the interplanetary spell.
It was all for a worthy cause, so we accepted it. Far more intense than other times we’d given our energy, but still necessary. Acantha gave us all an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. It’ll be like this till we reach Mortis. The spell puts you in this state to conserve and gradually drain your energy.”
“It’s fine,” I mumbled, my eyes no longer able to stay open.
“I’ve got you,” Herakles whispered, and I thought I felt my lips stretch into a sleepy smile, my head cradled against his muscular chest.
A dream enveloped me, soft and sweet, carrying me away to the agitated rhythm of his heartbeats. I no longer had the strength to worry about what came next. All I could do was hope that we’d survive this journey.
Harper
Once he was ready, and as the sun began its final hours of descent into the western horizon, Herbert stretched his bony arms and took a deep breath. Nestled inside him, I actually felt the rush of cool and salty air, and even the breeze tickling his grayish, translucent skin. The anticipation of going back to Neraka, back to my body and my husband, made me tingle.
“Now, don’t let anything you see scare you. Most importantly, don’t talk. If you have something to say, I will know,” Herbert said.
I’d already gotten accustomed to this peculiar kind of fusion, piggybacking on someone else like a homeless soul. “No worries, I’m aware,” I replied.
Before I could register the changes, reality began to warp around us. The Calliope I knew drifted away before his very eyes, in colorful threads—like streaks of watercolor dissolving in black water. Seconds passed as I listened to the sounds of the ocean going farther and farther away. The chilly softness of the afternoon breeze was replaced by the cold of the cosmic void.
And Herbert dropped, the peak beneath us disappearing. We fell for what felt like the longest minutes of my life, but I kept my mouth shut. Every inch of me wanted to scream with horror as we plunged into the vast unknown of the In-Between. I kept it together, and my restraint was quickly rewarded.
Soon enough, Herbert was merely a wisp of iridescent flesh and bones, literally flying away from Calliope and toward the edges of Eritopia, where clouds of stardust stretched for millions of miles, delineating a solar system protected by the Daughters, once home to a bloodthirsty warlord who had forsaken the wisdom of the Druid species, choosing to slaughter and dominate instead. Azazel seemed so far away now.
I wanted to tell Herbert, as we shot between thousands of wandering stars and just beneath an asteroid field, that he should be mindful of the stardust stream. I wasn’t sure which were controlled by Brendel, and I certainly didn’t want to find out.
The ghoul, however, already tapped into my mind through no fault of his own, immediately registered my thoughts, and moved to a lower angle. We passed the swollen river of pink-and-orange stardust and proceeded toward Neraka. We couldn’t see it yet, but I recognized the general direction, along with the star clusters we zoomed by.
Silence settled around us. The quiet of open space, where a creature like Herbert was free and needed only to be careful not to get tangled in some random mass of jagged asteroids. Space was a wonderful thing, but it was huge, perhaps endless, and riddled with all kinds of things—both good and horrifying. I only wanted to see Neraka again.
“Can I speak?” I whispered.
Herbert chuckled. “Yes. It’s pretty peaceful out here, for now. I don’t see any ghouls.”
“You’d see them, normally? Just drifting through space?” I asked.
“Mm-hm. But given the number of souls still tethered to their bodies inside your fae sanctuaries, I can see why they’d choose to focus on them. They’re like starving wild animals, hoping a soul might get lost, or that at least they’d get to feast on the bodies once they die.”
The thought alone was enough to make me want to hurl. It made him growl.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help feeling that way,” I said.
“That’s fine. I, for one, am starving as well. But I’m too determined to regain my freedom to let myself fall prey to my hunger,” Herbert replied.
“You know, I’m wondering… Why did you want to become a ghoul? From what I’ve learned so far, being a Reaper comes with some benefits. All you have to do is carry souls into the world of the dead,” I said.
Herbert didn’t say anything