A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,63

sorry, Vesta," Rudolph said to me.

A single tear escaped his dark, starry eyes, and it surprised me. I'd never seen a Reaper cry before. I hadn’t even thought they were capable of such emotions, not after everything they'd experienced, even prior to this calamity.

The droplet landed on the floor, seeping through the marble. Its surface crackled, and a green seedling poked through, with three vibrant and daring leaves as it reached for the sky and the sun.

"What… How?" I wondered aloud, not yet able to accept the harsh truth of my condition. I'd yet to say it aloud.

"The Reaper's Tear." Rudolph sighed. "We don't normally cry, you know."

"But when we do, life comes through," Sidyan said, one hand resting on Lucas's shoulder. "Our tears are special, I suppose. When we cry for the end of one thing, we cause the beginning of another."

Ben, Grace, Vita, Caia, Lucas, and Kailyn all looked at me, their life-chains gone, quietly blackening at their feet. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'm sorry this is happening to us."

"It's not over yet," Caia insisted, even now. She amazed me. Though, I had to admit, I wasn't sure whether she was truly resilient, or maybe just delusional.

"We've all just died," I said, using the D-word for the very first time. It crushed me.

"It's not over, I can feel it," Caia replied.

Everything brightened around us as the sanctuary's hum got louder. I gripped Rudolph's wrist for a moment and glanced back down at Zeriel. He'd taken a couple of steps back, worriedly looking up at us, but he couldn't see us anymore. I shot Rudolph an angry stare.

"What did you do?" I asked him.

"You're dead, Vesta. Stay dead. Please," he replied, genuinely tormented. He'd made me invisible to the living again, and, as much as I hated it, I had to admit… I could see the reason behind his decision.

The light swelled, almost blinding me as everything turned white.

"It's about to begin," Malleus shouted. "Everyone! Stay calm, please! The Hermessi can no longer hurt you!"

As if that mattered.

Sofia

When the news broke from the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension, we were all floored. I couldn't even stand anymore. Derek held me up, his arms firmly gripping my shoulders.

We'd all gathered in the grand hall of The Shade. My husband and I, our daughter, Rose, and Caleb. River, joined by Lawrence, Bijarki, and Blaze. Jax and Hansa. Jovi and Anjani. Harper and Caspian. Vivienne and Xavier. Victoria and Bastien. Aida and Field. Corrine and Ibrahim. Claudia and Yuri. We were all here—all of the first, second, and third generations of supernaturals who'd fought against the odds for as long as we could remember.

Yet fate had trumped us this time.

Five million fae had been touched by the Hermessi. Killed in the ritual, which was now entering its final stage. We'd held on to our hopes for as long as we could, but there was no denying it anymore.

Silence filled the hall, while the realization of what had happened and what would come next drew tears from our eyes. Rivers of sorrow flowed quietly down our reddened cheeks. I gave out a heartfelt cry, from the bottom of my chest, as I'd lost my son, my baby boy, in this war.

"Ben…" I sobbed, hiding my face in Derek's chest.

River was devastated, broken and kneeling on the floor, flanked by Lawrence and Field. They couldn’t do much to help her, though. No one could. She'd lost a husband, a daughter, and two granddaughters in this. Tears flowed, but she could no longer speak, lost in a catatonic state. Her family was gone.

"Shh… Sofia…" Derek whispered, and I felt his tears dripping, joining mine in their seemingly endless stream.

We cried for a long time. All of us. There wasn't a dry eye in the entire Shade, as we came to terms with the colossal loss of life we'd just suffered. Our families, our close friends and allies… Creatures who'd never deserved such a fate to be thrust upon them.

"All hell is about to break loose," Corrine said after a while.

At first, I didn't even register those words. Grief had rendered me speechless, eating away at me like a cancer, consuming my very soul and replacing the holes it left in its wake with pain—the kind of pain that would never heal or go away. If, by some fortunate twist of fate, we survived what came next, I doubted these wounds would ever fade.

Nearly half of the family I'd built with Derek was gone. How would