Epilogue
Returning to the Realm of Illusions didn’t exactly give Jackie a warm and welcoming feeling, but it was necessary for them to be there to wake the reapers.
At least, they thought they had figured out how to do that.
Through the knowledge and memories taken from Merlin and the Goddess of Illusions, Jackie and Micah had figured out that a group of gods had used a nasty curse to put the reapers to sleep. That had only been the first part of the spell, though. Only with the reapers incapacitated had the group of gods that had performed the curse stood a chance at killing them, but they hadn’t gotten a chance.
Merlin and a few other reapers had stopped them before they could finish it.
The curse had been performed using a blood sacrifice from a member of each of the races. To undo it, they had figured a sacrifice from members of each of the races could also counter it. Or they hoped it would.
While Micah and Jackie didn’t know much about blood sacrifice rituals, Lucifer, Keo, and some of the other older gods had done some research on the best way to counter that type of spell. They had come up with their own ritual that they believed would reverse what had been done to the reapers.
Now, it was time to try to see if they were right.
“Are we sure about this?” Ramsey Tyr asked. “I mean, I’m game to bleed on some stones to wake the reapers, but we’re not going to have to kill anyone, are we?”
It had taken a few trips to the Realm of Illusions for them to figure out that Kami was now in control of the realm. She wasn’t particularly pleased about owning the damn thing. Especially considering that she had inherited the place from her evil birth mother.
While the Realm of Illusions was no longer hidden, it wasn’t exactly easy to find. Because of that, she had no problem bringing people to the realm to help wake the reapers from their magical slumber.
“No killing. Just a little blood,” Micah said.
“I don’t mind doing a little killing if it’s required,” Lucifer announced with a grin.
“We know,” Braxton muttered. “We’ll keep that offer on reserve, Dad.”
“Anything for a good cause.”
Jackie had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling at their antics. Their levity helped calm her nerves. A lot of people had volunteered to help with this mission, but they had ultimately chosen the most powerful individuals to complete the task of breaking the curse.
Both Lucifer and Braxton were there representing the Hell Realm since the two of them couldn’t stop fighting about who should get to do it, while Raiden, Apex Alpha Dragon Shifter, had come to represent the Shifter Realm. Keo, the Original God of Fate, was representing the Celestial Realm, and Gildor, the consort to the Queen of the Fairies, had come to represent the Fairy Realm.
That left the Human Realm and the Fae Realm.
Jackie thought that she could still represent the Fae Realm even though her magic was mixed, but Ramsey Tyr had volunteered in her stead. Micah had been planning to represent the Human Realm since he had metal mage magic, but they had been surprised when Jillian Swift had offered to join them.
Since she hadn’t even been on the list of people they had informed about the ritual, her offer had seemingly come out of the blue. Since she hadn’t even had her awakening yet, she seemed like an odd choice, but after the soothsayer had told them she’d had a dream about the ritual, they had agreed.
While the group set up the ritual in the crystal cavern where the reapers were sleeping, Jackie walked over to her sister and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.
“Are you nervous?”
“Me?” Kami scoffed. “Why? I’m just the tour guide.”
“We wouldn’t be able to get here without you, so your contribution to the cause is vital,” Micah pointed out.
“Yeah, well. It’s the least I can do considering my evil egg donor was part of the whole curse thing.”
“But that’s not your fault,” Jackie insisted.
Even though Kami laughed it off, Jackie could tell that her sister was still struggling with all of the shit the Goddess of Illusions had done. Jackie understood since she felt the same. Their entire family was going to need a lot of time to recover from what had been done to them.
“I’ve never seen a ritual like this before,” Jilli said after she walked over to join them. “It’s kind of exciting and really fucking scary. Is there a chant I need to learn or something?”
“I think you just have to follow everyone else’s lead. They’ll tell you what you need to do. If you are too nervous, or you don’t want to do it, we can always try it with Micah first,” Jackie offered.
Jilli waved her hand in the air. “Nah, I saw myself in the dream standing in the circle, so I think it has to be me. Speaking of dreams…” She turned toward Kami. “I had one about you last night.”
Kami blinked in surprise. “Me? What was it about?”
“It was a really quick flash, so I didn’t catch much of it. But…I think your necklace was glowing.”
“Jilli! Get over here,” Ramsey demanded from across the chamber. “We’re about to start.”
