An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,95

at the Mixer.

“Yes, you are,” Anunit cut in, appearing next to us with a broad smile on her face. I worried she might’ve overheard us, but the satisfied look she wore said otherwise.

Unending grabbed her by the throat with lightning speed. The Reaper didn’t stand a chance, suddenly caught in a chokehold. “What the hell are you playing at, Anunit?”

“Whoa… whoa!” she croaked, trying to set herself free.

My wife’s grip was ironclad. There was no escaping it. I had to admit, seeing Anunit like this did give me some satisfaction, considering the harm she’d done to my relationship with the soul fae. They were such interesting creatures. It really annoyed me that I couldn’t go near them without Joy’s permission—and I doubted Death cared much for my anthropological aspirations.

“Why did you show up at the village?” Unending demanded, her tone clipped.

“I had to speed things along…”

“We were in the middle of getting the Mixer!” I snapped. “You nearly got us in a whole world of trouble because Joy is unstable!”

“Death will hear about this,” Unending added, playing her part in this deception towards Anunit. After all, Death had already heard about this, but Anunit couldn’t know we’d been the ones to tell her maker the whole truth. “She’ll have me hunted down. Do you have any idea what a monumental mess you’ve made?”

“I’m sorry!” Anunit cried out, struggling against Unending’s hold. “I just… I wanted to see how you’d react in more dire circumstances! At that point, you had the choice to turn against me, and you didn’t. I couldn’t think of a better way to truly test your resolve. I knew that if you were determined to go through with this, I’d find you here now. If you’d turn against me, I’d be here on my own, knowing you’ve given up.”

“What, the trials weren’t enough?” I retorted, crossing my arms.

“Again, I’m sorry! I’m paranoid about this stuff. But you’ve earned my trust. I promise, I won’t interfere with the upcoming trials. My word is my bond!”

Unending let go, and the Reaper coughed, taking a moment to regain her senses. My wife and I exchanged glances. “I’m not buying her excuse,” I told her through telepathy.

“Me neither. Or maybe it’s just part of the truth. We have two options going forward. I torture the whole story out of her, or we play along and see where it takes us,” she replied.

We still had two trials to go through, and we couldn’t risk losing Anunit’s favor altogether. I certainly didn’t want her skipping out on us. “I think we have a better shot if we keep her on our side,” I suggested. “At least for now. If she does anything else that’s… alarming, then we can reconsider our strategy.”

Unending exhaled sharply and pushed the Mixer into Anunit’s hands. “Here. And next time, stay out of our way. Tristan and I know what we’re doing, and we don’t need your ‘impatience’ or ‘distrust’ to screw us over. Okay?”

“Yeah… It’ll go differently, from now on. I’ve gotten my assurances. You did well,” Anunit replied, her voice shaky as she regarded the object with genuine admiration. “Oh, my… it’s a work of art…”

“I’m going to have to think of ways to get Death off my back,” Unending said, crossing her arms. “That stunt with Joy will be an issue. You’d better not make things harder going forward. We still have a long way to go here.”

“On that, we agree,” Anunit murmured, slowly raising her gaze from the Mixer. “Two more trials. Are you ready?”

We both nodded. Sure, we were. I doubted we were ready for any other bumps in the road, though. I didn’t trust Anunit. She had a side plan, for sure. She’d messed with our soul fae strategy on purpose. Her excuses didn’t hold any water. What troubled me more was Death’s willingness to part with one of her precious artifacts. Why was she so cool with handing the Mixer over to the one Reaper she wanted most?

It didn’t make sense. Once again, I found myself circling back to Unending’s earlier conclusion. We would have to see this whole thing through in order to get to the truth. Our love was strong enough to overcome anything fate might throw at us. I just wasn’t sure what that “anything” might entail.

Both Death and Anunit were keeping things from us. Then again, I was perfectly fine with playing dirty, too, if the situation demanded it. This whole thing had turned out to be a lot more complicated than we’d originally thought, and it only made me want to get to the bottom of it faster.