39. Chapter Thirty-Nine
~Kalo~
Visenya stood in the centre of the trap, her glowing eyes moving slowly between us, unreadable as ever, but no longer entirely distant. Though she hadn’t responded, I had a feeling the idea of a new life appealed to her more than she was willing to admit.
“If you were made a reaper, then there must be a way to undo it,” I continued. “Can we bring in some more of our friends? Some of them know quite a lot about magic and bonds and the supernatural in general. They might be able to figure out to… unmake what you’ve become.”
It felt a little presumptuous to call Felix and Calista my friends, but only a little. They’d welcomed me into their circle warmly, as all of Leo’s pack had.
Visenya’s head tilted to the side. Her stillness was easing as she became more at ease around us. “I’m trapped here. You can do as you wish.”
“Just because you’re temporarily restrained doesn’t mean we don’t care about your feelings,” Evalina was quick to point out. “These are all good people. They want to help.”
It seemed she felt the same way about the Crimsontooth pack that I did.
Visenya’s lips twitched into not quite a smile, but closer to one than I had seen before. “You place a great deal of importance on feelings.”
“I do,” Evalina agreed without hesitation. “Everyone here does.”
After another short pause, Visenya gave a small, almost human shrug. “Very well.”
Leo didn’t wait any longer. His focus snapped inward for a second, his eyes glazing over as he reached out by mind-link.
It only took moments before the door opened and Vaughan, Calista, Felix and Darius filed carefully into the room, each of them keeping close to the wall. They must have been waiting just outside for some time.
Visenya watched them enter without moving. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I won’t reap any of you unless it is your time.”
Almost immediately, Darius took a step forward, but Vaughan’s hand shot out, catching him firmly by the arm and pulling him back.
“That’s not our primary concern,” he explained to Visenya as the Delta wolf glared at him. “Stepping into the circle could disturb the pattern and deactivate the trap.”
Calista’s brows lifted in clear surprise. “You’ve been paying attention.”
“I always pay attention to you,” he replied, his lips curling into a warm smile intended just for her, a quiet intimacy that spoke of a bond already settled, before his attention returned to the reaper. “So, what have we learned?”
I answered on behalf of those of us in the room, relaying the main revelations from our conversation.
“Basically, if we can free Visenya from her bond, Death might ‘forget’ about me and Leo. But in order to do that, we need to understand exactly how she’s bound.
Do any of you know anything about that?”
Calista shook her head almost immediately. “We know very little, unfortunately. Until now, we didn’t even know how reapers were created, let alone how their bond functions.”
Felix exhaled softly. “We’re in completely new territory here.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to figure out,” Calista added. “If it’s a bond, then it has rules. We might be able to learn more through experimentation…”
A low, warning growl cut her off, and everyone’s heads snapped to where Darius stood. “No one is experimenting on her.”
I couldn’t help smiling at the primal protectiveness in his tone, so similar to Leo’s reactions when anyone had suggested testing anything on me. That protectiveness, which had initially felt like a trap in its own way, now seemed more uplifting than suffocating.
When did that shift happen?
“We’re not suggesting anything harmful,” Calista clarified quickly, obviously understanding Darius’ reaction as well as all the other werewolves in the room did. “But if we don’t gather information, we’re guessing in the dark.”
Darius didn’t look convinced as his attention drifted back to Visenya. “Do we have to keep her in the trap? If we’re working together, why can’t we free her?”
Once again, Vaughan provided the answer. “The trap is what’s keeping her cut off from Death. Without it, he’ll be able to track her, and if she says we don’t want him to show up here, I believe her.”
“But if he shows up looking for her because he can’t get through to her, she’s a sitting duck,” Darius argued back.
Evalina hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe there’s a way to keep the communication dampened without restricting her to this place?”
“How?” Leo asked curiously.
Her lips pursed as she considered it. “What if we could make the trap mobile by incorporating the same elements into something wearable? That way, she could move freely but still be disconnected from Death.”
Felix’s eyes lit up. “That’s brilliant. And it would work, wouldn’t it?”
He turned to Calista for confirmation, and she nodded slowly.
“The pattern would need to remain intact, with the same materials, but theoretically, I don’t see why not.
It would trap her to the item itself rather than to the location.
To craft it from scratch using traditional methods would take a while, but… ”
“But I can use my metal-shaping magic,” Evalina finished for her. “If the iron is the anchor, I should be able to do it.”
Vaughan gave his permission with a nod. “I’m willing to give it a try, as long as we test it properly.”
That decision seemed to shift the entire room from speculation into action.
“Let me know when you’re ready to test it,” Calista said to Evalina, already turning towards the door. “In the meantime, I’ll dig through my contacts. If there’s any recorded lore on bonds with Death, someone out there might have come across it.”
Felix offered Evalina his hand. “I’ll help you make sure the essential elements of the trap are maintained in whatever you create.”
“What should we do?” Leo asked, gesturing between me and himself.
The others all exchanged glances, but it was Vaughan who answered. “There’s something that only the two of you can do, and that’s to decide what happens with your bond. If you don’t accept it before the full moon, it will vanish, so you need to decide if you’re going to let that happen.”
My gaze drifted to Leo, and I could feel the weight of everything we’d learned pressing in around us. There might be a way to keep either of us from dying, and there might not. One way or another, we had to decide what risks we were willing to take.
We had to make the choice that would alter both of our lives forever.
Once again, it came down to love or freedom, but at least this time, I would be going into it with my eyes wide open.