Bender of Spirit , livre ebook

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97 pages

English

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The Reapers have found Unending. But now she must find herself...Continue the journey...

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	01 juillet 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781674100784
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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Copyright © 2019
Hot Pancakes Ltd
www.hotpcakes.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ESME
I thought Tristan and I’d had our hands full on Visio, but Seeley and Kelara’s crews had been quite busy as well. Not the good kind of busy, either. Combined with ours, their discoveries painted a troubling picture of this world. On top of that, we’d just learned that vampires did, in fact, descend from the
Aeternae-courtesy of the Night Bringer’s misery and forced attachment to Cruor.
The knowledge itself was overwhelming, but the enlightenment that came with it put everything into perspective. It gave us an extensive timeline to work with, one that went back five million years. The Unending had given a form of immortality to the Aeternae, some of whom had ended up on Cruor, where they’d succumbed to the Night Bringer’s suffering and morphed into the Elders. The Unending was bound to Visio, and we didn’t know how to set her free. She was Valaine, but she’d been other Aeternae before. Her past lives and bodies had been destroyed to keep the Black Fever-a symptom of her distress, according to Night and Morning’s theory-at bay.
Yeah, it was a lot to take in, and there was so much we hadn’t figured out yet, but everything was connected. Every decision had led to action or inaction, which in turn had generated a reaction. In that sense, the universe had retained its properties. Everything else had been thrown out of balance by the Darklings and all the death magic they’d learned from the Spirit Bender.
“I wish we could bring Spirit back so we could kill him again,” Seeley said.
His words came after a very long and heavy silence. Here we were, a bunch of mismatched supernaturals and agents of Death, trying to untangle a mess of epic proportions bearing the Spirit Bender’s signature. Derek was Danika’s captive. Danika was a friggin’ Whip, like Petra. Worst of all, Corbin Crimson, Valaine’s father, had turned out to be the Master of Darkness. There was bitter irony in this last revelation, as we’d considered him an ally ever since the first attempt on his daughter’s life.
“I can’t believe it,” Valaine murmured, staring at her boots. “My own father…”
We were all seated around a small campfire, hidden by a temporary invisibility shield, thanks to Kailani. The nights had gotten colder-personally, I didn’t mind the chill, but there was nothing better than a crackling fire when the temperature drop turned my breath into white clouds in the night air.
“Not surprised you’re having a hard time processing that particular whammy,” I replied. “I’m sorry, Valaine.” “It’s not something you need to be sorry for,” Valaine said. “He would’ve shown his true colors eventually. I’m just wondering if he would’ve done it while tearing my heart out or cutting my head off.”
Tristan sighed, his gaze perpetually fixed on her. “From what we’ve learned, it took him a while to approve your killing. He allowed Zoltan and the others to try to take you on, likely knowing they’d have a hard time. He could’ve ended you himself, but he probably couldn’t find the strength to kill his own daughter,” he said. “Until the courtroom incident, that is.”
“That must’ve been the turning point for Corbin,” Sofia chimed in, her green eyes slightly watery as she remembered the incident. I hadn’t been there myself, since Kalon had basically saved me from his mother, then kidnapped me, but Tristan had told me every gory detail. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that scene, especially since I’d witnessed Valaine’s dark side before, and it was much more pronounced than in other Aeternae. “He must’ve seen the signs, the final confirmation that you really were the Unending. The slap in the face, you could call it, that forced him to accept your fate.”
“It doesn’t make any of this easier,” Valaine replied. Tears streamed down her cheeks, slender lines of liquid crystal that shimmered over her pale skin. There was pain in those dark eyes. I could almost feel it.
“We obviously have our work cut out for us,” Night said, “but knowing who we’re dealing with helps us prepare for what comes next. Right now, Unending is trapped in this Aeternae vessel, and we must find a way to set her free.”
Tristan frowned. “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, are we absolutely, positively, undoubtedly sure you don’t have the wrong person here? There is nothing in Valaine’s physiology to suggest she’s the Unending.”
“Aside from the death magic trace elements in her bloodstream, you mean?” Soul retorted, one eyebrow arched defiantly.
“Tristan is well within his rights to doubt this. As am I,” Valaine said. “Are we sure? Beyond the shadow of a doubt?”
