She didn’t deserve any of this.
“What about GASP?” Amane asked. “Do we bring them in?”
Sofia sighed. “As much as I dislike Danika, that’s not the right way to go about this. She’s in shock. She’s grieving. We can still try to reason with her, but I think she needs a couple days to cool off first. Bringing GASP here would only lead to conflict.”
“The Darklings might jump to the Aeternae’s defense, and they’ve got death magic,” I said. “You all heard Zoltan. We don’t have Death on our side on this one. She’s doing… whatever, and we’re on our own.”
“He’s coming,” Tristan whispered.
I shot to my feet. “Ansel?”
Tristan slowly opened the door to let the boy in. Amal and Amane had picked him up from Tristan’s chamber on their way out of the palace, and he’d spent the past hour circling the neighborhood to make sure our area was safe for the night.
“They’re three neighborhoods over, combing every street,” Ansel said. “They won’t be in this area until the morning.”
“Good. That gives us time to come up with something,” I replied.
“We have to get Nethi’s body back,” Amal reminded me.
Running a hand through my hair, I let out a deep breath, but didn’t make me feel any better. “Esme is MIA with Kalon, Petra and the rest of her family are Darklings, and Danika’s grief nearly got us thrown in prison,” I said. “Acheron, our only hope in so many ways, is dead.”
“The Darklings did it,” Ansel confirmed. “I know they sometimes pay Naloreans or Rimians to do their dirty work for them. It’s rare but not unheard of. Remember Cedric Shatal’s assassination three years ago?” he asked Valaine.
“Oh, wow, Zoltan had his own brother killed?” She gasped.
“Why does that not surprise me?” Amane rolled her eyes.
It took me a while to get my thoughts in order. Once I regained my clarity, I went through each of our issues, one by one. Maybe the darkness that surrounded us helped soothe my tormented soul.
“We have to work out an action plan,” I said after a while. “Before we can get to Danika, we have to secure our own positions. We need a safer place. One that the Aeternae can’t easily reach.”
Sofia smiled. “We should get our shuttle back. With a little invisibility magic, we can fly it pretty much anywhere on Visio.”
“I figured you’d suggest we use it to just get off Visio and go home.” Amal chuckled.
“Do you want to leave now? After everything you’ve accomplished, everything you’ve learned?” Sofia asked. The question was addressed to everyone, not just Amal. I didn’t answer, because my intentions had been clear from the very beginning. I didn’t intend to leave until I got what I’d come here for. But I couldn’t keep putting them through this… not without their consent.
Amane sighed. “We’re not going anywhere,” she said. “We’re going to finish what we started. We’re going to get the day-walking cure, and we’re going to resolve the Black Fever issue, as well.”
“Okay. Then, like I said, we need a new safe house,” I replied. “And Sofia’s right. It’s high time we got our shuttle back, too. We’ve got pulverizer weapons there that we can use against the Darklings. Danika has broken the rules of our agreement, so we’re pretty much entitled to doing at least some of this our way.”
Tristan crossed his arms. “I’m going to find Esme.”
“And I’m joining him,” Valaine added.
“You two do that. Maybe take Ansel with you,” I replied. “He’ll be useful.”
“The rest of us can figure out a way to get our shuttle back,” Sofia said. “It will be heavily guarded, I’m afraid.”
“We’ll handle it,” Amal chimed in. “We’ve got enough invisibility magic to pull a fast one on the gold guards stationed there.”
“I’ll speak to Rose and Ben,” I said. “They need to know everything that happened here, and maybe they’ll manage to get through to Death, via Taeral. The situation is getting beyond the control of the living. It’s time for Reapers to get involved.”
It all sounded rather good in theory. In practice, however, I wasn’t sure we’d actually get any assistance from Death’s agents. That didn’t mean we wouldn’t go through with our plans. We’d made it this far.
Acheron’s death had changed everything, but it had also made it even clearer that the Darklings had to be eradicated. They’d done too much damage. They’d thrown the empire into disarray. They’d already killed one of our own, and they’d tried to hurt Esme as well. It was time to stop them.
I’d promised we wouldn’t meddle, but this had become deeply personal. Balance needed to be restored, whether the Aeternae liked it or not.
ASOV 82: A Circle of Nine