The bright light faded, revealing a lavish office, its white decor reflecting the council’s obsession with innocence and purity.

Unsure if Cullen was trustworthy, considering he had been seconds from murdering my best friend’s little sister, my eyes darted around the room in search of objects to use as potential weapons, including a collection of vintage guitars, a bookcase stuffed with ancient tomes, dozens of strange instruments, and a silver globe depicting much more than seven continents. Thousands of portraits decorated a wall, including a portrait of Cullen himself.

“Past Grandmasters,” he said, retrieving two glasses and a bottle of scotch from a cabinet before slumping into his cushy chair. “They’re taken the moment you’re given the title. Mine happened to be mere hours after my father’s death. You wouldn’t know it by that smile.”

He poured scotch into both glasses and pushed one towards me. My hardened gaze and crossed arms were enough of a hint that I was in no mood for a drink.

“More for me, then,” he mumbled, with a sigh.

“Is this really the time to be drinking?” I asked, watching the scotch reach the rim of his glass.

“I don’t usually partake but in cases like these, I make an exception.” He took a long, deep swig. “When I first started as Grandmaster, I told myself that I would do better than my predecessors, never make their same mistakes...and yet I did when it comes to you. I haven’t been completely honest.”

Cullen confessed that at first, he did not believe me about the hupias. After discussing the matter with the council, they came to the agreement that I was not at fault for taking the dagger but I was imagining the creatures. They chose to blame Vivienne for what I had endured, reasoning that her manipulations were a way to get back in my good graces.

When he visited my home, he was prepared to find conspiracy theories scribbled on a piece of paper or blurry photos of what appeared to be a dangerous monster, evidence that could be easily discredited with logic.

He lowered his nearly empty glass. “I wanted to believe that under my reign, there was peace but that blissful ignorance is what’s caused all this. I knew it was a possibility and I turned a blind eye to not just you, but to Damon as well, to maintain the illusion.”

Once again avoiding my gaze, he revealed that he had paid Damon a visit, shortly after becoming the Grandmaster. He expected to meet another Vivienne, a remorseless soul, completely devoid of emotion, but instead, he met a teary-eyed, ten year old boy, begging for his family and covering his ears to quiet the voices in his head, something the doctors considered a sign of madness.

“I’ve always known your brother was innocent, Tessa...that someone else was pulling the strings,“ he explained, dolefully. “That day we met, I could’ve released him but my own cowardice left him institutionalized for years.”

Hearing his confession, my heart was torn. Half of me was crestfallen at the idea of my once hero being no better than the scum who tortured my brother on a daily basis, partially thanks to him. He knew that Damon did not belong in Erinyes yet kept him trapped like a rat in a cage, away from his family. The other half of me wanted to clobber him with one of his fancy guitars.

Cullen stared at me as if he could feel my anger. He remained silent, waiting for me to say or do something.

“I thought it was best for him to remain there.”

Years of pent-up anger bubbled to the surface.

“Best?” I asked, incredulously. “How was it best for him to be locked in a cell for years? To be kept away from his family? Do you know how much it killed my parents to put him in there? My mother crying every night, holding his teddy bear, and my dad barely keeping it together but having to because someone needed to be brave, to make sure the rest of us didn’t fall apart? How much they tried to prove that he wasn’t a monster, how much they hated keeping me away from him because they were afraid he would go for a round two?”

“Tessa—”

“My parents had to erase every trace of him!” I shouted, my eyes blazing. “He had to be cut out of pictures! His stuff was put in boxes that we keep in a storage unit miles away from the house! And you know why? Because it’s easier to do that than tell Ryan the truth! But you don’t care about that, right?! You don’t care that my family’s had a hole in it…or how much I try not to slip in front of him!”

I swallowed hard, my hands trembling. It angered me more that Cullen continued to sit silently behind his desk, not even attempting to defend himself.

“All that matters is your stupid reputation!” I continued, enraged. “Well guess what?! Your reign of peace is a lie! It’s built on the people whose lives have been destroyed because of you!”

“I never claimed to be perfect,” he said, his poor attempt at an apology. “I make mistakes, like anyone else, but my mistakes tend to have greater consequences. When I met your brother, I recognized the signs immediately. I had seen them countless times before in the records room, where we store our history. There are bookshelves that seem to extend to the heavens with trial transcripts and orbs containing memories from witnesses, the accused, council members…”

“Great,” I said, sourly. “Do you have one of those orbs? You can add a memory of me calling you an arrogant prick.”