Amal and Amane exchanged glances. “From a biological point of view, and without having had Reapers to… study, Valaine presents as a healthy Aeternae,” Amal replied, while Amane nodded her agreement. “Those death magic traces are literally the only thing that sets her apart.”
“That being said,” Amane continued, “if Valaine is some kind of vessel for the Unending, an Aeternae body for her to dwell in, then that would certainly explain the death magic trace elements.”
Night moved closer to Valaine and placed a hand on her knee. His touch made her quiver. She gave him a wary look, but Night didn’t let that deter him. He persisted, showing nothing but patience and kindness. “This is merely a version of you, Unending. A physical shell that you’re trapped in. It feels what you feel. It wants what you want, so don’t think for a second that there’s anything about you that isn’t real.”
“How… how do I get to the truth, then?” Valaine asked, her voice shaky.
“You’re stuck in some kind of cycle, matching the Black Fever,” Night said. “It proves the Darklings right, unfortunately, but it also gives us something to work with. They’ve been killing you every ten thousand years just to stop the curse from wiping out their entire species. My guess is that you went down swinging when Spirit got you.”
“I know you can reach into your past lives,” Morning added. “At the very bottom of this body and this version of yourself, you have access to the memories of all your previous experiences. We just need to help you dig deep, peeling away at the layers until we find the real you… because you’re in there. I can feel you.”
“We can all feel you,” Phantom said, smiling.
Valaine groaned softly. “I wish I could remember you. All of you. I wish I had answers, but… all I’ve got is sadness and despair and grief. My own father wants me dead!”
Soul scoffed. “Corbin Crimson is not your father. He might’ve helped make this version of you, but he is not your father. The sooner you distance yourself from him, the better you’ll feel about everything.”
Thayen raised a hand, politely demanding our attention. “I don’t mean to sound cruel, but with the Black Fever emerging so soon and violently now, wouldn’t it be better if we let the Darklings kill Valaine so the cycle can be reset? From what I understand, the Unending will still be here, right? I just… I’m not comfortable with the idea of so many of my people dying.”
“While your intentions are good, your approach is ill informed,” Phantom replied bluntly. “Killing Valaine will hold the Black Fever back, but then we’ll have to find Unending again. She’ll be a newborn, and we’ll have no way of identifying her. Whatever this cycle does to her, it also makes it difficult to pinpoint her as the source of the Black Fever. It takes your people thousands of years to identify her every time.”
“On top of that, the Darklings don’t want her released,” Widow said. “Spirit founded their faction to keep her down. So we’ll still be fighting the bastards. And last, but certainly not least, every minute that Unending spends in misery is a failure for us as her partners and her siblings. Death needs her, as well, in order to regain her own freedom. Spirit messed with all of us, one way or another, and we have to make it all stop. We have to fix this.”
Thayen nodded slowly. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to find a way for everybody to win.”
“That’s kind of you,” Sofia replied, giving him a soft smile. “But I don’t think there’s a way for everyone involved to come out of this unscathed. Your mother, the Darklings… they’ve done too much harm over the years. They won’t let their privileges and power be taken away from them easily. Not when they’ve spent their whole lives profiting from death magic.”
Valaine cursed under her breath. “I’m not ready to die. If I have a shot at stopping this madness once and for all, I’ll take it.” She got up, fists tight at her sides as she looked around. “And you’ve all been through so much to protect me until now. It would be cowardly on my part to just… give up and let them kill me. No, if there’s freedom ahead, I want to find it. Just show me how to tap into my memories, and I’ll do it.”
“There’s one thing we’ve not made clear here, and I’d like to know,” Tristan said. “What will happen to Valaine once we free Unending?”
Phantom smiled. “She’ll still be there. Valaine and Unending are one and the same, in a sense. Valaine is one side of our sister. When she remembers who she truly is, chances are she’ll remember every life, every aspect of herself, including the whole that is Unending.”
“So, I’ll still be me, only… amplified?” Valaine asked.
“Or enriched, for lack of a better word,” Widow replied. “Nothing is lost. It’s just that everything is regained.” “Okay. Let’s get cracking, then,” Valaine said.
I hadn’t seen this side of her in a while. Determination shone brightly from the blackness of her eyes. Her brows were slightly furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line. As the wind blew over the hilltop and the trees whispered behind us, her hair danced in the