequate, yet I couldn’t be bothered. I could only stare at her in disbelief, trying to remember every interaction we’d had, wondering if there had been any signs of such colossal deceit. Something both Tristan and I might have missed. But there was nothing. She’d played us impeccably well. “I needed you off the gameboard, honey. Isn’t that obvious? You’re Death’s first… well, second. You’re powerful and capable. I cannot risk you stomping all over my plan. Not after I’ve worked so hard to turn it into a reality.”

Esme and Kalon’s clones had retired a couple of steps back, but I could still see their expressions. They seemed in love with one another, and that was pretty much the only genuine aspect about them. They were copies. Frauds. Exquisitely crafted, just like Taeral and Eira had said, but frauds. Tristan had bought their lie from beginning to end, and it was a miracle I’d even noticed the minor discrepancies and fleeting looks. But even after I’d spotted the differences, I hadn’t interpreted the details properly. The longer I dwelled on it, the more foolish I felt. This wasn’t how it would end. I wouldn’t let it.

“Who are you, exactly, and why did you do this to me?” I asked, pointing at my body.

Hrista inched closer, but I saw no hate in her eyes. Just pity. It angered me more than anything else. “I’m the one who’s going to tear it all down and prove that the forces of the universe are inadequate and incapable of fueling it any further. The Word. Death. Order. They’re terrible. One by one, I will help them prove it.”

“You’re a foot soldier, just like the rest of us,” I replied. “And you’re not the first nor the last to think you can do better than them.”

“Right. You know one such enterprising soul, don’t you? The Spirit Bender?”

Chills ran down my spine. “How did you know about him? How did you know about any of this? Beings of Purgatory aren’t supposed to leave that realm.”

“Oh, damn…” Tristan muttered, suddenly realizing something. “Remember… remember on Visio, before he was defeated—Spirit said something about a “her,” someone he’d spoken to from beyond the curtain!”

Hrista chuckled. “You’re a smart cookie. I like you, Tristan. Even though you betrayed me by trying to capture me after I gave your wife that gorgeous body. Normally, I would’ve killed you without batting an eye, because I don’t generally forgive betrayal. But I need you and Unending alive. I need you both to understand that the entities we worship, they’re nobodies. They’re frauds with way too much power, and they do not deserve leadership over this world and its dimensions!”

“So, this is just you being pissed off about Spirit, isn’t it?” I cut her off, crossing my arms. I couldn’t hide my contempt, not when her broken heart was insultingly obvious, now that I’d made all the right connections. “Your lover is gone, and now you’re trying to upend the world and the natural order of things? You don’t belong here, Hrista. You never will. Give up now and go back to Purgatory. This will end badly for you either way, but the longer you stay in this realm, the worse your demise will be.”

“You sound awfully serious, considering you’re nothing but a meatsuit now,” she retorted, leaning forward. “Let me tell you something, Unending. It takes a certain skill and dedication to pull off what I’ve accomplished. One by one, the leaders will fall. Death. The Word. Order. Each of them will be revealed as the weaklings that they truly are. We’re the gods, Unending. We’re the ones with the power, the real power! Think about it! You can make people immortal! One of your brothers can manipulate the flow of time! There are witches in these realms that can build new worlds from scratch! But we’re all slaves to the entities that supposedly rule us. How pathetic is that?”

I shook my head, stealing a brief glance at Tristan. “We need law, and we need order. You’re too deranged to serve as any form of authority, Hrista.”

“And you’re never going to leave that body unless you wish to move on into the afterlife,” Hrista hissed. I must have struck a nerve, because she’d just revealed a disturbing detail of my condition. I was still shaking, but by gripping the steel bars I’d managed to gradually reduce the tremors. Tristan paced the cell behind me, the balls of his heels thudding gently against the stone floor. He was trying to think of a way out of this mess, though I wasn’t sure how that would work. Hrista had played us superbly into this corner.

“This was a trap from the moment you saw me, wasn’t it?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. It made her smile.

“I deliberately made myself known to Death. I knew she’d send you after me. You are her strongest, the one they know little about out there. It made sense,” Hrista said. “Playing Anunit was easy, if I’m honest. Keeping a straight face while you walked right into it was the only real challenge. This body is your temple. You’re sealed in there. You cannot simply renounce it.”

“You lied to me.”

“Obviously. And you bought it. I can’t blame you. You had hope. For that, I do apologize. Think about it this way, though. You’re a mortal now, but Tristan could turn you into a vampire. Wouldn’t that be cool? You’d still live forever.”

“But then she might still die,” Tristan snapped.

“And die she will,” Hrista shot back with a cold grin. “She will never be a Reaper again. I’ve combined my knowledge with Spirit’s, and I have found a way to send a Reaper’s soul right into Purgatory, provided a certain set of conditions are met.”

“Let me guess. I’ve met them,” I sighed, lowering my gaze for a moment.

She nodded once. “Yes. Rest assured, it’s for the best. I’m keeping you alive because your voice can still reach the entire universe, Unending. Soon you’ll understand what it is I’m doing, and why it’s important that I do it. We have been tormented by stupid rules and restrictions for too long. You stay in your little square, and I will stay in mine. Heaven forbid I might like you enough to follow you elsewhere… No!” She slammed a fist against the steel bars, and the entire cell shuddered. Clouds of dust fell from the ceiling cracks above. “No. That’s not allowed. No feelings. No desires. No fraternizing. No, no, no! Order is making a mess out of Purgatory with her stupid rules… It was so easy to draw the Berserkers out of there. Death is making fools out of each of you on a daily basis. And don’t even get me started with the Word, that stuck-up, nonexistent bastard. We could do so much better without them. And I’ll make it happen.”