Cullen seemed to be reminiscing about his childhood. “I would spend hours in that room as a boy. It allowed me to learn about all sorts of events, the good and the bad. There’s a reason this reaper seems so much more dangerous, able to slip out of our grasp so easily, have such a sway over the hellhounds and hupias, do things that other reapers think are impossible...they’re one of the original reapers.”

My mother told me this story many nights as a child. At the beginning of humanity, the gods of the Underworld worked together to guide recently departed souls to their rightful place. They were meant to make the transition from life to death easier, whether that was to an afterlife or remaining as a ghost. As violence and death grew in the world, the gods could not shoulder the burden alone and Hades proposed the creation of reapers, bestowing abilities to a chosen few in the mortal world.

Cullen beckoned me over to the bookcase. As he pulled out a thin red book on the shelf, the bookcase slid to the side, uncovering a passageway. Elaborate paintings adorned the walls, depicting reaper history. I hesitated to follow him, until my curiosity got the better of me.

He indicated a painting to the right of a pair of twins, ethereally beautiful young women with flowing ebony locks, bronze skin, and doe-shaped brown eyes. Though they were physically identical, their demeanors were as opposite as night and day. The woman on the right had an angelic aura to her while the woman on the left looked dour and disgruntled, a fierce intensity behind her eyes. The more I gazed at the painting, I could not shake the feeling that the kind-hearted twin looked strangely familiar.

The twins were the goddesses Atabey and Guabancex, the manifestations of creation and chaos in Taino mythology. There were multiple versions of their story written in books but the truth was Guabancex was born out of the darkness within Atabey. A falling out between the ‘sisters’ led to her seeking refuge in Coaybay, the Taino Underworld, with the god Maboyas, where she worked as his partner in guiding dead souls.

“This is Guabancex’s doing.” Cullen pointed to the woman on the left. “What happened with Damon isn’t a rare occurrence. It’s her trademark, inducing madness and chaos. I listened to testimony from her victims over and over, how her voice in their head drove them insane...to do terrible things. She enjoyed terrorizing children the most, corrupting their innocence. Her first victims were Atabey’s sons.”

“But why would she want to hurt any of us?” I asked, puzzled. “We’re like her.”

“That’s exactly why, Tessa,” he said, continuing to stare at the painting. “You see, Guabancex was born out of tragedy. She—”

“I know the story. Atabey wanted to get rid of her darkness and it manifested into her and after they fought, she hid out in the Underworld and fell in love with Maboyas. What does that have to do with us?”

Guabancex’s story, according to Cullen, did not have a true love ending. Though she did fall for Maboyas, who kept her destruction to a minimum to avoid Atabey’s wrath, she became resentful of his newly formed plans with the gods of the Underworld. She despised humanity and did not think humans were worthy of such power. Already competing with her beloved sister and now these lesser beings, her lover’s straying attention infuriated her.

Cullen continued down the passageway, giving me a brief history lesson. He explained that over time, as the legacy of the reaper expanded across cultures, Guabancex began to act out, like a rebellious teenager, though most would settle for wearing all black or sneaking out in the middle of the night. It started small, such as interfering with a soul’s transition to becoming a ghost, leaving them split in half and in agonizing pain, and putting the blame on the reaper.

When that became unsatisfying, she turned the rebellion dial up to eleven and murdered her fellow reapers. She managed to evade detection for centuries, always making the death look like a tragic accident, until one day, the truth was discovered by a young reaper, a girl who stopped Guabancex in the midst of killing a council member.

Maboyas, horrified by the news, hoped that she could change her ways but she refused, unless he took back his gifts from the reapers. She accused him of caring more about the ‘pathetic mortals’ than her, seeing them as the children that she could not bear for him.

The explosive argument between them led to her banishment from the Underworld, with the help of Atabey. Stripped of her abilities and no longer revered as a goddess, she was left to walk the Earth, as a mortal.

“So we’re dealing with a psycho ex-goddess,” I said, thinking it was simultaneously insane yet reasonable. “Why does she want to hurt my family?”

Cullen revealed that the reaper who exposed her treachery was my own grandmother, when she was around my age. Guabancex planned an attack against my great-grandfather, on his way to a council meeting that would decide the next Grandmaster. He was the popular choice but against everything she stood for, making him an enemy.

While she was hiding her activities in the shadows, she was amassing her own following of reapers, those who sought more power and would do her bidding. She believed that if my great-grandfather was chosen, it would impede her work. I always wondered why my grandmother was hesitant to speak about her family and now it made sense.

