for a reply.
“Mom, we did it. We stopped it,” Taeral said.
And just like that, I slid down the emotional spectrum, from grief and despair to an indescribable sense of relief, having finally received the confirmation that my Taeral and his friends had prevailed. My heart swelled, threatening to break out of my ribcage, and a different kind of tears trickled down my cheeks. Tears of joy and pride.
“You saved us,” I whispered. “You saved us…”
“We…” Taeral paused for a moment. “The fae, Mom… We didn’t get to Death in time.”
“Tae, my darling. You saved billions. Entire worlds. Please, do not sell yourself short. Not after everything you’ve been through,” I replied.
“Mom, there’s more,” he said.
I stared at Sofia and Derek, though blankly, with no particular purpose. They were the most solid figures in my field of vision. “What is it?” I asked, my voice dropping.
“It wasn’t Death who used Thieron to stop the ritual. It was me,” he said. “And I stopped it for good, this time. It will never happen again. I guess, in a sense, I broke the cycle.”
My mind went blank. The information was so foreign, so shocking, that I didn’t even understand it at first. It didn’t click. I was missing something, for sure.
“Honey, you need to explain that to me, bit by bit,” I said at last.
“I will, soon. I promise.”
“Where are you?”
“On Aledras. I’ll see you in a bit, Mom. I love you. Tell Dad I’m trying to fix this,” he said. Again, my heart leapt, performing a series of somersaults I wasn’t prepared for. What did he mean by this?
I couldn’t allow myself any false hope. Sherus had been right. I’d fooled myself about all this for too long. My motherly instincts kicked in, swerving through various scenarios.
“Tae, don’t get yourself indebted to anyone or anything. Please,” I replied. “I don’t want you to owe—”
“Mom, don’t worry. I have to go.”
Silence settled inside me. The kind that worried me. Taeral had left our Telluris line without clarifying what it was exactly that he was trying to fix. I knew he was dead set on saving his father—though chances were he was now looking to save five million fae, not just one.
Again, I found myself in the middle of turmoil on the inside. Hope, ever the treacherous fiend, was circling me, prowling through the darkness of my thoughts and threatening to seduce me. The last thing I needed was another bout of disappointment where my husband was concerned, not to mention everyone else who’d perished in the sanctuaries.
Then again, my son had always had a tendency to surprise.
What if?
Taeral
I stood in the middle of the frozen lake, thinking I’d made my mother broil without giving her details of what would happen next. She was in so much pain. They were all in so much pain that I simply didn’t have the courage to detail the promise I’d made. I just knew I’d make it happen, one way or another.
The specters had all been cleared—whatever was left of them, at least. The ghouls had munched on their fair share. I wondered, for a brief moment, if there was such a thing as ghoul indigestion. The souls had not been part of their diet in a very long time, yet they’d managed to consume thousands in the span of a few hours.
Death stood before me, the chain still keeping her tied to the bottom of the lake. The Reapers were done releasing the confused specters from their curse, and billions of golden flakes spread across the sunset sky. The sun had already sunk into the horizon, leaving behind splotches of pink and dark blue. It was cold, but it was also quiet.
Glancing around at my team, I found relief. I even allowed myself to smile, watching Amelia and Raphael as they hugged and kissed. Riza grabbed Herakles and pulled him into a short smooching session, prompting the Faulty to groan and chuckle with delight. Eva and Varga were inseparable, laughing and showering one another with kisses. We’d made it so far.
Eira was next to me, trying to look away from the couples. She avoided my gaze as well, but I could see the roses blooming in her cheeks. It was over, at least in one matter. The Spirit Bender was dead, and so was Brendel. Gone forever from this world. They’d left so much pain and misery behind. I knew I wouldn’t stop until I’d found a way to fix that.
Until then, however, I turned to