Page 2 of Down from the Tower
I roll my eyes, rolling waves of shadow over my fingertips. Unimpressed, he uses the same magic to make mine disappear.
Staring down at my hands, I try to swallow down the resentment for the scars. She must’ve used a cursed blade when she cut the spades into my flesh, because they’ve never healed. It’s one of the things that ties the four of us together as Hell Brothers.
“And we wouldn’t want that,” I reply sarcastically, pressing a shoulder to the wall. “Midas is just a different form of madness. I hear he keeps a princess locked in the tower.”
“Yes,” he replies, “the magic one. I’ve heard they use her as a bartering chip between Kingdoms.”
I scoff. “Don’t take the rumors as truth. We know you can’t do that in Mystica.”
Silence settles between us, and Raymundo fidgets with an arrow. I know what he’s going to bring up before he ever does.
“You have to see what’s over the wall. It could throw everything off balance if Midas can in any way manipulate spirits.”
“You’re giving him too much credit,” I argue back. “He’s hungry for blood but not sophisticated enough to hold souls in his kingdom. When I’ve reached the wall before, it always feels like there’s nothing on the side. No dead, no loitering, nothing. The people of Tressa either never die, or they disappear before they do.”
“Still, we have to do something about that, don’t we? The Mad Queen already thinks she has the right to do what she wants with spirits. Midas cannot become the same sort of monster.”
I sigh. “I’ll give it a few more months. See if there’s anything to Arthur traveling down to Tressa. Maybe the dead get carted off on ships so we never sense them.”
He’s unimpressed, and I can’t say I blame him. “Be serious, Zarev. We know that’s not what’s happening. This is part of the job, ensuring the spirits can pass on in peace.”
“It’s a job I didn’t sign up for,” I reply, scratching at my throat. The need to go and hunt something is strong, and I resist it as my ears twitch, memories of years past cascading over me.
I’m not him anymore. That version of me died beneath a prison of stone.
“Still, we have to help keep balance. The lands are dying as the Mad Queen keeps advancing. I heard rumors that someone saw Griffins flying into Wonderland last month.”
“You and your rumors, friend.” I shake my head, leaning back to glare at him. “The lands are dying, and death is calling. We can’t stop the Queen’s terror while we’re distracted by ghosts.”
He sighs. “There’s nothing for us to stop. That’s not a destiny we can follow anymore. We’re just playing the long game now, biding time until there’s some way to unseat the Mad Queen. Maybe if we could still get through Wonderland it would be easy, but she knows we’ll go for the kill if we cross the border. She will do everything in her power to keep us out of the Red Woods and Wonderland. She’ll try to send us back to the dead where we were supposed to go.”
I clench my hand, watching as the shadows leak from between my fingers. “And life stole us back. It’s not going to be simple to get into Tressa. The wall is impenetrable, even when I fly. There’s a few times the barrier seems weak, maybe when the golden touch is failing. I’ll wait and watch. If the dead still don’t rise I’ll go over the wall.”
He gives me a pointed look. “And take care of what’s on the other side. It could be messy, but no one has the right to keep souls trapped here. Even if the rumors of the princess are real, she could be a dangerous threat just like Midas and his wife.”
My brow twitches. I don’t do much killing, that’s something the others prefer to do. It’s a last resort for me, and killing some princess isn’t high on my list of things to do. I’d rather let Tressa be, There’s too many other problems across the land.
“We’re Reapers, mate,” Raymundo says, and I’d like to wipe the smug look off of his face. “Death incarnate.”
“You’re taking this very literally today.”
Ray chuckles. “No other way to take it. There’s no fix to being Death. We were Reaped, and now we’re the Reapers.”
I sigh, looking away from him. He’s going to keep yapping until he convinces me to go to Tressa. Lucius can’t leave Thornton Palace, and Ban is lost in the wind again.
There’s no way out. The longer things are out of balance, the worse it’ll be. It’s bad enough we’ve waited this long to do something about it, but the magic is still fairly new as far as magic goes. We weren’t born into it, we were made.
And I don’t see any of the others jumping to go behind the golden wall.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. If nothing problematic happens with the Red Woods, or Wonderland, or anywhere else, I’ll head over the wall. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to come back over, so the three of you are on your own.”
“We can handle ourselves, mate. After all, Tressa falls in your domain. Unless you think we should try to contact Ban?”
I scoff. Ban will kill that princess, and maybe the Queen of Tressa too, without even trying to find the root of the problem. “No, I’ll do it. The girl might not need to die.”
“Keep thinking that.”
Shaking my head, I stare off into the night. My instincts call to me to run through the woods, but that part of me is forever gone.