An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,74

most. Because you and I know we would’ve gotten out already if we still had the blades.”

“Yeah. There’s only so much death magic entrapment can accomplish when a Reaper still has a scythe.”

We’d tried everything in our power to leave. Nothing had worked. We’d gone through all the stages of Reaper grief, too. At this point, Soul and I were resigned to our fates, waiting and hoping that someone might come along and break the circle from the outside. Without our scythes, external interference was pretty much our only option.

But the forest had been quiet for more than twenty minutes. Not a single breath. A misstep. A clone. Absolutely nothing. We knew nothing about the rest of The Shade, either, though we’d been assuming the worst. I was hoping Seeley and Nethissis might come around, or at least the Time Master. They’d made a habit of checking up on us more often than the others, mainly because their business kept bringing them back to The Shade lately.

Sighing deeply, I looked around again. Nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Trees and lush shrubs. Grass on the forest floor with specks of pink and purple wildflowers. Beautiful patterns on the underbrush leaves. A squirrel foraging through a bush for food.

“We’re going to be here for a while,” Soul said. “So… how’s your day going so far?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He wore a broad smile, the kind that said, “Hey, we’re screwed, but my sense of humor ain’t dead yet,” and it made me want to reach out and hug him and shower him with kisses. But that wasn’t an option, and I felt a pang of sadness poking me in the stomach.

“No, no, don’t pout, my love,” Soul said, his smile gone. “We’ll get out eventually.”

“I just hope we get out before the whole island is blown to bits and pieces.”

“You care about them, huh?” he asked, slowly narrowing his galaxy eyes as he studied my expression from five yards away. “The living of GASP.”

I nodded. “Yes. Don’t you? They’re good people. You know they would do anything they could to help us.”

“Mm-hm… just don’t tell my siblings. They’ll think I’ve gone soft.”

“They already think that,” I said, drawing a scowl from him.

“How so?”

“Well, we’re a pair. Dream and Nightmare keep making bets about who’s really wearing the pants in this relationship, if you know what I mean.” I giggled. It made him scoff, but I could see he was trying hard to keep a straight face.

A low growl made me turn around. I nearly squealed with joy when Stan and Ollie emerged from the woods, their noses pressed to the ground as they sniffed out our tracks. “Fate smiles upon us after all!” I exclaimed.

The ghouls lit up when they saw us. They rushed to greet Soul and me, but the pentagrams’ magic pushed them back. “Sorry about that, buddy,” Soul said to Stan. “We’re trapped in here.”

“But you can help!” I said, carefully eyeing Ollie, who was now circling me, whimpering and anxious because he couldn’t reach through. Every time he tried to touch the invisible shield, it zapped him with painful electrical currents, making him snarl. “No, not like that, buddy. Our scythes. The clones have our scythes. You can track them, can’t you?”

Stan and Ollie exchanged concerned glances before they gave us a double nod.

“Good. Draven and Serena’s clones had our weapons the last time we saw them. If you can track the scythes, you can find those bastards and try to retrieve them for us,” Soul said. “This is powerful death magic they’ve put on us. You can’t help otherwise, since you belong to the same realm.”

Within seconds, the ghouls bolted somewhere northwest of here. I watched them for a while, until their bony figures disappeared between the trees. Silence settled over our little spot in the woods as Soul and I looked at each other. It was getting harder to keep my spirits high, but I needed to stay strong for whatever might come next.

“Now, we wait,” he muttered, giving me a playful wink.

I had a feeling he was working on his own resolve, just as I was. That was the trouble with powerful and potent beings like us. We were fierce and difficult to defeat, yet utterly useless without our scythes. The clones had managed to point out some serious design flaws, but this wasn’t the time or the place to do something about it. Sure, the Spirit Bender had