25. Twenty-Five

Twenty-Five

“Sebastian took Ari’s soul with Benoi’s reaper staff. We need to get it back,” I said quickly as the bright white light dimmed in the room.

Enoch raised an eyebrow. “I do not know who Sebastian is, nor do I see the relevance of a single lost soul. There are millions of souls lost in the worlds since my disappearance.”

Enoch pushed the remaining bloodforged chains from his lap and jumped to his feet. He brushed the dirt off his ragged black robe.

Moving past me, he began climbing the stairs. This man sprang back from a decades-long slumber faster than I did a ten-minute nap.

Quillon, Genny and I shared a look before rushing to follow. I stumbled on a step, but Genny grabbed my arm.

“Ari’s ... important,” I said, catching up with Enoch at the top of the stairs. “You’ve revived him once before. I was hoping you’d do it again.”

Enoch stopped and turned to me. His movements were fluid and quick. More like a dancer than the shriveled mummy he’d been just moments ago.

“Why would I do that?”

He was unbelievable.

“We freed you from your shackles and gave you mana to restore you. The least you could do is help us.”

Quillon stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder. “What she means to say is that Ari is a crucial part of the team at your disposal. Returning the balance to the worlds will take more than a single reaper, no?”

The ancient reaper gave away nothing on his impassive face. Was this where Cyrus got his facial expressions? But where Cyrus’s seeming impassivity was from constant tension, Enoch’s appeared effortless. Like he really was indifferent.

“I need more than mana,” Enoch said. “I need my magic. My gift.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip. Now we were getting somewhere. He hadn’t exactly agreed to help us, but he hadn’t said no. “How do we get you your gift back?”

Enoch took a step closer to me. He was tall, and I had to crane my neck to look at him. “If we’re keeping score, I saved your life first. I gave my gift to you , remember?”

His words hung in the air.

“What are you saying?” Quillon finally asked.

Enoch let out an exasperated sigh. “Reapers are primordial beings, born at the beginning like the Ancients, but we are not meant to be Ancients, nor are we meant to give our gifts to mortals. By doing so, I deprived myself of it.”

“You …” I digested what he said. “You’re saying I need to give my abilities back to you?”

“Yes, though you will still be a hunter, carrying the gifts of Benoi the soul embracer and Ildune the soul eater, you will no longer be able to manipulate mana without touch. That is my gift.”

Em had read about Enoch before. Enoch the soul breather.

So, I’d still be a Morgan with Morgan abilities. But it didn’t matter if I still carried the corruption and had to wear the iron. Speaking of ...

“I tried giving you mana before, but my corruption stopped me.”

“You’ve become corrupted?” Enoch finally did show emotion. And his intensity had me worried. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

This was my chance to get Enoch on our side. To convince him of the stakes. “I’m not the only one. In fact, that’s partly why we woke you. Sebastian’s creating an army of corrupt hunters.”

Enoch stroked his chin.

“This complicates things,” he said. “I need my reaper blade. I can feel it near.” Enoch strode to the kitchen with his hands in front of him like he was feeling his way through darkness.

“Is it true that the only way to get rid of corruption is to ...” I wet my dry lips. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. “To die?”

“Yes.” Enoch felt along the wall until he reached a small door. “Ari’s soul was free from corruption when he died, though his body retained it. Even Cyrus was infected a thousand years ago. I ferried his soul to the Eternal Well in the Aether, and he was reborn pure.” He paused, looking at me over his shoulder. “It’s easier for the bennu.”

“So, the only way to get rid of the corruption is to die and I need to get rid of the corruption to return your gift?” I blew out a breath. Everything was pointing to my death. I didn’t dare look at Quillon. “What happens to your gift if I die?”

“If you do not pass on your blood to offspring, then the bond between our souls will sever and my gift will return to me.” Enoch opened the door to what looked like a closet. He rummaged through the mops, brooms, and cleaning supplies until he pulled out a magnificent scythe, standing as tall as he did. He brushed off a cobweb with disgust. “No respect.”

I ran my hands down my face. “So, what are we supposed to do then?”

“I could kill you now,” Enoch said plainly. Quillon stiffened at my side. “But your associate is correct. Restoring the balance requires more work than I can do alone. I tried to shoulder the burden on my own for centuries, but I was doomed to fail, even if I hadn’t been imprisoned by these incompetent hunters.”

Enoch ran a finger along the edge of his scythe. The black blade seemed to swallow the light from Quillon’s lantern. “I will help you restore Ari once more. He’s been useful in the past. We will need a bennu Runemancer and Benoi’s staff. The staff is the vessel that holds Ari’s soul.”