“Sometimes, we wish to bury the past,” said Cullen, seeing the shock on my face. “I imagine it’s difficult for her. There were several trials, meetings about what to do about the situation, and seeing as she was a key witness, she was there for all of it. It was a lot for a sixteen year old girl to handle, the pressure of testifying against a deity. She received high praise from the council and the gods as well but it also put an enormous target on her back.

A dark thought crept up in the back of my mind. “D—did she—the attack on my grandmother—”

Cullen nodded gravely. “Vengeance for ruining her plans. Only the highest ranking members of the council knew the truth. My father kept it quiet, at her request. The same with your grandfather’s death, which was deemed natural causes. Your mother was much like you at your age. If she knew the truth, she would’ve gone after Guabancex herself.”

“That’s what she meant back at the school,” I replied, thinking about my conversation with Guabancex. “That’s why she went after me and Damon…because of what our grandmother did.”

“That’s not the only reason.”

He pressed his finger against the wall, moving it in a rectangular shape. A thin golden line followed his finger across the smooth stone and as he reached the starting point, a door appeared. The same phrase was written all over the polished wood, in different languages. I did not have time to try deciphering a single word before Cullen opened the door.

I stepped into what could only be described as a bizarre museum exhibit. Instead of paintings and sculptures, the room was filled with various objects, mainly weapons. In front of each object was a placard describing its origins. Cullen stood by the door as I explored the massive room, feeling like a kid in a candy store.

“Ouch!” I cried.

I retracted my hand from a sword claiming to be Excalibur. The second I touched the blade, it burned my skin. It happened with each item I attempted to touch and after the tenth time, I figured it was safer to observe the displays from a distance.

“Do you see the pattern yet?” he inquired, with a small smile.

He picked up a spiked whip, turning it in his hands. I recognized it as the same one he used to destroy sluagh in the gym.

“Only the Grandmaster can use them,” I guessed.

He shook his head. “Not quite. Does this one look familiar?”

I followed him over to a collection of swords. In the center was the wooden saber that had appeared in the school kitchen. He placed his index finger on the hilt but then winced, shaking out his hand.

“The same thing happened to her,” I said, intrigued. ”It was lodged in her cheek and when she touched it, she got burned…but I didn’t. It was wei—what the hell are you doing?”

Cullen grabbed the saber from its stand, holding his breath, and tossed it towards me. Out of instinct, more like panic, I caught it, expecting to burst into flames or worse, but nothing happened, just like at the dance.

He held up the whip with his uninjured hand. “This belonged to Ogmios, a Celtic deity. He once did as we do, ferrying souls to the afterlife. These objects are artifacts of the gods, Tessa. Only their descendants, those they deem worthy, can wield their weapons. That sword in your hand belonged to your ancestor. A fitting middle name your parents gave you.”

I twirled the saber in my hands, a strange sensation flowing through my fingertips. It made me feel ten times stronger.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, partly afraid of the answer.

“Because her plans didn’t become clear until tonight. She wants us eradicated, yes, but she also wants to punish someone else, the man whose approval she sought for centuries,” he said, looking grim. ”She wants to sever the divide between worlds, to gain dominion over those she sees as inferior and prove Maboyas wrong. She wants to prove that these mortals he cares for, gifted with such power, do not deserve it. What better way than to show how weak they are, when they are subjugated to her rule.”

Cullen explained that the barrier between the worlds was created by the gods. It was powerful magic, too much for a single god to break if they turned on their brethren and wanted to incite chaos.

“Why do you think we don’t allow twin reapers? That we force parents to go through the loss of one of their own?” he suggested. ”Because together, their power is too great to control. The power of twin reapers with the blood of the gods running through their veins? That is why Guabancex is interested in you and Damon and that is why I kept you apart.”

My heart beating as fast as a hummingbird’s, I glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

9:45 PM.

Each tick sounded louder than the last. Everything I thought I knew was turned upside down. Last summer, I had been worried about senior year and college applications and now, my life was in danger from a goddess with a personal vendetta against my family.

“S—so if she gets us, she could make us tear down the barrier,” I reasoned, my mind moving at a mile a minute.

My fingers curled around the hilt of the saber, my knuckles turning white. At that moment, the answer to the problem seemed clear as day.

“Yes,” said Cullen, solemnly. “But that is not going to happen. We are going to find a way to stop her. We will work tirelessly, night and day, until—Tessa, stop!”