“Coming!”
As Jilli jogged away, Jackie and Kami stared at one another in confusion. Then, they both glanced down at the necklace Kami wore. The heart charm was something she had won at the Winter Festival. Right now, the center of the crystal heart was pulsing with a faint blue light from the magic she had activated it with, but it was said that the charm would glow brighter when or if she was ever near her mate.
Kami’s eyes widened in horror. “No fucking way! Does that mean I’m going to meet my mate soon?”
Jackie shook her head. “Not necessarily. Remember, Jilli said some of her dream predictions take years to come true.”
“Right.” Kami blew out a relieved breath. “Maybe I should take it off. Right now, it almost feels like I’m tempting fate by wearing the damn thing.”
Chuckling, Jackie shook her head. “Come on. I think they’re ready. Let’s go watch the ritual.”
As they got closer to the group that was standing in a circle close to the center of the chamber, Jackie noticed a particularly gorgeous redhead lying on one of the altars. All of the reapers were quite stunning, but the redhead stood out because of her vivid red hair.
“Wow, who is she?”
“She used to be known as the Goddess of Pain,” Micah informed her. “Although the ancient reapers didn’t have titles, some of them had well-known nicknames. She was one of them since she was like Lucifer on crack and everyone knew of her.”
“I heard that,” Lucifer growled.
“What? It’s true,” Micah said with a laugh. “One of Merlin’s memories was of that goddess torturing an entire battlefield of warriors. Both sides.”
Jackie cringed. “And we are waking her up? Are we sure this is a good idea?”
Micah stroked a hand down her hair. “Both sides deserved the lesson since they were fighting over something stupid and killing a lot of citizens in the process.”
“Oh, well then. I guess that makes it better.” She glanced over at another reaper. This time it was an impressive male who looked quite fierce even in sleep. “How about him?”
“Impressive?” Micah growled playfully.
“Not as impressive as you.”
Grinning, he pulled her closer. “Actually, that guy is impressive, so I can’t really be that mad. That’s Zander Cosmos, an original reaper and one of Merlin’s closest friends. He was once known as the God of War.”
“Oh,” Jackie breathed out. “Maybe we shouldn’t stand here. When they wake up, we should give them all a lot of space in case they’re a little cranky.”
Micah scoffed. “Cranky? They were forced into magical sleep for centuries. If it were me, I’d be fucking pissed.”
“Yeah, we should totally move out of the way,” Kami said, grabbing hold of Jackie’s arm to pull her away from all of the sleeping reapers.
Braxton walked over to join them as the group prepared to begin the ritual. “My dad won.”
“Of course, he did,” Micah said blandly. “Did you really think you were going to out-argue him?”
“It will happen. One day, it will happen.”
Micah snorted out a laugh. “Keep dreaming.”
They fell silent as the ritual began and Keo began to speak the words they had put together for a counter-spell. After a round, the others joined in repeating the words. Using the daggers they had brought with them, each member sliced their hands, spilling blood in the circle to undo the curse.
At first, nothing seemed to be happening.
Then, Jackie shivered as the atmosphere in the cavern changed. The air inside the cavern grew heavy, making it harder to breathe and the colorful crystals began to pulse with light. They had no warning as a blast of power shot out of the ritual circle, knocking the rest of them off their feet. Those streams of power seemed to flow into each of the reapers, disappearing into their bodies.
“Are you okay?”
Jackie smiled at Micah and nodded. “I’m fine.” She turned to glance over at her sister to make sure she was okay and blinked in shock. “Kami, your necklace! It’s glowing!”
Kami shook her head to clear it, then glanced down. The heart charm she was wearing was now glowing a brilliant blue, so bright it was almost blinding. She let out a startled squeak as she was hauled up off the ground by one of the largest males Jackie had ever seen. It took a second to recognize him, and her own eyes widened in horror as the reaper known as the God of War wrapped his arm around her sister’s waist.
“Mine,” he growled.
Then, he and Kami disappeared from the cavern.
“No…” Jackie whispered. Scrambling to her feet, she screamed, “No! Where did they go?”
“I don’t know,” Micah said, wrapping his own arm around her. “But we’ll find her. I promise we’ll find her.”
“Well, the good news is the spell worked and the reapers are awake,” Braxton announced. “The bad news is, I think your sister just met her mate.”
The End