waterfall, where I’d last seen him. From up here, the river roared as it dropped below, cascading over the jagged rocks. The wind blew, sharp and chilly, and the view was downright stunning—just rippling waves of green bamboo and aspen-like woods, as green as raw emeralds and as deep as the ocean itself.
But the Reaper was nowhere to be found.
“Do you see him?” Lumi asked, and I shook my head in response.
“Yeah, he definitely doesn’t want to talk to us,” Amelia grumbled, pursing her lips.
“Semper Telluris, Taeral!” Varga’s voice came through in my head, my insides buzzing as our connection lit up across who knew how many galaxies and solar systems. Semper Telluris allowed Varga to communicate with all of us, as a modified Druid spell. All he needed was to call out one name in the group—in this case, mine, and we’d all be able to hear him. “Are you guys okay?”
“We are, for now,” I replied, slightly amused and equally irritated.
“What’s wrong? You don’t sound okay,” Varga shot back.
I chuckled. “You know me so well.”
“Turns out this world we’re in, it’s got the creep factor cranked up to eleven,” Amelia interjected. “It’s full of ghosts from different planets, and none of them know how they got here or what they’re supposed to do here. Also, we spotted a Reaper, but he’s gone now.”
“Whoa. You can see ghosts?” Eva exclaimed, understandably shocked.
“Yeah, the scythe. Yamani’s scythe,” Amelia replied. “Anyone who touches it can see ghosts and Reapers freely. We just figured it out ourselves.”
“Oh, good, so you’re not hallucinating!” Herakles laughed.
Amelia narrowed her eyes, making Raphael stifle a chuckle. “I see why you two are friends now,” she muttered to Raphael, who gave her a soft shoulder squeeze in return.
“I’d like you even if your mind was shoddy, don’t worry,” he whispered. Whether he’d meant for the rest of us to hear that or not, I wasn’t sure, but it certainly got a reaction out of Amelia. Her jaw nearly dropped.
However, something bothered me, besides the Reaper who’d just dodged us. Specifically, I was beginning to doubt we’d make it back to Calliope in time. It gnawed at my stomach, and I didn’t like it one bit, but Raphael had said something that made sense. The clock was ticking, indeed.
“Listen, Varga, while Phoenix tries to locate us, you guys should go ahead with Mortis, once you find it,” I said, displeasure oozing from my tone. I didn’t mean it, but I had to be honest, at least with myself—I really wanted us to be with Varga and the whole crew, looking for Death, instead of wandering through these woods and literally chasing ghosts and Reapers. “Finding Death is top priority right now, and I don’t want you waiting for us to do it.”
“Ugh. That’s what I was going to talk to you about,” Varga replied. “The crew and I were talking about the same thing. Chances are we’ll find Mortis and the Nekronos system before we find you. Some old texts have come in from the Druid archives. They managed to dig them out a couple of hours ago, and there was mention of the Nekronos system in there.”
“Which is amazing!” Lumi exclaimed. “Tae is right, though. As soon as you know where it is, you should go. GASP will come to our rescue once they figure out where we are. If we can, we’ll join you on Mortis afterward, but in the meantime, keep at it.”
“We’ll catch up,” I added reassuringly.
“Okay. We’ll do that,” Varga said. “You be careful out there. Don’t get involved with murderous Reapers again.”
He chuckled, then silence settled over our Telluris connection again. It prompted a scoff from Amelia. “See? I’m not being paranoid.”
“Never said you were. Only, this time, we know how to handle ourselves with one of these,” I replied, showing her the scythe. “And we’re certainly able to anticipate particular moves, especially if they try to get Hermessi on our tails again.”
I meant it, too. We’d learned a lot from our encounter with Yamani, not just about Reapers but about the Hermessi and the lengths they were willing to go to in order to catch us. It motivated me like crazy to know that I was on the elementals’ most wanted list.
“What now?” Eira asked.
“We keep going,” I replied. “Might as well, since we’re here. If we bump into that Reaper again, even bet—” I stopped, the hairs on the back of my neck raising. Shivers tickled my spine. I felt