Imperial ((Imperial) Web of Hearts and Souls)

  I glanced over my shoulder to see him ever so graciously approaching me. His robe was dark, highlighting the glow of his flesh which was filling the elegant room that I spent most of my time within. If you didn’t intently focus your eyes on him, he could easily be seen as light itself.

  “Reaper,” I stated heavily with no emotion to be heard.

  “Child,” he said as he drifted to my side. After a moment, he spoke again. “You’re troubled.”

  Those two words had often launched us into discussions that would seem to last centuries. He was a gifted listener and often offered complex, yet simple answers. Complex because at first they made no sense. Simple because once you did understand them, you felt like a fool for not seeing them as what they were from the beginning.

  “I’d tell you that death was beckoning me, but I doubt that statement would make much sense whilst speaking to the likes of you.”

  That made him grin ever so wisely.

  “The Fall is in jeopardy. Apparently, Vade has no loyalty to you either.” I shifted my weight as I flexed every lean muscle in my body. “His line dared to cross tonight,” I offered, feeling ashamed by pure association.

  “Are you telling me that the mere brush with his essence has reunited your thoughts with his?”

  When energy was divinely connected, on a level that supposedly could not be broken, thoughts could be heard between rushes. For most Escorts, that only happened for the course of uniting, but for Sovereigns and those near the top of the line the effects lasted much longer, so long that the insight never had the chance to wear off before the next union was commenced between the two souls. The Reaper doubted my words. Doubted that Vade would cross him. Fool.

  “No. I’m telling you that Rasp was in the forest tonight.”

  The Reaper nodded once. “And you asked him to leave ever so politely.”

  I clenched my teeth and looked away. “If he returns...” I swallowed hard before my stare returned to the light of his. “Tell me. Did Vade ever seek me and you have not made me aware?”

  No answer, which might as well have been a no as far as I was concerned. “The next time Rasp or anyone from Vade’s line—or any line—passes through this forest, they will be fed into The Realm—slowly. Very slowly. But let me warn you, Reaper. You may want to look into finding yourself another army. There will come a point where I will destroy myself, which will in turn destroy Mazing.” I moved my stare forward to The Fall. “That is, unless you have a ‘get out of deader’ card in that robe of yours.”

  “You have a deep compassion for the souls on both sides of The Fall.”

  I nodded weakly as I glanced away. I had no reason to care for souls that I would never know. It was not my nature. My nature was to consume the emotions they were too weak to bear in their purest form. I should not care if they were harmed. I should only care for my survival. Maybe it was because I was the only sovereign that could clearly remember my human form, or maybe it was because I was the youngest or even the only female, but I did have compassion. I did seek equality. A lesson I forgot for a brief time. A lesson my time here had restored.

  Witnessing the procession of death at dusk each day warmed my being. I saw souls in their purest form. I saw them grasp their past lives. Not for material matters that were left behind, but for the souls they left behind. The souls they often ignored for material means whilst living. I saw the regret in their eyes. I saw souls crave another chance. Souls strive to become more within their next dance with life. They’d inspired me. They’d forced me into daydreaming about what I could have done differently with my past reign. How I could have had my line lead by example. That I should have done that the moment my Creator was challenged. I should have done that before he vanished, never to be seen again.

  “Is this my punishment?” I asked the Reaper. “I asked for no stay, yet I am here. And now I shall fall further into the vacuum of death. Has my Creator charged you with my watch?”

  His gaze moved to The Fall. “You, of all souls, by now should know the procession of death.”

  “Are you telling me that I am not forgotten?”

  He only offered a subtle smile.

  If I had asked for a stay and someone remembered me in my past life, that would explain why I was still here, in this form. I could only assume that it was Vade—that his energy was powerful enough that it would override any stay I could have asked for. Vade had imprisoned me in his memories.

  “Fantastic. So, since my ex is an immortal, I’m confined. I swear that boy should have come with a warning label.”

  That internal argument began again, part of me cheering that I was still in Vade’s memories, the other furious that he’d shelved me. I wondered if in his all-knowing mind Vade realized it would come to this; a quarrel between two adoreds that would kill millions, maybe billions, if his line had grown.

  “The only prison a soul can reside in is the one it creates itself,” the Reaper eloquently responded.

  “I did not create this Veil. And you know I have tried more than once to leave here. We cannot move past the forest. A wall of energy barricades us within your immediate reign, yet any other soul that you grant a stay is free to move through all of the Veil, to watch over their adored.”

  He let silence take over the night, as he often did. You would never find a subtle argument with the Reaper. I never even heard him break the level tone he always uses.

  “Pray tell. What adored would you seek out?” he finally said.

  Well, if that wasn’t a stake through the soul, I didn’t know what one was. My line forgot me—that was my last act as a living sovereign. My mother—never. I still had rage for that woman. Vade—not. He did nothing to appease after our last fight. My Creator had vanished long ago. The Reaper was right. Everything I had was right here. Mazing and the Reaper himself.

  “I seek change, Reaper. Each of our kingdoms should be free to pass through The Fall without question. The greed of my fellow sovereigns has not only stolen that right from my kind, but from all of humanity. There are lessons that are not only escaping us, but breeding ignorance.”

