Refusing to get pulled into a topic that had nothing to do with the problem facing them, Death glared. “You will regret this, sister. I will take whatever measures necessary to protect the realms. With mother gone, we cannot produce new ones.”
“What use is the land without the people?” Eternity shouted.
Death let her lashes sink to her cheeks. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the ebirlloba, which pleased her. With a heavy heart, she walked to the mirror and once again summoned up the deeply distressed realms of the Fae. Death decided it was too much of anyone to ask her to say good-bye to the first major project she’d been allowed to take part in.
As the only goddess who controlled spirits, they rarely included her in the grand experiments her siblings created to amuse themselves. There were a few she had and there were problems aplenty, but nothing so dire as the fairies. It hurt her feelings that it was the sister closest to her that had become so quarrelsome. There were barely any remnants left of their friendship. The Fae were destroying themselves, and they’d already sacrificed Death’s relationship with Eternity.
Chapter 29
“Iwas so concerned with the big picture that I have failed to comprehend the extremes Hibozeth has gone to,” Death whispered to the mirror on the wall while a bemollo cried over the lashing his fairy was receiving. His name was Daravius, and despite the century he’d spent on the dark realm, his soul was pure. As he stood there clutching Zarasha, who was forever bound to him and his fairy, Xakiok, Death let her tears fall. Daravius’s fairy was not evil; he had acted recklessly and as a teenager with a large family who spent more time corralling siblings and cousins, Xakiok had paid little attention to his magical studies. It led to his ruin, and he was being beaten mercilessly for what had been a mistake made by a mischievous fourteen-year-old.
A cracking sound caught Death’s attention, and the first stones crumbled away on the land of the Dark Fae. Their experiment was about to come to a spectacular demise, and Death would not witness one of the few realms that belonged to her destroyed. Her eyes slipped shut—she wished yet again that she had the ability they gave the Fae not to get dizzy when transporting—and a second later she was in her childhood room. Slamming open the door; she strode down the hallway and was happy that she ran into no one as she sought Eternity.
Finding her prey in the dining hall, she cursed at finding Justice sitting alongside her.
“Eternity, I must speak with you privately.”
“What ails you?” Justice demanded.
“What business is it of yours?”
“Do not fight. I know what brings her here,” Eternity said. “The fairy realms.”
“My side is starting its collapse. We have no choice but to reave their souls.”
“You cannot kill an entire population,” Eternity shouted.
“They will die anyway,” Death countered. “I am speeding up the process to salvage the realms.”
“You have done nothing to earn that many souls,” Justice said.
“It has nothing to do with me wanting them dead, so do not make me sound greedy. I will get them regardless.”
“We have all watched the fairies in recent years,” Justice replied. “You have allowed your Dark Fae ruler to go to extremes without intervening.”
“I was so concerned with what was happening on the side of light, I did not fully grasp the situation on my realm,” Death argued. It was a failure and one she already deeply regretted, but she would allow none of her sisters to know her innermost thoughts.
“Hibozeth is a monster.”
Emboldened and annoyed by her sisters, Death let out a tiny wisp of magic. The moment Hibozeth and his fairy stepped into the ebirlloba, she clapped him in shackles and sent him to the hidden part of her home where those that deserved it were punished. For every Fae he’d ordered tortured, he would pay for it tenfold. “I have taken care of that issue.”
“This is madness, Death,” Eternity said. “I will have no part in it. There is still a chance to rebalance everything.”
“You are a fool, and I will not tolerate your naïveté taking away the land granted to me.”
Eternity rose and swept out of the room. “You are angry that I allowed the Vol’Gon era to play out, but we agreed not to intervene,” she called out behind her.
“We did no such thing,” Death muttered.
Justice’s sigh was hefty. “I cannot allow you to take all those souls. You will force me to have you punished.”
“You cannot be serious? I have fewer realms than anyone, and they are going to die anyway. Surely you can see why I must protect the land.”
“I understand and I can sympathize, but there are rules. What if we were to place the fairies somewhere else? One where there is already mixed light and dark.”
“They have so many gifts, Justice, and they do not understand the things they are doing wrong. We will bring their troubles to a place where the unrest could grow, destroying a new plane.”
“I will allow you to keep the soul of Hibozeth because I know you will punish him appropriately. I have not traveled to the ebirlloba, but I imagine you are not showing kindness to Tizisan, Morashi, or their familiars.”
