A Shade of Vampire 80 A Veil of Dark - Bella Forrest Page 0,68
also feel that Sidyan is terrified I’ll find out about his little ghoul friend. I’ll have to square this with him eventually, but in the meantime both he and Maya are useful because they’re outside the death magic blocking range that’s keeping Seeley and Rudolph away from my senses. Not to mention your swamp witch friend, Lumi. She’s got the most powerful motivation against the Darklings,” Death said.
“No one knows they’re there. Hell, up until five minutes ago, I thought Eira and I were the only ones,” I replied, running a hand through my hair. It was a miracle it wasn’t coming out in clumps, given the stress I’d just been subjected to.
“They should keep it that way,” Death said. “They have an advantage now, which allows them to go among the Darklings and study their secret society. It’s important that they find their true leader. The Scholars sound more like lieutenants. We need to know who rules over them.”
“Right, you know about Scholars from our GASP transmissions. Because you’ve been listening in on those, too.”
“Consider it my third confession today,” Death replied, annoyingly amused. Not that there was anything I could do about it. She was merely stating a fact.
“Wouldn’t the Darklings have some kind of warding against Reapers, given their track record?” I asked, increasingly worried for Sidyan’s safety.
“We’ll tell them to keep a safe distance. To be mindful of potential traps once they do come across the Darklings.”
“We’ll tell them?” I croaked. I was missing something here.
Death flashed a cool grin. “Right, well… I can only feel Sidyan’s emotions. He’s too far out of my reach, with five hundred seals still holding me down. But you can send a message to Lumi, can you not?”
I nodded slowly.
“Do it on my behalf. It’s time for Sidyan to be made aware that he cannot hide things from me. Not anymore. After everything that Spirit has done to me, to our society… to Visio, alone… we need full transparency among ourselves. Otherwise, he’ll win, even though he’s gone.”
“Right. That makes sense,” I mumbled, cold sweat seeping through my skin. I was getting hot and cold at the same time, feverish and frozen, terrified and eager. As twisted as this entire situation was, it still felt like progress.
Like two steps forward, then three steps back, then tumbling forward and scraping my knees in the process, but still a couple of yards farther than before. Progress.
“Go on,” Death said, eyeing me with childlike amusement. “Make the call.”
Lumi
We were fifty yards behind Tristan and Valaine’s caravan when Taeral’s voice came through Telluris, echoing in my head.
“Telluris, Lumi… You there?”
“I most certainly am,” I mumbled, looking ahead. Daylight revealed the emerald forests lining the Green Road, making its name all the more logical. Hills rose in the distance on both sides, covered in orchards. We could see the pink-and-white blossoms from here, trembling under the ocean breeze.
We were close to Astoria now. Anticipation was building up inside me, as the caravan had already collected a total of fifty Darklings. They’d killed three times as many, interrupting their raids on Rimian and Nalorean villages. We’d even heard rumors from the head of the line that the Lord Supreme had signed a law banning the blood slave trade, a measure designed to hamper the Darklings’ financial dealings. It was quite a blow, in my opinion, though I doubted it would be enough.
Even so, it was better than nothing.
“What is it?” I asked, when Taeral didn’t say anything. Sidyan walked by my side, watching me curiously as I mouthed Taeral’s name, and he nodded once. Maya was somewhere underground, following the tunnel trails.
“Well, I’ve got bad news and worse news. Maybe some news you might consider to be good. Which do you want to hear first?” Taeral replied.
I stopped in the middle of the road, my stomach already sinking. My instincts were flaring, and I knew there was some sort of trouble brewing for Sidyan, Maya, and me. Taking a deep breath, I watched as Sidyan stopped and came back to me, his expression bright with questions.
“Tell me, Tae. What’s going on?” I said.
“Okay. Well…”
“Use your words, Tae,” I replied with slight sarcasm, sensing he was nervous. The more he hesitated, the more worried I got.
“Death knows about Sidyan and Maya,” he finally said. Crap.
“That can’t be good.” I sighed, staring at the Reaper.
“This is the bad news. I don’t know what that means for Sidyan and Maya, but you all need to be aware. Death knows.”