  Mazing manifested at my side as the aroma of mint wafted through the air. Before I could turn or call forth a battle plan, the Reaper reached for my arm, keeping me from vanishing from his sight.

  “Do you seek a momentary reprieve from my watch?” The Reaper stated, as if he had not sensed Vade’s line approaching once again.

  I glanced to Mazing’s wide, waiting gaze, then to him.

  “Is that offer on the table?”

  He smiled humbly. “You are granted the first and only reprieve that I have ever given to your kind.”

  I swallowed nervously, knowing there was a lesson or test here, one of the two. The time that I needed to guard this Fall in earnest was now. In the past, the Escorts I stopped would have ultimately failed. The Fall itself would have disbursed them, simply because their energy was not as powerful as Vade’s line.

  The Reaper was giving me a chance to run like a coward or stay and meet my ultimate demise. Either way, I was doomed. If I ran, I would still find an end, but it would have been like my first death, the result of others’ actions—an effect of their ignorance. If I stayed, I would have a front row seat to the end of time and die fighting. I would be the cause that failed.

  “I decline.”

  Mazing let out a deep breath, obviously seeing this the same way I had. The Reaper only smiled vaguely.

  “I shall rephrase. I’m sending you away from my watch for a brief time.”

  I could not fathom why he would do such a thing. Was he trying to end Vade and his line singlehandedly? The thought enraged me for some forgotten reason.

  The aroma of mint was growing stronger, moving closer. Close enough to strike. “Is it my Creator that wishes this, or Vade himself?”

  The Reaper turned to face Mazing and me. “My child, by some measure the answer is one and the same.”

  He lost me there. “How long? How long is
our reprieve?” He had to know that I was not leaving here without Mazing.

  “Your time is marked by the words you speak.”

  “Meaning?”

  He looked down, then to the threshold of my doorway. There, Rasp stood. There was no way he should be standing there. The power I used to send him away should have harshly landed him dimensions away from here, and weak as hell. That is, unless the Reaper had protected him.

  “I have been assured that my most cherished confidant will be protected. In exchange, I have also assured Vade that no harm would come from you.” With that, the Reaper touched my arm, sending a warm, tingling sensation through my soul. I knew that tingle was meant to take my will to bring harm to anyone in Vade’s line away, including Vade himself, but not even the Reaper could subdue a scorned woman.

  “You can’t be serious!” I seethed as Mazing held my arms back. She knew striking the Reaper was what my reflexes were aimed to do, that the act would have had horrible consequences. “You are going to send me away with his line, the line that basically has no care or compassion for me—and you took any power for me to defend myself away? What have I done to deserve this! How have I forsaken you in this manner?”

  “You have honored me,” the Reaper responded, “and for that I granted this desire.”

  “A desire of Vade’s, apparently. Boys club. Dead or alive. It’s a boys club.”

  His smile was subtle. “No man is whole without his adored. Therefore, the club you have manifested in your thoughts does not exist.”

  “Actions speak louder than words,” I bit out, throwing an evil glance at Rasp.

  “I bid you safe passage.” And with that, the Reaper vanished.

  I was now alone with my First, Mazing, and Vade’s First, Rasp. If I let this scorn in my soul rise and strike Rasp, I would not only have forsaken the safe haven the Reaper had given me for countless moons, but I would strike Vade. Creator help me, I still lacked the strength to do that, but I would be damned if anyone beyond me knew of such a flaw.

  Slowly, I sauntered toward Rasp. Before I could reach him, he bowed to one knee. He was so tall and so broad that he was only just below my line of sight.

  “I shall not bid you to rise unless you speak the truth to me,” I stated with the regal power I was meant to have.

  “I am bound to do no less,” Rasp said with the deep whisper he was known to have.

  “So if you were not bound, lies would come from you,” I pushed with an anger he had never deserved from me.

  His ice blue eyes looked at me from beneath his brow. “I would never wish to not be bound to a grace as beautiful as thee.”

  Oh, he knew how to melt my heart. Just how to oppose my wrath. “Speak the truth you are bound to. Has Vade’s line merged with Xavier’s?”

  “Has not,” Rasp said with a glacial tone, clearly trying to suppress the anger that was bred into him, “nor will ever, so say Vade himself.”

  “Why was your scent lingering with one of Xavier’s?”

  A sinful smile echoed on the corners of his perfectly shaped lips. “I struck him. But then I understood where he was going. I chose to let him live, knowing that he would lead me to you.” Seriousness returned to his image. “Time is of the essence.”

  “Do you honestly believe that your king could not have found me in an instant if he put one ounce of effort forward?”

  An ache waved across his stare. “It was my charge to retrieve you.”

  I see. It wasn’t worth Vade’s time to travel to the Reaper’s door. Nice. Good to know. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Home.”

  My gut clenched. The only home beyond the shack my mother raised me in, and the endless light the Creator redeemed me in, was Vade’s mansion which rested at the highest level of The Realm.

