Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Zinnia

She kissed her way across Death's stomach, grinning at him. "You're beautiful, you know that?"

"The only thing beautiful in this room is you, my precious Stella."

A growl came from outside the tower, and she shivered. "I don't like this place."

His fingers delved into her hair, and he tilted her head back. "As long as you stay close to me, you'll be safe."

She smiled again. "I know, and I insist on repaying you for your protection."

Death flashed his teeth. "And how will you do that?"

"Watch," she said and kissed his chest again.

I blinked into the darkness, my skin tight, my belly swirly. I was hot; my skin was burning up, probably because I was draped over Death… again. This time, with the way my lips tingled, I had the horrifying feeling that, like the female in my vision, I'd been kissing his chest—

Long fingers delved in my hair, fisting, tilting my head back.

Oh fuck .

My gaze sliced up to Death, and he stared at me in the shadows, his blue eyes glittering. "I tried to wake you," he rasped.

It felt like I'd only closed my eyes for a moment, but I'd been asleep for hours. It was early morning. I licked my lips nervously, trapped, locked in place by that gaze. A part of me was still in my head, feeling what she had, as if this weren't real.

"Were you having a vision?" he asked.

His deep otherworldly voice moved through me, making me tremble, and I became more aware of where I was, and how incredibly hot and smooth his skin was. How hard his body was beneath mine. He was wearing pants, but I felt his solid thighs flex beneath me.

The female, he'd called her only Stella this time, was right—he was beautiful. The God of Death was awe-inspiring in every way, and she'd gotten to touch him, to kiss him.

You're touching him, and I'm pretty sure you kissed him as well—his chest, anyway.

He massaged my head gently, and I almost freaking purred.

"Zinnia?"

Goddess, the way he said my name. I shivered again. I felt mesmerized, like he was the witch and not me, and I was fully under his spell. "Yes?"

"Were you having another vision?"

I nodded, and my chin grazed his chest. My nipples hardened immediately. "Um… yeah."

Why aren't you moving? Move.

He continued to massage my scalp, and I was trapped by his sorcery, frozen in place.

"What did you see?"

I didn't know what these visions meant, but there was no use hiding this one, I'm sure he'd figured out what it was about for himself. Was the female I saw in bed with him here in the tower the same one I'd seen in the tree house? Did he call all his consorts Stella? "You were with a female." It came out a whisper. "She was on top of you."

"Like you are now?" he asked in a velvety tone.

"Yes."

The space between us felt electric, the room closing in, as if the world around us had vanished and he and I were the only two beings who existed.

"What else?"

"She was kissing your chest, and you were fisting her hair."

His fingers twisted, then curled, tugging lightly, and humiliatingly, a moan slipped past my lips. "Then what happened?"

Get off him. Move. "She was… being playful and offered payment for your protection."

His nostrils flared. "How?"

"She, um… she kissed your chest again…" His eyes narrowed, and he licked his perfectly formed lower lip. "And then I… I woke up."

A heaviness fell between us, and the tension grew, kept growing until I had to fight not to squirm on top of him. His gaze was on me, moving over my face, and the urge to lift higher, to slide up his body and suck that lower lip into my mouth was almost overwhelming.

His chest was rising and falling faster while he watched me, waiting. He knew what I was thinking, and he was waiting for me to make the first move.

Don't. Don't do it. Kiss of Death, remember?

I shouldn't, but still, I pressed my hand into the mattress, about to slide up his body, to risk everything to get to that mouth—

A loud knock had me jolting and shoving away from him.

Death's lips peeled back with a low snarl before he shoved back the covers and strode to the door. The muscles in his back shifted, flexing, his biceps bulging when he clenched his fists before yanking the door open.

Horace stood there, and his eyes widened when he looked up at Death.

"What?" Death snarled.

"Your ship is ready and equipped with enough provisions for your journey," Horace said, a slight tremble to his voice. The demon definitely wasn't as brave this morning in the face of Death's fury.

"We'll be down when we're ready."

Horace bowed as he backed up. "Of course, my lord."

Death slammed the door and turned back to me as I slid out of bed.

"Get back in the bed, wife," he said, his tone fierce.

