An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,47

copied, what abilities she put in… but if she’s telling me we have to deal with an unstable Reaper, I know we’re better off following Death’s lead on this. So, we keep the sharing of intel to a minimum, get the Mixer, and get out. On another note, I am dying to figure out exactly what purpose the soul fae are supposed to serve in this cosmic equation. If Anunit is right, and Death plans to use them to keep us all submissive someday, we obviously need to know about this. We need to prepare.”

There were many ways in which this scenario could go wrong. Death could have used the soul fae more than once until now, with minimal effort and damage to all the parties involved. She could have used them against Spirit on Visio before the Darklings’ siege. She could have used them against Unending to get her to remove the seal she’d left inside her. But she didn’t. Either weaponizing the soul fae against the Reapers was never really an option for Death, or she was waiting for something truly beyond her control to whip them out. These were the only possibilities that made sense.

Either way, Unending and I agreed to keep playing our parts. One way or another, we would get to the whole truth. Anunit was playing games of her own, and we were both determined to make sure she got her just desserts. It all depended on how much intel we were able to get out of this place and how smoothly the Mixer’s extraction operation went.

Joy exhaled sharply. “Death says it’s fine.”

“Meh. Go figure,” Unending grumbled. She put her scythe away. “What were her thoughts on the Mixer being here?”

“Death said we will discuss that at another time. She only asked that I cooperate,” the Reaper replied stiffly. I figured Death would tear her a new one over this, eventually.

“Shall we consider this a clean slate, then? No issues?” Unending asked.

“How did you know about the Mixer? Anunit? No, you said you were hunting her,” Joy muttered, clearly displeased with her current position.

“Spirit told me a while back,” my wife said, her mind working like a turbo engine. “I kept it to myself because I knew you’d get in trouble with Death over this. For what it’s worth, it’s better you told her first.”

Joy hadn’t been the first to tell Death, but she didn’t need to know that. I could certainly see why Death didn’t want us to tell this Reaper too much. Something had definitely gone wrong during her creation—it was as if her whole mind wasn’t quite… there. She seemed to oscillate between groggy and hyper-alert at times. Adding territorial on top of this unstable pile and yeah, potentially explosive reactions.

“I’ve got my eyes on you, either way,” Joy warned us, but she didn’t seem as fearsome as before. Like all the other Reapers, she was accountable to Death, and if the supreme leader had decreed that we were allowed to be here, then so be it, whether Joy liked it or not. Judging by how she’d reacted, I was inclined to assume that she felt powerless at times. We’d breached her little corner of the world. We’d invaded her turf. Whether we were sanctioned to be here or not, it didn’t matter. It still irked her, and she had no problem giving us an attitude over it.

“Relax, Joy. We’re only here to get a job done,” Unending said. “We’ll get out of your hair once we have the Mixer.”

Sissa seemed content with how the conversation had progressed. “Well, I am glad it is working out. We’ve been isolated for so long, it’s actually nice to meet strangers.”

“Yes, it would be a pity if Joy had to kill you both,” Loren added, equally pleased with our current agreement. “We will be preparing for supper soon. Would you like to join us?”

Unending and I looked at each other. “I don’t see any reason not to,” I replied. “Getting to know you and your people better would be an honor. The Mixer can wait until later.”

“Absolutely,” my wife said, giving Joy a friendly smile. “Personally, I can’t wait to talk to you about that enormous scythe of yours. It’s truly a work of art.”

Joy blinked rapidly, suddenly bashful as she stared at her weapon. “Thank you, I guess.”

Much like the soul fae, this Reaper wasn’t accustomed to strangers waltzing into her village after slipping through the potentially destructive protective measures she’d put in