The whip wrapped around the hilt, the blade inches from my own heart. With one tug, the saber was sent flying across the room. He looked at me as if a facehugger burst from my chest.

“Have you lost your mind?!” he shouted.

“How else are we supposed to stop her, Cedric?! She’s a god! You say she lost her abilities but somehow, she still has them but you don’t know how, right?” I asked, realizing that he was clueless. ”What’s your plan? How much time are you going to waste looking for the solution when there is one right in front of you? If taking me out prevents her from unleashing hell on Earth, I’m willing to make that sacrifice to stop anyone else from dying!”

“Tessa—”

“Look at what happened tonight!” I said, tears in my eyes. “You don’t even know what she looks like right now so what’s your next move? You can stop her plans here and now. Please just do it.”

“Completely out of the question,” he insisted. “You’ve barely begun your life. I will never consider that an option, for you or your brother.”

With a snap of his fingers, the whip and saber returned to their stands. He avoided my gaze once more.

“I’ll take you home,” he offered, steering me towards the door. “We have much to discuss with your parents.”

I was barely through the front door when I was pulled into a bone-crushing embrace. My mother kissed every inch of my face, speaking at a frantic pace before burying my head into her shoulder.

“Oh sweetheart, we were so worried.” She spotted Cullen on the porch. “Alistair's already here. Come in, come in. Would you like some tea?”

“That would be lovely, Celia,” he said, appreciatively. ”Thank you.”

Walking into the living room, I stumbled onto the strangest sight. Damon was sitting on the couch, staring at the dark blue carpet as my father bandaged his wrist. He tensed at the slightest touch until my father’s hushed whispers (“It’s okay. You’re safe.”) relaxed him.

My grandmother was sitting on the other side of him, rubbing a spot of dirt from his cheek while Purrsephone rested in her lap. Elena, Belmont, Vivienne, and Parker awkwardly stood by the window, under the harsh gaze of Cowen.

“Always one step ahead,” said Cullen, with a grin. “Thank you for bringing them, Alistair. Any news from Li?”

His eyes flickered over to a hopeful Elena. “She sent a message through the fire. They’re working on removing the creature from the girl. It’s not an easy process.”

“But one that Abby will undoubtedly survive and then perhaps we can find a way to rescue the other lost souls and put an end to this madness,” he replied, his comforting words giving Elena some hope.

The tiniest scoff escaped my lips. My father frowned, sensing that something was wrong. He shifted on the couch, making room for me, but I stayed by the doorway, my head down.

“The kids told us the gist of what happened,” my mother said, her eyes passing over me as she handed Cullen a cup of tea. “But I assume there’s more to it than Claire Hilton suddenly losing her mind and attempting to kill her classmates.”

“Much more.” He settled himself in the armchair next to my grandmother. “I’m afraid what we feared is true, Sofia.”

The next half hour played out exactly as I imagined though my grandmother’s version of events contained immensely more violent details. My mother was seconds from a heart attack, her hand clasped over her mouth as my grandmother revealed the truth behind her blindness. Damon had his eyes shut tightly the entire time, not wanting to relive Guabancex's taunting voice in his head and also likely resisting the urge to punch Cullen for leaving him in Erinyes.

My father went into overprotective mode, planning to seal the house like a fortress and never let anyone leave the house again. The others were simply dumbfounded by the idea of a goddess being the culprit, not some ordinary reaper. Parker, the first to break the uncomfortable silence, questioned how she regained her abilities.

“She’s siphoning it,” said Vivienne, as if the answer was obvious. “I read about it in a book Carmen gave me. It’s a potion that was banned centuries ago and it’s not easy to brew unless you know what you’re doing. The reaper drinks it and then by simply touching a part of their body, she can take their power.”

“We would notice if reapers suddenly lost their abilities,” argued Cowen.

“Would you? Do you go door to door, asking every reaper in the world how they’re doing?” The sarcasm dripped from her every word. “I didn’t realize you were so hands-on.”

“It is a possibility.”

He looked at Cullen, stunned. The last thing he expected was the Grandmaster agreeing with a former prisoner.

“For all we know,” continued Cullen. “She has plenty of reapers willing to give up their gifts for her cause. Who knows what she could promise them?”

“Do you have a plan?” my father, who had not lifted his hand from Damon’s, asked. “A way to imprison her or something more permanent?”

“It’ll take time, I’m afraid, Devlin,” he admitted. “Convincing the council that she’s returned will be hard enough. No one wants to deal with that madness again. I’m hoping Maboyas will provide us with some assistance since he knows her best but contact with the gods is limited these days.”

