“Not really,” Hadras replied. “It’s more of a dull ache. The absence of parts of me… What happens next, brother?” he asked Eneas who was looking at us.
“I’m not sure,” Eneas said.
I stepped forward, unwilling to let this weirdness get in the way of our mission. “Tristan won the duel, fair and square. You can start by holding up your end of the bargain,” I said firmly.
“Fair enough,” he muttered, stealing a glance at his fallen brother. “I suppose we’ll have to figure something out for him…”
“Maybe try and put the pieces back together,” Tristan suggested. He had a hard time hiding his amusement about all this, and I couldn’t blame him. After all, the Ghoul Reapers had wanted him in the duel thinking it would give them an easy win. That had blown up in their faces magnificently. “Fusion might occur… eventually.”
“You bastard!” Hadras shouted, the muscle in his jaw ticking.
“Hey, I told you to yield,” Tristan replied dryly, then turned to face me, finally showing his confusion and concern, if only for a moment. “What the hell is going on here? How was I able to pull that off?”
I didn’t have an answer for him. I didn’t even have a theory. I only had relief. He’d not only survived, but he’d kicked major Ghoul-Reaper ass. Those in the Reaper circles had often hinted that my husband, the living creature, was not worthy of me. But I was the one not worthy of Tristan, and it filled my soul with pride to be a part of his life and to see him like this. I wanted to believe Death would eventually give us the truth about him and his predestination for the Reaper realm, but I had my doubts. She’d lied about so many things before.
How could I trust her again, after everything?
“I’m not sure,” I told Tristan. “But we’ll figure it out. For now, let’s just relish this moment. You won, and now we’ll get to see the book of the World Crusher. Thanks to you, my love.”
He held back a smile as we both looked to Eneas. The Ghoul Reaper was upset, but he would be true to his word. I could see it in his black eyes. Soon we would find ourselves one step closer to the truth—the same truth that Death had been hiding from us.
Astra
I would’ve liked nothing more than to stick around and find out who Regine was and what she was doing here. But this second Valkyrie’s arrival was a stroke of good luck we had to take advantage of while we could. Our friends weren’t here, so we’d have to search every other glass house until we found them.
“Leave! Now!” Myst said, eyeing Thayen and me. This was her way of telling us that she and Regine would handle the Berserkers.
Haldor’s shadow hounds turned their focus to us. They couldn’t get too close because of the light emanating from within me, plus Jericho would throw fireballs at them if they tried. But we couldn’t lose them, either. Not for long, anyway. We would need more than the Valkyries to keep the dark beasts at bay, now that Haldor had set them on us.
“Go on, scram!” Regine added, raising an eyebrow at us.
Torrhen laughed. “The meat sacks understand their predicament better than you do. There is no point in running, darlings.”
“Besides, my boys here will be more than happy to eat them up. The half-Daughter’s light won’t last forever, and the Daughter is still under the influence of runes. Useless…” Haldor added, a mixture of humor and disgust twisting his thin lips.
Irritated by his remark but also frightened by the truth of it, I inched closer to Myst and Regine. I touched their blades, allowing the liquid light to flow from my core and into their beautiful swords. Green fires burned in the emeralds, and red flames danced inside the rubies. The diamonds glowed white as the blend of steel and gold began to shine brightly.
It made the Berserkers curse and the shadow hounds move back, their phosphorescent blue eyes shrinking to slits. The shining swelled and swallowed this entire stretch of the fake Shade’s extension, providing the window we’d needed. I grabbed Thayen’s hand and moved away from the melee. Jericho and Mom followed closely. “Come on,” I whispered and swallowed another invisibility pill.
By the time we almost bumped into the incoming clones, we’d already gone invisible, hiding between the glass houses as the grunts ran past us and toward the fight we’d just left behind. There were enough shadowy nooks and dark corners for us to move around undetected. Myst and Regine were putting on a flashy show behind us, their light cutting through the empty, starless sky.
“What in the world do we do now?” Jericho asked as we stopped on the edge of the extension, overlooking the dark waters of this false ocean with its false waves crashing against the heavy black iron of this equally false platform with false glass houses. Absolutely everything here was fake, and it was pissing me off.
“We find our friends,” I replied, gritting my teeth. I’d had enough of it all. Enough of Brandon’s murky allegiance. Enough of the clones and the weird devices and the unknown agendas. Enough of the Berserkers and their shadow beasts and weird third eyes. Enough of everyone and everything, Valkyries included. Our lives had been torn and tossed and plunged into chaos, and we couldn’t even save our friends without running into one form of trouble or another. Yeah, I was tired and angry. Fed up. “We find our friends, and then we keep forging ahead with the mission. We get to the truth, and then we stop these bastards from doing anything else to mess with our world and our people.”
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Thayen said.
Mom cursed under her breath as a throng of clones darted past the glass house, catching up with the others