“We’ve got the bennu covered.” I shared a look with Quillon. “We just need to retrieve the staff from Sebastian.”

“We’re still working on that part,” Quillon added. “But I think I’ve come up with an idea.” He smirked at me. “Cyrus is going to hate it.”

“Please don’t tell the others,” I said as we walked into the sunlight. “About the gift thing. Not yet. I don’t think I’ll be able to ...”

Quillon grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Personally, I suggest we retire to Qaanir and forget about the rest of the worlds for whatever time we have left. But this is your life. Your decision to make.”

Quillon wouldn’t tell me there had to be another way. He wouldn’t give me false hope or lecture me. It was one of the things I appreciated about him.

I gave him a small smile as Genny came to my other side.

“You’re in some deep shit, cousin.”

“Still envy me?”

“There are worse fates than death,” Genny said quietly. “I’ll keep your secret,” she said louder. She elbowed me as we made it to our bikes. “I’ll even deal the killing blow if you ask nicely.”

I snorted. If I didn’t laugh, I would cry. But I had to keep it together for the worlds and for the men I’d come to love. And that meant we had to restore Ari’s soul to his body. And now that we had the reaper, we needed to get the staff.

That meant taking the fight to Sebastian.

Shael closed the gates to the Morgan compound behind us as we rode to the garage. Quillon dismounted more fluidly this time, and I placed our helmets back where I found them.

“Thanks for taking him,” I said to Genny, nodding at Enoch, who was inspecting the garage, his lip curled. “I know you don’t like having passengers.”

When Genny took off her helmet, she was smiling. She watched Enoch wander out of the garage, taking in the compound. “You know, now that he’s not all wrinkly and gross, he’s kind of hot.”

I snorted. “He’s a reaper born at the beginning of time.”

“So what?” Genny shrugged. “You bagged an immortal bennu.”

I didn’t correct her, but she was barking up the wrong tree. Cyrus and I weren’t a thing. Sure, we’d flirted, and I’d had one or two dreams, but that was it. At most, he might consider me an interesting plaything, maybe even a valued member of his team on occasion. But he was a bennu, and I was mortal. It would never work.

I followed behind Enoch before he got too far. Our arrival had drawn attention, and already hunters were emerging from the woodwork, suspicious of the newcomer.

Enoch’s tattered grim reaper look probably didn’t help.

“We can get you something else to wear. Something to help you blend in a bit.”

“Unnecessary,” Enoch replied.

Shael jogged back from the gate and intercepted Enoch. He clapped him on the shoulder. “So, you’re Enoch, then? You look different from the last time I saw you.”

Enoch slowly turned his gaze to Shael’s hand on his shoulder.

I jumped in, bumping Shael, who wrapped his arms around me, planting a loud kiss on my head.

“Water,” I said. “Em was right to always lecture me. Turns out he was just really dehydrated.”

Max was among the curious hunters.

She looked Enoch up and down. “He’s the one? He just looks like another hunter.”

Enoch frowned.

“He’s the one all right.” Genny pushed her way past me. “His mana is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It’s like we’ve been drinking dewdrops and he’s the whole damn ocean.”

I tilted my head at Genny. “Strangely poetic, but accurate.”

“So, it’s true, then? Your kind are the origins of our blood?” Max asked.

More hunters began encroaching, emboldened by the Gray Matriarch.

“We should probably keep some things on the quiet side,” I whispered. “We may be allies for now, but hunters have been power hungry enough to imprison Enoch once before, and he’s vulnerable at the moment.”

“But they deserve to know about our origins,” Genny said.

“And they will, but we should leave out the details for now, especially the ones about how our family got those extra special abilities.”

Genny rolled her eyes as Quillon looked between my cousin and me. “You know, I didn’t see it before, but I do now. The family resemblance is truly uncanny.”

I rolled my eyes before I could catch myself.

A particularly curious hunter edged closer. The Gray elder, Tabatha.

“What does Maxine mean about our origins?” She squinted at Enoch. “You’re not a normal hunter, are you?”

A younger Morgan came forward. He sneered at the Gray elder. “Of course he’s different. Our family has been visited by angels in the past.”

Gasps rang through the slowly gathering and closing crowd.

“Are you an angel?” another asked.

“No,” Enoch answered. Whispers spread, but thankfully no one was pulling weapons. Yet.

“Okay, the game of Twenty Questions is over.” I pushed Enoch toward the great hall while Quillon cleared a path. I’d much rather have had the reunion in the cottage, but we’d need more room.

To my surprise, Genny followed. I’d thought she would have wanted to be done with this.