“So instead of going with a solution that’ll take two seconds…” I raised my voice when he began to interrupt. “We’re gonna wait for a god who you maybe can’t even talk to?”

“Tessa, please,” he started.

“Hey, Byrne’s really smart,” said Belmont, with Elena nodding beside him. “If she has a better idea, why don’t you hear her out?”

My sacrificial plan was immediately met with outrage. Their voices overlapped, all calling my plan foolish in their own way. My grandmother sat in silence, scratching Purrsephone behind the ear. Part of me wondered if she agreed with the plan, knowing it was the best option.

“You are not dying, Tessa,” my mother hissed. “End of discussion.”

“Mom—”

My mother resembled a furious tiger as she rounded on an uneasy Cullen. Only she could get away with calling such the revered leader of the reapers ‘thick in the head’ and ‘a brainless buffoon’. My father attempted to calm her down but decided otherwise at the sight of her cheeks swelling, a sign that she was far from done. He soon joined in himself, questioning why Cullen would place such a burden on my shoulders.

“Dad, it wasn’t his idea. It was mine,” I insisting, wanting this long, grueling night to end. “Am I the only one thinking rationally here?”

“We have very different ideas of what rational means,” said Vivienne, siding with my parents for once. “Rational isn’t sacrificing yourself. This problem isn’t yours to fix, Tessa. It’s time for his grand highness and his incompetent monkeys to get off their asses and do something.”

“This is exactly why I wanted Cullen to get it over with back in his office,” I muttered. “The only way to stop her is—”

“You were just gonna leave?”

It took all my courage to look Elena in the eyes. Admittedly, I had been focused on thwarting Guabancex’s plan, no matter the cost or how it would affect those closest to me. That thought hit me like a truck after hearing those few words from her.

“N—no goodbye or anything?” she stuttered. “What was the plan, for him to walk through the door with your dead body while we waited for you, no idea of where you went or if you were even coming back? How could you even—”

Her voice hitched in her throat. She vanished through the wall and I hurried out the front door, despite my mother and Cullen’s protests. Knowing her like the back of my hand, I climbed up the tree outside my bedroom window, finding her on a branche with her head between her knees.

“That was fast,” she mumbled.

“You always come up here when you’re upset,” I reasoned. “After your grandmother died, when you saw Belmont kissing Kelsey Cooper at your thirteenth birthday party, first day you became a ghost...El, you know I would come back, right?”

“What if you couldn’t?” The question caught me by surprise. “What if you have to move on for good so she can’t get her hands on you? She was able to get Abby. What would stop her from doing the same with you unless you were destroyed completely?”

“I didn’t—okay, so I didn’t think this through but how else are we supposed to stop her?” I asked, unable to see another solution. “We can’t let her win. She already killed Belmont and half our school could’ve been next. I’m not thrilled about dying but you know this plan will work. The sooner we all agree—”

“No.” Elena’s response was blunt. “I won’t agree to any plan that involves you dying.”

“El—”

“You know, everyone thinks I didn’t pass on with my family because I was afraid or some selfish brat who didn’t want to believe she was dead,” she said, her breath shaky. “I was afraid but it was because of you.”

She lifted her head, tears trickling down her face.

“I didn’t want to go because it would mean leaving you. I don’t want to be in a world where you’re not with me. That’s why I didn’t care when I chose to stay behind. I mean, I miss my family more than anything but the thought of never seeing you would feel like dying all over again.”

I wondered if this was a vivid dream. Maybe I was lying unconscious in a hospital bed, the past hour nothing more than my imagination. I had imagined this moment countless times since the seventh grade but instead of Elena, the peppy, popular cheerleader adored by everyone, the words came from me.

“It’s why I disappeared after Chief Parker attacked us in the woods and you were comforting Vivienne,” she confessed, sounding ashamed. “I knew there was something between you two and it seemed like those feelings were coming back. I’m nothing like her. She’s this tough girl who understands you in a way I can’t and it’s just like she said. She was there for you when I was too scared to ruin my stupid reputation. Just like I’ve always been too scared to—”

Elena was silenced by my lips gently pressing against hers and suddenly, it felt like thousands of fireworks burst inside my chest. Had Cullen not stopped me from driving the saber into my heart and this was my paradise? I knew it was real when my fingers grazed over the sliver of bare skin between her cashmere sweater and plaid skirt, her quiet giggle causing me to smile against her lips.