An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,63

your company and your wonderful hospitality, my husband and I must keep moving. We’re trying to catch Anunit before she flees to another location. Time is of the essence.”

Loren and Sissa exchanged glances. “I think Joy should be present for this,” the king said.

“She doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Unending replied, maintaining a faint smile. But Loren was not so easily persuaded.

“It’s a death magic artifact, and Joy has asked to be a part of any operation that involves the Mixer. This happened telepathically, long before we sat down for dinner. Personally, I don’t care about who sanctioned this entire endeavor. Out of respect for Joy, I’d like for her to be involved in the hand-over.”

Unending nodded slowly. “I see. Completely understandable, of course. However, I only wish to see it. I’d like to better understand what it is about it that has Anunit so interested. You can hand it over to me when Joy comes back. If you’d like, I can reach out to her telepathically.”

“By all means, please do,” Loren said, then got up. “Fine, let us return to my chambers. I keep it there. It’s the safest place in the village, as every inch of it is warded with death magic.”

“Even if—by some miracle—a Reaper like this Anunit you speak of did breach the protective shield, she would never be able to get the artifact out of my father’s house,” Sissa added.

Unending looked at me. “Joy obviously didn’t want anyone to try anything funny. I suppose she’ll be the one to break the wards when it’s time to hand it over to us.” She moved her focus back to Loren. “I’ve let her know that we’re looking to leave soon. She should be with us shortly.”

“That’s good. In the meantime, let us go,” Loren said.

We followed him back to his house. Sissa stayed by the riverbank, per his request, to entertain the rest of their extended family. She wouldn’t be needed for the showcase, and I breathed a sigh of relief, since I certainly didn’t want her involved in everything that would soon follow.

“Have you told Death about what happened with Joy?” I asked Unending through our telepathy.

“Yes. She hasn’t been able to reach Joy, or Joy isn’t answering, which might be because I knocked her out,” she replied. “We still have a green light.”

“Will that get Joy off our backs?”

“Hopefully. You’ve seen the ego on that Reaper,” Unending said. “Combined with her precarious mental state… I shudder to even think about it. We need to be quick about this, either way. It’s just the two of us against Joy, since Death coming here would trigger Anunit’s alarms, and we’d lose that little devil before we’re done with her. We can’t drag the soul fae into our skirmish with Joy, either. Another Death directive.”

“So, get the Mixer, one way or another, then get out before Joy finds us still here,” I replied. “Sounds like the kind of mess we’re used to…”

Tension gripped me by the throat, but I kept my cool as we made our way down the stone path and stopped outside the main entrance to the king’s quarters. Loren turned around for a second and smiled. “Welcome to my humble abode,” he said, then went inside. We joined him in what appeared to be a small lobby, barely ten feet wide and long. Pottery artwork adorned the walls, mostly white and blue against the pale gray paint. The details on each piece were absolutely exquisite—the soul fae must have worked on these with slim and sharp tools, likely the size of toothpicks.

Some depicted casual scenes of the soul fae plucking fruits from the orchard or squeezing nectar from the orchids. Others gave glimpses of group celebrations and the building of houses. A few portrayed creatures I had never seen before. “What are these?” I asked, compelled by my own curiosity.

Loren followed my gaze and smiled. “Monsters from our ancient mythology.” He pointed to one particular creature with giant horns and hooves for feet. It looked a lot like the goat hybrids I’d found in Greek mythology. “This one is a Pashin. He steals the dreams of children, and they grow up to be bland and empty vessels.” He then showed me an octopus-like monster. “And this is the Soul Eater. Each of its limbs can enter one’s chest and pluck out the spirit to eat it.”

“Okay. Wow…” I murmured.

“Yes, I’m afraid we have scary stories passed down to us across many generations,” the