A Search for Death (A Shade of Vampire #73) - Bella Forrest Page 0,1

ritual, had kidnapped his daughter, along with hundreds of other Hermessi children. This, in itself, was a bitter reminder that the elementals had lied to us (and to one another) about a few things, including the fact that most of them had sired children, even though they’d said they didn’t have any offspring and even though they’d been mostly dormant since the first ritual attempt.

That, to me, meant that I’d have to take anything the Hermessi said with a grain of salt.

Harper was out cold—quite literally, her body temperature dropping while her spirit was out with Ramin. We didn’t know where they were or what had happened to them, but we were aware that she’d been down for far too long. Her connection with Ramin was special and unique, and it had allowed her to soul-walk and hide inside him. She’d seen and heard the rebel Hermessi, though, at this point we weren’t sure how many were still working against the ritual, since Brendel had taken their children hostage.

Firr, the Fire Hermessi of Calliope, definitely wasn’t on our side anymore, as he’d destroyed Mount Agrith on behalf of the ritual supporters, cutting off our access to its pink waters. The Daughters of Eritopia were understandably devastated, but, since their maker, Wei, wasn’t going to fight his own Hermessi brothers over this, they didn’t have any choice but to find another home. We did wonder whether the crystal eggs with unhatched Daughters had also been destroyed in the process, but the Daughters didn’t know—they did, however, doubt that that had happened. We couldn’t know for sure unless we spoke to Wei directly. Such an endeavor would have to wait, however. The Daughters needed a new home, and Draven and Serena had offered them pretty much any mountain on Calliope, provided the locals agreed, too.

But that was the least of our problems. GASP could no longer interrogate the cult members they’d captured. The Hermessi had grown strong enough to hijack their bodies, forcing our agents to put them into magically induced comas so they’d no longer suffer. If left awake, the prisoners experienced excruciating pain in their hands, which the witches had covered in protective crystal casings to stop them from using their fae abilities against GASP. On top of that, the Hermessi weren’t recruiting just fae anymore. No, there were reports of Imen, Bajangs, Imps, succubi, incubi, manticores, and many other species across the In-Between and the Supernatural Dimension joining the Hermessi death cults.

That helped the elementals with their supreme goal—infecting five million fae with their influence in order to complete the ritual that would bring about the end of days. We were currently at 3.5 million fae. Despite our quarantine and protective measures, GASP had yet to stop the number from going higher. Every day, dozens more fae were brought into the sanctuaries and sheltered in crystal casings, while the rest of the world suffered, knowing that nature itself no longer wanted us to exist. The ritual was abnormal and illogical, but the Hermessi had gotten it into their heads that it was time to try again, especially since Death had stopped their previous attempt.

All we could do was keep fighting, resist their influence, and find Death, so she would stop them. There were questions as to why she hadn’t intervened yet, but I had a feeling only she could tell us the reason. Needless to say, I was a mass of pins and needles at this point, trying to find the right direction in the midst of pure chaos.

But Eira had asked the right question: What would we do, now?

“We can’t sit here much longer,” I eventually said. Around us, millions of aspen and bamboo-like trees covered hundreds and hundreds of miles. I took a moment to properly analyze this stunning, eerily quiet view.

A sea of green stretched out, seemingly forever. The wind blew gently through the trees, and the sound of leaves rustling and birds singing had given me a mild sense of comfort over the past four hours. Sprinkled across the landscape were roaring waterfalls that tumbled down from stony peaks and hundred-mile-wide plateaus that grew into mountains farther out. Slim rivers snaked through the woods, revealing their blue waters here and there in crude green and flowery clearings where animals stopped to drink. I didn’t have Varga’s True Sight, but the view was remarkably clear and breathtaking. To the west, grandiose keys and wooded crevices crept through the forests, leaving room for rivers to meet and