“You don’t have what it takes to topple the universe, Hrista,” I said, trying to stay calm and reason with her. She clearly didn’t understand the damage she’d already done to herself. But my words made Hrista laugh, almost hysterically.

“Oh, honey… you’ve been away for too long. I won’t be the one doing the toppling. It’ll be you and everyone else,” she said. “We’ll start with Death. I’ve already shown you what a self-centered hypocrite she truly is. The lies she has told you. The secrets she has kept. Not to mention what she did to the World Crusher. This is going to be such a fun ride.”

Tristan came to my side, glowering at her. “I get it, you’ve got a bone to pick with Death. I assume it’s got something to do with how she ended the Spirit Bender. But what’s your beef with The Shade?”

“You were complicit,” she growled. “You deserve to live out the rest of your days in misery, unable to ever leave the limbo I’ve built for you. Well, not you, per se, but your people. I almost thought I wouldn’t trap Esme in there, but hey… stupid is as stupid does. You were all so easy to manipulate in one way or another.”

“The GASP federation won’t let you get away with this,” my husband replied.

Again, Hrista laughed. “I’ve already taken over The Shade and they are none the wiser. By the time someone does figure it out, it will be too late. Besides, I didn’t bring you down here to share every stage of my ample project with you. I only want you to stay put and survive so that you may see what anyone can accomplish with enough ambition and desire to defeat the gods themselves! Death has already been dealt her crippling blow. The World Crusher is free… and that will prove a massive problem for the Word, too.”

It was here that she had me baffled. Part of me already suspected why, but I needed her to say it out loud. “Why?” I asked.

“The World Crusher cannot be destroyed. Not by Death. Not by the Word. I doubt even Order can do anything to her. Death gave her first Reaper way too much power. She’d probably envisioned making herself a partner, but she ended up treating her as a daughter, an underling. And just like neither Death nor Order can kill the Word, and just like neither the Word nor Order can kill Death, and just like neither Death nor the Word can kill Order… they cannot destroy the World Crusher. It’s why Death had her sealed in that book. Well, that and the indisputable truth that Death is stupidly sentimental and barely capable of destroying her own creation. Or is it pride? I could never really tell.”

Tristan scoffed. “She destroyed the Spirit Bender. We know she can do it if she absolutely has to.”

“Not with the World Crusher, she can’t,” Hrista said smugly. “Anyway, you two lovebirds settle in. Make this your home for a while. Feel free to make some babies too. I can have someone fetch your husband the vampire cure for that. This is the precious Shade, after all. We’ve found everything here. We’ve read and seen everything, too, including all that footage Isabelle’s clone hid. It was left behind in the Great Dome after the switch. For days, we’ve been pretending to be the real deal, and no one has figured it out. Even Nova, that undergrown Daughter—she has yet to catch on. You see, without actively searching for her sisters, she won’t immediately feel their absence. I have maintained a strict lockdown on this place, but I made an exception to let you two lovebirds back in. Seems like I made the right choice.”

“You’ve been plotting this for a long time, haven’t you?” Tristan gasped.

“Heh… You have no idea,” she told him, then looked at me with a pitiful smirk. “Enjoy the life I have given you, Unending. It’s the only one you will ever have.” She took a couple of steps back, the overhead lights casting metallic reflections over her black and white catsuit, split right along the vertical middle. “I will have someone fetch you when we reach the next stage of events. It’s going to be a busy week, I’ll tell you that much.”

She turned around and left, her figure shrinking in the narrow corridor. Kalon and Esme’s clones walked behind her, and the silence they left in their wake was too much to handle. I broke down. It was a miracle I had lasted this long.

Tristan took me in his arms and held me tight, but I cried and cried, unable to hold anything in any longer. Hrista had stolen everything from me. My immortality. My powers. My very spirit. She’d locked me inside a body, in a fashion worse than Spirit had on Visio. Death would not be my release. It would only leave my husband alone in this world, while Hrista went on with her sick revenge fantasy.

She’d had her heart broken. She had been disappointed. And just like the Spirit Bender, she was proud and vicious enough to believe she was entitled to a better outcome. I wasn’t sure how we were going to beat her, but… “We’ll figure it out,” Tristan whispered, while my tears trickled down his shoulder. We no longer had our telepathic connection, but we knew each other well enough to understand our common mindset. “We’ll figure it out, Unending.”

“How? We’re trapped here. She doomed me…”

“No. She put limits on you. Death is still out there,” Tristan said. “Whatever Hrista is planning, the rest of the world doesn’t know it yet. Taeral had no idea. The rest of GASP know nothing about this, for sure, otherwise this whole place would’ve been surrounded by now. I don’t care what Hrista can do as a Valkyrie, she’s not limitless.”

“Death is,” I murmured. “Sort of. We need to get out of here…”

“We need to gather our thoughts, first and foremost,” he said.

And he was right. We needed to take deep breaths and collect our thoughts. We needed to go over every event and decision that had brought us here, and we needed to assess all that we had learned so far. There was a way out of this cell. There was a way out of The Shade, too. Death was out there searching for the World Crusher, who clearly had a part to play, too. I would reach her, one way or another. I only needed my scythe back and the handful of death magic I still remembered to help us get where we needed to go.

But Hrista had my scythe. Damn it…