Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

Death

I'd waited at the gateway for fucking hours, feet rooted to the ground, willing it to open, for Zinnia to walk through.

But she hadn't come.

Gripping the edge of the window, I took in the forest below the castle. The decay was setting in, my despair turning Limbo back into the desolate, cold, and joyless nothing it had been before I finally found her and brought her home.

As I'd stood at the gateway, I'd told myself that maybe she got the days mixed up or the date, maybe she was hurt and couldn't make it. Night had turned to day, then back to night as the shadows swirled thicker around me, calling me back to darkness.

I'd finally forced myself to walk away, to come back to the castle, and I'd done the only thing I could, something I'd done more than once since she left this time, something I hated doing—I'd used Somnus to find her.

Zinnia hadn't been hurt—she just hadn't chosen me.

In my despair, I'd lain there, willing her to come, to me, to join me in the Dream Realm, and she had. She'd come to the castle, come to my room, and I'd taken her like a fucking monster, taking everything I could from her one last time. I hadn't let her talk, and I'd fed off her warmth, the feel of her skin, the smell of her hair, like a fucking leech. I'd absorbed it all—and then I'd released her.

I didn't want to hear her apologies or her regrets. I didn't want to hear the reasons she wouldn't be returning, so I hadn't given her the option.

Never again.

I couldn't do this again.

My Stella's soul was always meant to be with me, but only someone powerful and loyal and prepared to sacrifice it all to be with me could draw me from the cloak. Someone without fear. I thought Zinnia was that female; I believed it with everything in me. I still did, but that didn't matter if she didn't want me. I knew what would happen next if I'd kept her here. I knew what happened next because I'd seen it. I'd held the limp, bleeding, poisoned bodies in my hands. I'd buried them.

Still, before the darkness took me completely, before I let her go forever and my world went back to the cold and empty void it was before I brought Zinnia here, I had to be close to her just one more time. Just once more.

Striding down the hall, I walked into Somnus's room. My brother lay there peacefully. He let me use his power to reach her; he had for centuries. I was the only being he allowed near him while he slumbered after all he'd been through. I didn't want to use him again this way, but this would be the last time. The very last.

Lying on the bed beside my brother, I wrapped my hand around his, closed my eyes, and let the dreaming in.

Darkness swam around me, a whirlpool of images and sounds flashing past. I knew where to find Zinnia. As soon as Somnus told me she existed, finding her here had been as easy as breathing.

But this time, I was met with an empty void. Nothingness. As if she didn't exist anymore.

I knew this feeling from when she'd concealed herself from me the first time.

She'd done it again. She'd locked me out.

I roared into the void, the last tendrils of hope sinking to the bottom of the ocean of dreams around me, into the darkest depths, and vanishing without a trace. I sank with them, swallowed by the dark, unforgiving waves, letting the cold soak into my bones.

Mors sucked in his last gasping breath, filling his lungs with putrid water, until only Death remained.

* * *

Zinnia

"I don't want your, ah… babies," I said as the shock and alarm in his eyes turned to something else, something that made me try to step back once more, only to hit the shelf of dolls behind me again.

"Who sent you? You can't have them. They're mine. They're mine! " He swung wildly, taking me by surprise. His fist connected with the side of my head, and my legs gave out.

Everything went dark.

I woke tied to a chair in only my underwear, with odd shapes drawn all over me in permanent marker. I pulled at the ropes biting into my wrists and ankles, but they were too tight. This was his Limbo. This room or house of dolls and horror was the lumberjack's Limbo, and somehow, I'd just walked into it.

The chair scraped as I tried to fight my way out of my ropes while I frantically searched the room for Hemy. I couldn't get free. Panting, I looked down at one of the shapes, this one drawn on my thigh, the rest all butting up against one another as if he was trying to fit in as many of them on my available skin as possible. It kind of reminded me of when Daisy would sew. She'd lay out her piece of fabric and pin the pattern onto it, moving the thin tissue around to fit each piece as best as she could, so as not to waste any of her fabric. My gaze sliced around the room, and I took a better look at the dolls.

Oh fuck. They weren't made of leather—they were made of skin.

They were all made of skin .

This was some fucked-up Silence of the Lambs shit, and Nox had offered me up to the lumberjack so he could add to his doll collection. Fucking bitch . Hemy tore out from under my clothes in a pile on the floor, running to me. Thank the goddess he was okay.

Humming came from the next room, and so did footsteps moving around on a hardwood floor. He was about to come back in here and carve me up. I fought harder, trying to wriggle my hands out of the rope strapping them to the arms of the chair. I couldn't get free. "Fuck this. Stay back," I said to Hemy. My feet were on the floor, and I rocked forward, standing at a weird bent-over angle then, and ran back, crashing hard against the wall. One of the legs snapped. I slammed into the wall a second time as the door opened. More of the chair broke away. The lumberjack stormed in, carrying a massive knife.

"No!" he yelled, running at me.

I spun around as he reached me, slamming the broken chair into him with all my strength. He fell, and I crashed down on top of him. The chair collapsed completely, what was left of it breaking apart. I quickly rolled away and jumped to my feet, shaking off the now-loose ropes and broken wood.

The big male rolled to his hands and knees to get up.

"Hemy!" I called, spun, and ran from the room. Hemy darted ahead, leading me through the house, where more skin dolls filled every available space, to the dining room and down a long hall.

The lumberjack pounded after me, the knife still in his hand. "Come back," he yelled. "Come back."

Like fuck. Hemy led me into a kitchen.

A door.

The lumberjack exploded into the room behind me, and I dove for the door, twisting the handle, and threw myself out—

And hit a stone floor.

I was dressed again, and Hemlock was back in his bag. I tugged up my sleeve. The patterns on my skin were gone. I turned slowly, taking in the room. A TV was going on the opposite side, big couches were scattered around, and there was a pool table.

I was in the hellhounds' den, belowground in the common room. It looked a little different, but that's exactly where I was.

Scrambling off the floor, I gripped my knife. This was supposed to throw me off, make me drop my guard, but that wasn't happening.

"Who the fuck are you?" a deep, rough voice growled.

I spun around. A huge male with long hair and a scruffy beard stood there. Most definitely a hellhound.

His head tilted to the side, eyes narrowing. "Willow?"

I shook my head. "Her cousin. Zinnia." I gripped my knife tighter. "And who the fuck are you?"

He grinned, flashing white teeth and fangs. "Axton, a good friend of your cousin, and the alpha's right hand."