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“Can you stand?” On your own, I wanted to add.
“I’ll have to, because…” He turned his head to the side and took in a deep breath. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.
Offended, I made sure he was stable, then put some space between us. Did I really stink that bad? If I was to die today, this was an undignified way to go, indeed. They said: “live fast, die young, leave a pretty corpse behind”. First two – check. My corpse wasn’t going to be pretty, though.
I scanned the room quickly, and I realized I couldn’t see Francis anymore. My brain went into panic mode first, then my body slowly followed. I made a dash for it, pushing people out of my way, my scythe slashing back and forth. I got evil Pandora in the stomach, and she howled in pain. I wonder why I’m not here… No time to ask around where my evil doppelganger was. Francis was down, and Morningstar had chopped off a good chunk of his tail. The serpent was writhing on the ground, and my father was getting ready to strike again.
“No!” I jumped to cover Francis with my own body. His big head fell on my lap, his eyes closing. “Don’t… don’t die on me!”
“It’ll heal,” he hissed. But there was a river of blood, and his spine was practically severed.
“Stop it!” I yelled at Valentine. “Why are you doing this? What do you think you’re accomplishing? And who are these people?”
He settled down for a moment, holding his scythe casually, and looked at me like I was the most disgusting creature in the world.
“Daughter, you smell like a pile of rotten corpses. And this coming from Death himself…” He laughed darkly.
“You’re not Death!”
“Soon.” He eyed the two sisters – or brothers – who were sitting helpless on their throne. There was no one left to protect them. Just me, and a dying Francis. “Once I kill Death, I will become Death.”
“That’s not how it works! You kill Death, Life dies, too. You know that! You’ve seen it before, haven’t you? Is that what happened in their universe?” I motioned toward the evil Grim Reapers.
“It is. You see, their universe was just like this one. With one single exception. Their Valentine Morningstar never met Katia and never had a daughter with her. The concept of you never even existed. So, he was free to focus on his own greatness with no one to stand in his way, challenge him, or try to ever retire him. He built an army of Grim Reapers, and together they put an end to the reign of Life and Death. They freed Time, and they freed everyone.”
“And how did that work out for them?”
“There’s a catch, daughter. It’s never that simple.” He grinned mysteriously. “What Valentine Morningstar did was impressive, but it was only the first step. He thought he’d become Death. He hadn’t. So, I found his dimension, and I found him. I fought him, killed him, and took over his army. Because I know how to finish what he started. To become Death, you see, you have to find her in all the inter-connected universes. What I’m doing here… this is the second step. There will be many more after. A life’s work, but it will be worth it. When Time is free in all the inter-connected dimensions, it will be powerful enough to flow over space and unite all the worlds in one big, eternal universe.”
“And you’ll be… what? King?”
“I’ll be the destroyer of worlds and creator of the one true cosmos where Time will do as it pleases, and space won’t exist. And in that cosmos, new beings will come into existence. Perfect, powerful, eternal beings…”
“And all that, just to prove grandma wrong,” I said as if it had just crossed my mind, knowing full well it would drive him mad with anger. “All that, just so she’ll finally admit that of all her children, you – the nephilim, the hybrid – were always the worthy one.”
My words had the intended effect. His eyes turned red with fury, and his skeletal body glowed wild and crimson. The runes on his scythe started bleeding. I stood up, ready to face him. But when he raised his scythe, he didn’t aim it at me. I was too slow. My ankle popped and gave out, and I fell on my hands and knees just as Valentine’s scythe descended upon Life and Death. He was going to cut the conjoined twins apart, and they would bleed to death, unless…
Someone blocked him.
That someone was Yolanda. With her toy scythe. My eyes widened in horror. There was no way! A little girl against the most powerful Grim Reaper in the world!
He laughed crazily and pushed harder against her, but not actually using his strength, as if he was an amused adult who was just humoring a child. She furrowed her brows in concentration and stood her ground. For her, this was not a game. She was taking the fight seriously.
“Little girl,” Morningstar said in a tone that betrayed both humor and surprise. And somehow, his words traveled through the room, catching the Reapers’ attention.
Lorna yelled something I couldn’t quite make out, and the next thing I knew, a stream of blue energy shot right out of her chest and enveloped Yolanda’s scythe. With her power, she was helping Yoli keep Morningstar at bay. Valentine took a step back. Klaus noticed what was happening. He threw a blast of green energy into his doppelganger’s chest, and the next blast he threw at Yoli. And sustained it.
I used my scythe as a crutch to pull myself up. Francis had returned to his human form. A horrible wound ran across his lower back, the blood gurgling on the floor. A mage. I need a mage, I thought. In my mind, a mage could fix him. Headmaster Colin was powerful enough to fix anything, right? I scanned the room frantically and spotted him fighting Pazuzu and Caspian at the same time. He was barely holding up. Merrit was on the ground, scrambling to get back on his feet.
“Merrit!”
He looked at me, and I waved at him. “I need your help! Francis!” My voice was drowned in the maddening buzz of a swarm of locusts. He didn’t understand what I wanted. Instead, he saw Yolanda, and Klaus and Lorna feeding her toy-lame-excuse-of-a-weapon scythe with energy. From where he was on the floor, he lifted his hand and sent a wave of yellow energy to join the blue one and the green one. While I appreciated that they were helping and protecting Yoli, and that Morningstar was slowly taking another step back, and then another, I didn’t understand what they were doing. The amusement on my dear father’s face had long been replaced by a mix of anger and dread. Some surprise was still there, in his bloodshot eyes.
With the help of the three mages, Yoli advanced. Feet firmly planted on the ground, hands squeezing the handle of her energy-shrouded scythe so hard that her fingers turned white, she let out a cry and pushed with all her might. Morningstar stumbled backwards. For a minute, he didn’t understand what was happening.
“How is this possible? Who are you?”
But he knew who she was. My cousin, Yolanda Aleksiev. Eleven years old, dream jumper. Also, his nemesis. The weapon.
