Reapers - Master of Souls (Reapers Chronicles Book III)

21 - Good and Bad

Heart still beating for the cause
Feeding
Soul still feeding from the loss
Aching
Limbs are aching from the rush
Fading

What You Are, Bleak

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The whole week ended up into a boot camp.

Every day, Vincent left before I wake up. At night, he always arrived when I was sleeping. I always prepared the clothes he would use the next day before I slept and left them on his bed. On the morning, the clothes would be gone. That was the only sign that he ever came home.

He had his training. I had mine under Archie and Luci. It was grueling, what with all the restrictions in Halja. But it wasn't like taking a break would result to the apocalypse.

It was official: Vincent was avoiding me.

"Maybe he is scared," I muttered to myself as I parried Luci's glaive off my face. Absently, I hooked the blade of my scythe onto the curve of her blade, twisted and pulled, taking the wielder with it. "Say, Luci. Am I scary to you?"

Luci rolled her eyes. She spun on her heels, unhooking her glaive from my scythe before digging the pole's butt into my side.

I staggered back, clutching my ribcage. Before I could retaliate, Luci rested the glaive's pole onto her shoulder. I did the same with my scythe.

"You appear calm for someone whose father has been abducted by her sister," she answered. "I would say that's quite disturbing."

Before I could try to explain myself, Grigori flung the door open.

"The chief has summoned, Little Misses," he announced, patting the beads of sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief as he lumbered into the room.

Luci and I nodded at each other and without further ado, followed Grigori out of Luci's lab where three horses waited for us. We had been waiting for Sathariel's summon for days now. The Haljan Elders had been working with Alex to discover a way to defeat Legion.

None of us spoke as we rode downhill, out of the woods and into town. The full moon was in four days. Good or bad, any development was better than none. They say I looked calm, but I wasn't.

It wasn't until we had entered Sathariel's study that Grigori was able to look me in the eyes. He seemed troubled as he hurried to the fireplace to pull down the wing of the angel statue.

The wall behind the grille retracted sideways with a grinding noise.

"The chief is waiting," said he, waving a hand forward.

Luci went in first. Before I could follow her, Grigori caught my arm.

"I'm sorry, Little Miss," he told me.

"For what?"

He gave me an apologetic look. "Go on in."

I ducked into the fireplace, trying to ignore the disquiet Grigori's words had risen within me. The fire from the torches along the wall made for a distorted shadow play as I descended the narrow stairwell into the devil's man-cave.

Finally, I reached the bottom. I took a lungful of dank, cold air before entering the room.

They were all waiting there-Vincent, Alex, Sathariel-looking like they were in a funeral.

Vincent and Sathariel occupied the only chairs in the room. Automatically, Vincent got up and stood with his back on the wall, avoiding the unsent presents scattered about as he did. He motioned me to sit, which I did. The mere gesture iced my spine. If Vincent was willing to give up his chair for me, this conversation was sure to be swoon-worthy.

Sathariel set his elbows on the table and rested his chin on the back of his intertwined fingers. Taking a deep breath, he fixed his gooseberry green eyes on me.

"Do we start with the good or the bad news?" he asked.

"Just get it over with," Vincent groaned, pocketing his hands.

Shaking his head, Sathariel gestured for Alex to take over. The guy stared at his glass of bourbon before coming forward.

"Legion can't be killed," he said, his gaze down. "Aramis, I have consulted every Elder, every record written but-"

"Please tell me that's not the good news," I cut in, searching everybody's faces for answer. "Or is it?"

Alex actually smiled. "Luckily for us, no. Legion can't be killed, but she can be locked away back into the abyss."

"Okay..." I sighed. "So all we have to do is to ask her politely if she would be willing to go back there for cookies. Piece of cake. But we already know that."

Vincent pressed his lips into a thin line as if suppressing a laugh, but pretended to busy himself looking into an antique kaleidoscope.

"I don't think Legion is going to oblige willingly," Alex explained, obviously impervious to sarcasm. "That is why we need to cast Legion out of Adrianna's soul, and in perfect timing, open a Gate that will sweep it back to the abyss in Halo then, activate a barrier to trap it inside."

"Great," I muttered. "More good news."

With his so-called interest on the kaleidoscope quickly ebbing away, Vincent tossed it behind him and sat on Sathariel's table.

"Put us in charge of the Gate-opening part," Vincent said, pointing a finger alternately between me and himself. "Our big problem here's recreating the barrier around the abyss."

"The enchantments that constitute that barrier is of ancient origin," Luci added. "If only the Grimoire of Chasms is in our possession."

The Grimoire was the immortals' go-to book for enchantments and spells. Of course, Reapers could still do the basics without it. But you could say that the Grimoire was the super-secret advanced textbook.

I remembered Sharifa telling me that Cairo used it to deactivate the barrier surrounding the abyss, thus, unleashing Legion into the world. Even in his Ethereal-induced insanity, he never admitted to anything Sharifa accused him of even under torture. Until he burned the castle and fled, we didn't actually find out where he hid it.

"Cairo's gone with the wind and so is the Grimoire," Vincent agreed. "I mean, making barriers is what I do, but even I'm not that good."

Sathariel went across the room to pick up the kaleidoscope Vincent threw away. He went back to his seat and carefully placed it back on the table.

"That's another reason why we need you, Aramis," Sathariel explained, a cryptic air about him. "We need to make an offering."

"M-me?" I clutched on my seat, looking at everyone for help. To my dismay, none of them came to my aid. If anything, it looked like they were all expecting this. "W-what? Is this some kind of virgin sacrifice?"

The foreboding quiet that filled the room was broken when Vincent burst into laughter.

"Don't tell me-"

I kicked him in the shin and bared my teeth. That didn't stop him from laughing some more though.

"Zip it!" I muttered through my teeth as I tried to hide the burn creeping on my face. "It's not like I have time to waste trying to get laid when someone's always trying to kill me every two seconds."

"Exactly," Sathariel chimed in, smiling. "If you knew you were going to die, you should've done it at least once... But, that's not what we need you for, Aramis. We need you to reap a soul."

"Even I can do that. I think."

"So it's settled," he said, placing three scabbards on the table. "And since I can't cross over with you, take these for your protection."

I picked one and unsheathed a dagger with a Helcium blade and bronze hilt.

"I was told Reapers aren't able to use their weapons fully because of Azrael's weakened state,"Luci explained. "So we made these. Of course, that exemplifies you and Vincent."

Alex and Vincent took their daggers, their faces both unreadable.

"Get ready," Sathariel ordered. "You'll crossover tonight."