An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,9
panned out. This object… He called it a Mixer,” Anunit replied. “It merges scythes together. You know he dropped a few Reapers in his time. Most of them on Visio, in fact. But he destroyed a few in other places, and he gathered their scythes in a safe place. I believe he intended to fuse them into his own weapon with the help of this Mixer, at some point. Though I’m not sure why, because he was scarily powerful already. He put Death under the Thousand Seals, after all.”
The more she spoke, the better I understood Unending’s troubled expression. “Why didn’t he fuse them, then? Surely, it would’ve given him more power during the Hermessi wars… right?” I asked.
“There’s a Reaper who guards the soul fae village,” Anunit said. “Spirit could never get past her, though not for lack of trying. Of all of Death’s agents, she’s the one he failed to defeat. He left the Mixer in that place on purpose, making a deal with the Reaper to keep it safe. You should understand that Spirit was extremely upset when he discovered the village and found out that Death had been lying about their demise. I think it was part of why he was so determined to make her suffer.”
“Wait, so Spirit made a deal with this Reaper? The same Reaper Death put in charge of protecting the soul fae village?” I replied, struggling to wrap my head around this hidden piece of history.
Anunit was rather amused by our befuddlement. In hindsight, Death’s subterfuges shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but alas, she was the gift that kept on giving—and not in a good way.
“And most importantly, what Reaper was it that Spirit couldn’t best?” Unending added, raising an eyebrow.
“We call her Joy, though she never gave us her real name,” Anunit said. “She probably knows we could use it for a death magic spell. She’s a fox that way.”
“Joy,” Unending repeated, lowering her gaze.
“Does it sound familiar?” I asked her.
“No. But given everything else Death has kept from me, I’m not surprised. I do wonder what power she has that helped her remain undefeated.”
Anunit sighed, looking disappointed. “I’ve had my run-ins with her, as well. She is fierce. Dangerous. Destructive. I’d rather not mess with her again.”
Suddenly it all clicked into place, like pieces of a puzzle coming together for a full and absolutely disturbing picture. “Hold on. You want us to retrieve the Mixer,” I said. “You want us to go into that village, somehow—and I say somehow because I assume it’s warded against any form of intrusion—and you want us to deal with this Joy person, then get you the Mixer. Am I getting that right?”
“You’re a smart man,” Anunit said.
“Before we even get to that point, let me rephrase an earlier question,” Unending interjected. “What deal did Spirit and Joy make for him to put the Mixer in her village? And why did it go south?”
Anunit chuckled lightly. “He wooed her. He promised her the moon and the stars, and she believed him. For centuries, he stopped by once in a while, just to… you know, get all lovey and dovey with Joy, to keep her happy. At some point, I think he got busy with something else, or someone else, I don’t know. Point is, Joy was easy to scorn in that sense. By the time Spirit came back and tried to get the Mixer, she’d turned on him. I reckon Death must’ve warned her about him, but I don’t know the particulars. I do know she was too ashamed to tell Death about the Mixer being there, in the first place. She would’ve had to explain how she’d held on to it for so long, while Spirit had been plotting against Death. I figure Joy thought she’d just keep the Mixer here, hidden from Death and Spirit and anyone else, and Death would be none the wiser. Joy’s ego is gargantuan…”
“And this is our first trial,” Unending concluded, still frowning. She clearly wasn’t sure about all this.
Anunit shrugged. “If you want your shot at life and a kid, yeah.”
“So, you plan to use the Mixer to meld the scythes you’ve collected into yours,” Unending said.
“Ahem. They’d be more useful if they were combined with my own.” She revealed her own weapon—a beautiful work of metal art with an almost circular blade and a silvery handle. It glistened under the moonlight, shimmers dancing across the steel as she turned it over.