sacrifice herself and become a Hermessi in order to save her planet.
Eira, whose hand held mine so tight, it broke my heart—mainly because I knew that it could easily be the last time we’d ever feel each other like this. Lumi, whose glow had intensified with every step she’d taken so far. Our friends outside, likely still fighting murderous ghosts and stubborn, rule-abiding Reapers. Every agent of GASP in The Shade, in the Supernatural Dimension, and the In-Between, fighting to stop the Hermessi cultists from spreading the elementals’ influence… caring for the afflicted fae in their sanctuaries… struggling to make sense of this mess and tirelessly working to stop the end of days from wiping everything and everyone off the map.
And, as I thought about each and every one of them… I understood. There was no certainty that we’d succeed. There was no promise of a safe tomorrow, even if we did avert this apocalypse. The only thing I knew for a fact was that, as long as there was breath in my lungs, rhythm in my heart, and hope in my soul, I could do everything in my power to make it happen. To secure our survival.
This was part of it.
Amelia
We were woefully overwhelmed. Acantha and Nethissis threw everything they had at the Reapers—pulse after pulse of bright lights that barely grazed them, fireballs they disintegrated with their scythes, and shards of blue energy that merely cut the fabric of their uniforms.
Raphael and Fallon handled the brute force offensive, casting fire attacks and engaging some of the Reapers in physical fights, fists and legs ramming and kicking and blocking. Herakles, Varga, Eva, and I handled most of the ghosts, using whatever weapons and abilities we had between us.
Riza zapped herself across the platform, casting spells to at least slow the spirits down, but nothing we did seemed to work. Minutes had passed, and we were all still standing, though I wasn’t sure for how long. I sported several deep cuts on my legs and my right hip, Raphael was bleeding profusely from a back wound, and Herakles was so bruised and battered, his left eye struggled to stay open.
Varga panted, his movements alarmingly sluggish, as Theoth swerved around him and slashed his shoulder with the scythe. Eva quickly swooped in and dragged her claws down Theoth’s back before she vanished under a pile of her clothes. A long snake emerged, with emerald-and-golden scales and a black belly. It was Eva, making good use of her Druid nature, which she’d fully retained after transitioning into a vampire. I lost sight of her during the melee, but I heard several Reapers screaming from what had to be her painful bite.
Our biggest problem was that the Reapers could easily shift from their visible to their subtle forms, thus making it incredibly difficult for us to watch our backs at all times. From what I could tell, however, despite the burning pain that spread through my whole body from their scythe cuts, they could only attack us in their visible forms. Yamani had gone invisible to evade us and taunt us, and his colleagues here were doing the same.
“Tell me you’ve noticed it,” Raphael breathed, just as he dodged Baethal’s scythe.
“What, that we’re getting our asses handed to us?” I asked.
A few more minutes, and we’d all be on the ground. Fallon was the first to go down, after one of the Reapers materialized behind him and kicked him in the back with such crippling strength that it knocked the air out of his lungs. Varga moved to protect him, but Wrik was faster, coming at him with his scythe and a cold grin.
“No! They’re not trying to kill us,” Raphael said and dashed to the right, moving around Baethal. His wings burst out, confusing the Reaper, and Raphael took advantage of his momentary confusion to bring his claws up, dead set on piercing Baethal’s ribcage.
“Holy crap,” I murmured, my eyes wide as I realized that he was, in fact, right. The Reapers were incredibly fast and aggressive in their offensive, but none of the blows they’d delivered so far were deadly. I doubted they would have had much trouble killing us, if they really wanted to. Clearly, they didn’t, and I’d been so wrapped up in fighting them that I’d failed to notice this precious little detail.
Baethal vanished and reappeared a few yards back, his eyes narrowed as he carefully analyzed the skirmish. He tapped a nail on the scythe’s blade, and