Enoch regarded the hunters with quiet apathy as we passed.

“Don’t worry about them.” I smacked away a hand as one of the hunters reached for his tattered robe. Thankfully, we’d gotten through the crowd, and the great hall was before us. “Hunters are harmless, really. Just ignore the centuries of pointless slaughter and reaper imprisonment.”

“I wasn’t worried,” Enoch replied cooly. “Though I am without my gift, I am still a primordial being. Immortal.”

“Right,” I said as we stopped outside the doors to the great hall. Enoch was an even worse conversationalist than Cyrus. Maybe it was an immortal thing.

Cyrus himself opened the door as I reached for the handle. His light blond hair was messy from running his hands through it all day. He looked like he did the day I met him at the Dungeon.

“Cyrus.” Enoch dipped his head.

Clearly, they knew each other.

Cyrus regarded the reaper, running his icy gaze over Enoch’s equally disheveled appearance. “Enoch.” He angled himself to let us pass.

It wasn’t quite the reunion I would have expected from two people who hadn’t seen each other in hundreds of years, but somehow, it suited them perfectly.

The inside of the great hall was warm and cozy. A fire roared in the fireplace. Shael took his place sitting in front of it as Enoch and I followed Cyrus to the chairs and couch bathed in the flickering orange light.

Skye sat cross-legged on the thick carpet. Felix lounged on the couch and Quillon went to sit in an old armchair. I pushed Felix’s legs off the couch and leaned against him, careful to avoid his bandages. Max propped a hip against the long table.

They regarded Enoch warily, but either Enoch didn’t notice, or he didn’t care. He barely spared them a glance as he walked past.

“Cyrus,” Enoch stopped to stand at the fire, “how is Elisandra?”

Cyrus sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. “She’s doing as well as she can cut off from the others in the Aether. She searched for you until the day the council ruled that she stay in Eranor. With bennu failing to reincarnate, we could not afford to lose her at a time like this.”

Enoch slowly put his hand in the fire. I gasped, but he didn’t register pain. Instead, he slowly slipped his fingers through the flame. “Can you take me to her?”

“Why don’t you go yourself?” Cyrus asked.

Enoch pulled his hand from the fire. “I cannot move between worlds at the moment.”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow.

“My gift—”

I cleared my throat.

Enoch’s gaze flicked to me and back to Cyrus. “I’m ... not at full power yet.”

“The wells have gone dry,” Cyrus said. “It’s not safe to teleport right now.”

Enoch spun to face Cyrus, the quickest movement I’d seen him make since he woke up. “The wells have gone dry ?”

“As a harpy’s vagina.” Felix folded his arms behind his head.

“Ew.” I elbowed him.

“Things are dire, indeed.” Enoch touched a finger to his lips. A nervous gesture, if subtle. Anxiety wouldn’t have been my favorite reaction to see from him, but at least now I knew he had emotions.

“The Aether has deteriorated significantly in the past year,” Cyrus added. “All daeva briefly lost their magic, and many are still without.”

“That’s when you asked how to close the well.”

“Yes.” I sat forward in my seat. “I stabilized the Aether, but the damage was already done. That’s why we searched so hard to find you. Sebastian and Valeria drained the Aether through the well in Qaanir to power their undead army. Now, they’re building a new army of corrupt hunters on Earth. We need to stop them so we can start restoring the Aether.”

“How long has it been since I went missing?”

“Thirty-two years,” Cyrus answered.

“I see. The Aether has deteriorated quickly.”

“You can thank Sebastian for that,” Felix said. His long fingers slipped through my hair, and I melted into him. I was tired. More tired than I’d realized.

“This brings us to another urgent matter,” Cyrus said. “Ari has intimate knowledge of how corruption works. You no doubt remember that he was useful—”

“I already convinced him.” I lifted my chin and basked in Cyrus’s dumbfounded look.

“Really?” Cyrus looked to Enoch, who simply nodded.

“I can be quite persuasive.” I yawned. “How is Ari?”

Cyrus’s expression darkened. “He’s been quiet. Just stares.”

“How long has his soul been separated from his body?” Enoch asked.

Shael shrugged. “A couple of days.”

“We must hurry and retrieve the vessel that holds his soul. The rune on his chest keeps him animated, but without his soul connecting him to the Aether, Ari will be consumed by corruption. That won’t be reversible.”

I got up, already missing Felix’s warmth as I wandered down the hall into the dark.

Cyrus was on my heels. He reached for my hand, pulling me to face him. “Where are you going?”

“I have to see him.”

His eyes searched mine.

I couldn’t keep hiding from the darkness or pretending it didn’t exist. It was time to face it.