A Shade of Vampire 84 A Memory of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,22

true self. Maybe the universe would help us this time around. Maybe the Word or other forces in this cosmic vastness would take pity on our suffering and help get our prayer across.

We were wading into uncharted territory, and we knew little to nothing of what lay ahead. I didn’t know what to expect, except for my demise. My body was gradually caving in. Breathing became impossible. Hot and cold currents burst through me. Whatever was left of my heart was breaking, but I continued praying.

I had come so far… I had come so close to touching her. The real her. The Unending. It felt surreal—so beautiful, so potentially wonderful that not even death by Black Fever scared me. I was moments away from salvation or destruction. I prayed. We all prayed, raising our voices higher, hoping that she, the wielder of the end, might hear us. That she, the bringer of eternal night, might save us.

Hope would perish last.

Taeral

Due to the difficulties our people had on Visio and the complexity of the Unending situation, I was compelled to visit Aledras again. Here, Death sulked as the Time Master, the Nightmare, and the Dream struggled to break another seal. Around five hundred remained, and each subsequent seal was proving harder to crack than the one before it.

A chain linked Death’s ankle to the bottom of the frozen lake. Sheer whiteness spread as far as the eye could see, and snowy forests rose around the edges. To the north, merely a glimmer on the horizon, stood a city with white towers. The Aledrasians were likely still recovering from their Hermessi trauma, and the weather was often severe this time of year, so few had the courage to venture this far out.

The wind howled, snow pricking my face as I made my way across the thick ice toward the center where Death sat, her long black hair half white with frost. She didn’t feel the cold on her skin, but she didn’t look comfortable, either. The Spirit Bender had mercilessly bound her to Aledras with a thousand seals. I would’ve been glum about it, too. The Time Master moved slowly around her, analyzing each of the black runes imprinted on her body. Some had vanished—broken already—but half remained and grew increasingly hard to break.

Dream and Nightmare sat on the edge of the ice hole with their bare feet dipping in the water, while Death had her legs crossed, white silk dress rippling in the wind. Her face lit up when she saw me. “Taeral… what brings you here?”

“You know very well why I’ve returned,” I said. “Our people need help. Your help.”

“I heard about the Orvis situation,” Death replied. Time stopped, giving me a sideways glance. A muscle ticked in his jaw. He seemed tense. “Seeley told me through our telepathic connection. I asked him to keep me informed.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not enough anymore. Do you even understand what’s going on there? The horrible things we’ve found…” I scoffed, bringing out Thieron. “If you can’t trust me, why am I even bothering to hold on to this?”

Death stilled, her expression shifting into something blank, almost lifeless. “I trust you, Taeral. Don’t ever doubt that. I wouldn’t have asked you to hold it for me if I didn’t.”

“Then trust me with whatever it is you’re still keeping from me!” I snapped. “There is something more here. There is something about the Spirit Bender that you’re not telling me. My friends are facing his followers as we speak, and unless we know exactly what we’re dealing with, it will likely kill them all!”

“I told you. I told you to keep your people out of this because my Reapers were handling it,” Death replied. “It’s not my fault you mingled with the undead despite my clear instructions.”

“Right, right! The living cannot have any contact with those beyond. Yeah, we’ve all heard that crap before. But it was your people who reached out. Seeley and the First Tenners were the ones who got in touch and helped us. And now we’re working together, so instead of droning on about how the rules were broken, how about you help us adapt and move forward?”

“What do you want me to do, Taeral? The Spirit Bender is gone. I cannot do anything in my current state. The mission is still simple: get Unending out of there and bring her to me, so she can break the rest of these wretched seals! Then I can take Thieron back and