  “Did you at least ensure that all of his recent adoreds had vacated the premises?” I uttered with disdain.

  “Sovereign, there were none for me or my sire to ask to leave,” Rasp responded humbly.

  “Have there been in the past?” I pushed.

  Mazing clenched my arm, and in a whisper she spoke, “Do not ask questions that you do not want the answer to. I learned that the hard way, my dear friend and queen.”

  Wrath was my emotion, one that I could sense in an instant. Wrath was seething off Rasp as his icy eyes fell to the marble floor. It was hard to understand if that rage was for the fact that Mazing had been forsaken by a false adored or if it was because that act took us both away…then again, it could have been for the fact that Mazing had basically told me that more than likely Vade had been with others in my absence.

  Mazing had every right to assume the worst of all men. I could bear witness to that.

  “Rise.”

  Rasp did so within the blink of an eye.

  “Why now?” I asked, peering up at him.

  “It is not my place to speak of such things.”

  “Well, you better get permission. You can take me to the mansion if you will, but I do not wish to speak to the likes of Vade.”

  I saw his jaw ripple as obvious emotion coursed through him.

  “Speak freely, Rasp. I cannot harm you, obviously.”

  His eyes bore into mine. “Sovereign, I have missed you dearly. I humbly ask that you not forsake my sire for the acts of less worthy kings.”

  “I fault him not for my death. I fault him for his silence.”

  He bowed graciously. “Then there is no fault to be had.”

  That made no sense to me. None at all. What the hell had they been doing on the other side?

  He extended his arm, telling me to lead the way.

  I reached my hand for Mazing to ensure she was with me, and then we both vanished and reappeared at the edge of the forest, the beginning of the rest of the Veil.

  The Veil always had a mass of souls within its field, but souls were temporal. That was not what I saw before me now. The majority of the souls around us now were aged. Chained. They were souls that I knew I had not seen in the procession, recently or ever before. This was torture. Something that should never be done. When a soul was trapped within this place, the life it was meant to live in its future went unlived. That set the course for destruction. The divine plan was forsaken.

  I’d heard of other sovereigns threatening to do such a thing before my death, trap souls in order to have a constant source of energy. All but two of us agreed with their plot. Something told me they had gotten their way. They had created a feeding ground. Fools. This act would end all energy within time.

  I wanted to turn back and tell the Reaper that the souls under his watch were imprisoned, that his Veil was in unrest, but something told me he might very well already know of such things. That it very well could be the reason, at least in part, that I was freed.

  The barrier between the living and the dead was so thin that I could see countless realities set in various time before me. I could see the energy seeping into the Veil. Death seeping into reality. Two worlds that were not meant to cross for any length of time.

  Each of the souls stopped their haunts, their conversations, and let their stares rain down on Mazing and me. A moment later, they all bowed.

  The girl that I still was deep inside wanted to turn and ask Rasp who had forsaken them, but the sovereign I was bred to be held her head high as I passed them by.

  Not long after that point, the gates to The Realm were before me. Their pure gold entrance opened wide, inviting me home.

  The Realm on its purest level is a shared dream world. A dream that can be as wicked or as blissful as any soul would wish. In the beginning, it was the place that my kind delivered their sacred charge. In this place, souls of the universe would dream, and in their dreams their subconscious would release the emotions they could not bear in reality. It was a balanced meeting ground. Human souls would never even know we existed or had brought them much-needed relief, and our charge would be fulfilled, in turn nourishing our beings.

  Once the wa
r began, that all changed. This place became the breeding and grooming ground for each line of Escorts. Those that chose to fan the flames of emotions in reality and bring back such emotions to the rest of us were the ones that had faced every past deed in their existence. They were the bravest in my sight. I’d lived in the real world, and it was no easy feat.

  Others, when tested, hid from their deeds and their blindly chosen heritage. They became a part of The Realm, the energy that created the scenes that the living needed when they dared to share a dream, something that should be done but was now more dangerous than ever.

  The Realm had changed, too. I could sense the mark of each of the lines in the air. I could feel battles that had recently occurred. Battles that should not have occurred. I sensed living souls within this spectrum. If my senses were on point, the playful war I left behind had now become ominously deadly.

  Were humans aware and now opposing us? Were we now at war with the one race we were created to provide reprieve?

  No one was in sight. I could feel them, though, meaning they were either cowards or that Rasp had cloaked us. Something only a sovereign or the first in line was capable of doing.

  Massive moving stones ascended before me. It was the stairway that would lead me to the home that at one time I so mournfully dreamed to see once again.

  Mazing shared one with me whilst Rasp took the one behind us.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Mazing said in a low tone to me as we began to ascend into the aged orange sky.

  “I couldn’t agree more. Did you sense the recent wars? Humans?”

  “Worse. I sensed the one Colton had forsaken me for.”

  Not good.

  Chapter Four

  The First in every line is the fiercest soul within the line. Lore stated that they are created that way to be guardians of the sovereign. Not only are they deadly, but they are also the most beautiful. Only their sovereign surpasses their exquisiteness. In my case, I would never consider my name to be linked with beauty. I’ve been told my perception is faulty in that regard.