A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,35
only explanation that stood for her disappearance. To this point, we knew he'd had something to do with the Time Master, as well.
In conclusion, as the spirits jumped us, and we had no chance but to slash away at them all with our scythes, I realized that the Spirit Bender had been keeping his fingers in many pies, masterfully setting the scene and pulling the right strings… as if he'd anticipated that some of us might catch on and realize he had something to do with all this.
Needless to say, I had no intention of being stopped here. An army of Spirit Bender's specters wouldn't stop me. All they were meant to do was hurt us and keep us busy for long enough for the ritual to be completed.
Neither I, nor Dream and Nightmare were willing to let that happen. That treacherous son of a bitch had done enough harm already. It was our turn now, and it was his wheel of deceit and spun lies that needed to be broken.
Taeral
Kelara told Seeley through their telepathic connection that they were getting closer to the Time Master, and that the Spirit Bender had had something to do with his disappearance, as well. Seeley was worried that they had specters to deal with—many more than he'd thought even existed—but Kelara had reassured him that they had a handle on it.
"It just involves a ton of reaping," Seeley said.
We'd gone through Strava's pink waters first. Upon entering the white space, Phantom had whispered one of her spells, revealing thousands of tiny slits that glimmered pink. They were all openings to other worlds, normally hidden from our sight. She'd explained that, with Death gone, she'd had zero regard left for rules regarding interference in the plane of the living, hence her decision to show us the white space like we'd never seen it before.
Soul's tracking spell for Death had made the scythe glow brighter when pointed at one particular planet, and he'd used his hands to widen the entry point. He really could bend space to his will, as if it had been made of clay. We'd come out on a planet called Hydris, though none of us knew much about it, other than the fact that it was part of the In-Between's lesser-known and much older solar systems.
We'd been here for hours, following Soul as he let his scythe lead the way, picking up Death's trail. But we had yet to find anything—not to mention his maker. She was nowhere in sight, and neither was the Spirit Bender.
The news from Kelara had come like a slap in my face, reminding me that Spirit's web stretched farther than we'd originally thought. Learning about specters and their origin had come as a startling bonus, even for Seeley, who'd had no clue about their origins. Then again, we hadn't even known they existed.
"Weren't those spirits from Mortis specters, too?" Amelia asked.
This was the fifth hour we'd spent trekking through foreign purple-and-blue jungles in one of the weirdest worlds I'd ever come across. I'd suggested teleporting, but Soul had insisted that his spell was far too sensitive for that. This needed to be done on foot, to my dismay.
"Not really, no," Seeley replied. "They couldn't hurt Reapers. They could only hurt the living. That was just a trick Death employed to keep any curious entrepreneur at bay. But I think the difference between them and the specters could be considered minimal."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Phantom said. "We didn't want other Reapers to know it could be done."
"You people are absolute creeps!" Riza shot back, scowling at her.
Soul chuckled. "Take it down a notch. We've been out for a very long time."
"It's still wrong! Using spirits as your personal weapons!" Riza replied.
Lumi let a deep sigh out, which sounded more like a frustrated groan. "Enough with these petty skirmishes. We can hash out these details later, and I'm sure Death will have something to say about specters, too. In the meantime, we don't seem to be getting any closer to her."
I motioned for everyone to stop for a few moments. My calves burned. I hadn’t covered such distances on foot in quite a while. Teleporting had had its perks. "We need to reevaluate what we're doing here," I said. "We're wasting precious time, and I thought Soul's tracking spell would help us avoid that."
The Soul Crusher gave me a disappointed pout. "I thought so, too. I did not plan for this to take so long, I promise."