A Shade of Vampire 77 A Fate of Time - Bella Forrest Page 0,64

we ever recover from this? How would I find the strength to get out of bed in the morning? How could I even breathe?

My gaze wandered across the hall until it found Rose, nestled in Caleb's arms and crying her heart out. There she was. My resolve. My strength. The one creature I could still fight for, along with those who'd come from her, whom we'd raised and loved as our own. Our family wasn't dead yet.

The Hermessi had not annihilated us all. The Novaks were still here, dammit. And we had no intention of going down without a fight!

"Let them try," I said, wiping my tears. "Let the bastards try and come after us!"

"Sofia!" Corrine said, downright astonished by my outburst.

I kissed Derek on the lips, drawing courage from his love, and decided to channel my energy into something I still had a remnant of control over. Our Shade. Our beloved home. Our planet. And the entire Earthly Dimension.

"No, I'm serious! Brendel thinks she can wipe us all out. We can't let her. This isn't the In-Between or the Supernatural Dimension," I said, raising my voice as I addressed everyone inside the great hall. "We may have lost the battle, but we have yet to lose the war. We still have an advantage here. Our dimension may be easy to breach, now, but our Hermessi stand strong in our defense! Taeral is still looking for Death. Even if we lost the other two dimensions, it doesn't mean Death will allow this one to be lost, too."

"But what can she do?" Rose asked, her voice raspy and low. I had a feeling her strength was on its last legs, barely holding on. "The Hermessi have full powers now. They can come in and do as they please. They're more destructive than ever."

"And so are Earth's Hermessi," I replied. "Whatever powers Brendel and her cohorts, it also strengthens the rebels and our elementals. We cannot, and we will not succumb to this! We… We can't."

A few nodded slowly but dared not make a sound. I knew what that meant. I was being hopeful again. I'd been hopeful before, and the ritual had reached its end, nonetheless. Was I fooling myself, despite my ardent desire to live and to help my family, my world survive? Had it all been for nothing?

Needless to say, I loathed the uncertainty.

A voice came through the comms piece in my ear. Amelia.

"Sofia, are you there?" she asked.

I straightened my back. "Amelia. Yes. I'm here. We all are. The Hermessi—"

"Got the five millionth fae. We know," she replied. "But we're not done yet. It's not over yet. There's a small window left."

I exhaled sharply, fearing my own hope might fool me again. "What… What are you talking about?"

All eyes were on me now, as they watched me, waiting to hear the news. Would I be giving them good news, though, or bad?

"The Time Master. We found him!" Amelia said. "It's not as cut and dry as we hoped, but we're almost on Aledras. It's where the Spirit Bender took Death, and probably Time's scythe, as well. He needs his weapon to stop time for long enough for us to stop this before it takes off."

"I'm… I'm confused. How can you stop it now?" I asked.

"It won't be easy. But we still have a shot. We just need to get Thieron back to Death. The Word supports us to the fullest. It will get Death on board, too. It will join forces with her, if it must, to stop the ritual from entering its destruction phase. Which, by the way, is set to start from Aledras."

A short laugh escaped my throat, and I covered my mouth for a moment, utterly embarrassed, as Derek moved closer to me.

"What is Amelia telling you?" he whispered.

I looked at him, then at our daughter and everyone else. I thought of Nuriya for a moment, and of poor Sherus, too. "She's saying they're close to finding Death and stopping the final stage of the ritual before it's unleashed."

"Sofia, we're doing the best we can," Amelia added. "We haven’t given up yet. The Word is with us, and so are the First Tenners we've managed to get on our side. No one wants the ritual to happen."

Taking several deep breaths, I managed to stop my heart from pumping blood too fast through my body. I could feel a hyperventilation episode coming on. The last thing I needed was to lose consciousness in the midst of