Goddess, I felt that in my belly and lower. I was about to laugh at his arrogance, but the hunger in his eyes, the power of a god demanding he be obeyed, gave me pause. My go-to of escaping awkward situations with humor or being a straight up smart-ass definitely wasn't the way to go in this instance.

Easing away from the bed, I shook my head. "No, I won't be doing that."

His head tilted to the side, his glittering blue gaze tracking me. "What did you say?"

Death was like two different beings—the new, more human side of him had been dominating, but then the other, the scarier version of Death, would make a surprise reappearance, like now. This was the Death I'd met when I first entered Limbo. The rage-filled, demanding god.

"Take a breath," I said, probably unwisely. "Think about what you're saying."

"You called me by my name, consort, three times—"

"And what? Now you're going to use one of those times to force me to fuck you?" I fired at him, all thoughts of trying not to piss him off further flying out the door. "You'd really want that? For the first time we have sex to be because you forced me?"

He blinked, his heaving chest stilling for several beats, and then he shook his head, like he was trying to shake something from his mind. "I would never force myself on you," he said, the shadows starting to swirl around him. "You are my consort. I protect you. I'll never harm you." His nostrils flared as he dragged in another breath.

"Glad to hear it. Whatever that was that just happened a moment ago, you need to rein it in. I'm here with you because I have no choice, but I'm not powerless. You said it yourself, I'm a warrior, and I will fight to protect myself, even against you, and even if that means it kills me." Which it would; there was no beating Death.

The shadows swirled more fiercely, and one side of his face had transformed, now a skull, with the other side unchanged; he had one glowing blue eye, but the other was a black void. He took a stilted step forward, and it took everything in me not to stumble back, but somehow, I held my ground as he strode across the room.

I tilted my head back when he stopped in front of me. I tried to say something, but my voice wouldn't work as his hand came up. Still, I flinched.

He made a rough, wounded sound, and then gently, so gently, his fingers brushed under my chin, across my cheek. "Forgive me, Zinnia," he said, the power of his voice making my knees weak. "I would never harm you. I am… not myself here."

I locked my damn knees and searched his pained expression. He was sorry, tormented by what just happened, and I couldn't bring myself to punish him more when he was obviously punishing himself. "I forgive you." I shoved my hands into my pockets. "And I believe you."

He nodded, obvious relief in that one blue eye; then the shadows swirled again, dissipating, and he dropped his hand. "Gather your things. We need to leave."

* * *

The dinghy creaked as Death rowed us away from the shore and toward the black ship anchored and waiting in the Night Sea. Horace sat behind me, not saying a word.

The water was as black as the ship, the only contrast from the white foam when the waves broke.

"How long will it take to reach the Night Realm?"

Death pulled the oars through the water, the veins in his biceps popping. "Tomorrow night, when we reach land."

The ship was getting closer, and I could see the crew watching from the deck. "How dangerous is it?"

"You will be safe as long as you stay close to me," he said, the same thing he'd said to me before, and the same thing he'd said to the Stella I'd seen in last night's vision.

We reached the ship, and a rope ladder was tossed down. Death held it and motioned me forward. I climbed it quickly, and the demons on board stood back, keeping a respectable distance when I reached the top, but all of them were looking at me as if their last meal had just boarded the ship. No way was I turning my back on them, and it was hard not to pull my knife free under the weight of all those hungry eyes.

The rope ladder creaked, and the sound of the oars knocking the side of the boat reached me. I refused to turn and look, but I knew Horace was rowing away, leaving us here. The thump of Death's boots hitting the deck echoed behind me, and the demons quickly dropped their gazes.

Death handed our bags to one of them and turned to another. "Anchor up," he said to who I assumed was the captain of this ship—a ship that looked as if it would be more at home at the bottom of the ocean. The demon called the order, and the rattle of a heavy chain came as the anchor came up and a massive black sail dropped. The old ship groaned as wind filled the tattered sail, and we started moving.

The demons rushed off to do whatever it was they needed to do, and I turned and gripped the railing, watching as the land grew more and more distant. I had no idea what was coming, but dread filled me, growing deeper the farther from shore we got. The demon captain called orders, Death now at his side, and his crew called back, their collective voices filling me with more dread.

I wanted the hell off this ship already, but I didn't want to reach land either. The gods only knew what Nox had in store for us.