Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Death

She'd been in a trancelike state for the past ten minutes. She sat with her hands pressed to the forest floor, eyes closed, lips moving rapidly, spelling. The knife was on the ground beside her, and I had to grip Raze's girth strap to hold myself back when she finally opened her eyes, picked it up, and sliced her forearm. The scent of her blood hit me instantly, and the darkness rushed forward, confused, enraged, the shadows afraid we were losing her.

That she was being taken away from us already.

The shadows fed off my emotions, and I couldn't fight down all that was warring inside me, couldn't hold them back. The weight of my cloak fell around me, and the world turned gray and misty as the shadows gathered at my eyes, transforming the rest of my face.

Her blood dripped down her arm and pooled on the ground, absorbed into the earth, becoming part of my world, part of me. I'd never felt anything like it; heat trickled over my shoulders and back, sliding around my hips and down my cock. My eyes rolled back in my head.

What the fuck is happening?

She did it again, slicing the other arm, then closed her eyes and tilted her head back, muttering her spell over and over. I could feel the power move through her, because it was moving through me now as well. More blood hit the ground, sinking into the dirt, and I gritted my teeth so I didn't groan when the warmth washed over me again, down my chest, my stomach—

Fuck.

I fought not to go to her, gripping the leather strap tighter.

"Are you okay?" Her voice drifted over to me, and the shadows instantly receded, her voice soothing them, reassuring them. She was alive. She was okay.

I wasn't. I was far from fucking okay.

"Yes," I bit out and somehow managed to stay where the hell I was.

She nodded, watching me closely, but I could tell she didn't believe me. It seemed I was incapable of hiding anything from her. Taking out a small pot from her bag, she scooped out some of its contents and smoothed it over her cuts, then bound them with linen and slid her jacket back on. "All done."

Zuri bumped Zinnia with her snout when she reached her, and my consort ran her hands down the beast's neck. "I'm okay, sweetheart," she said. "I promise."

The gentle voice she used didn't help the way I was feeling right then, so I closed the space between us and tossed her up onto Zuri's back. She made a sound of surprise, then scowled at me. "We need to leave."

"Well, I'm ready when you are."

I swung up onto Raze, and we headed off. I tried to focus, to prepare for what was to come, but all morning, visions of her lying in bed in that tree house, looking at me from across the room, kept infiltrating my mind. The way she'd been looking at me, there was lust in her eyes. I could barely resist her as it was. If she ever decided to act on those feelings, I was fucked, because there was no resisting her. What she didn't know was that I was hers to command.

She was my queen, and I existed to bow at her feet.

To worship only her.

* * *

Zinnia

The gateway's power was like a giant magnet—the closer we got to it, the stronger its pull.

Zuri was restless beneath me, jumpy and nervous. I ran my hand down her neck. "It's okay, sweet girl," I said. "You can go home soon."

We wouldn't be riding them past the gate. We'd be traveling on foot once we entered the Outer Realm.

The forest grew darker the closer we got to it. I shivered. It felt as if night was falling when it was barely after midday. I studied Death; his wide back was rigid as he searched our surroundings.

How the hell had we gotten here? The first time he'd come to me, I'd been fifteen, and he'd terrified me—so much so, I'd refused to sleep until I was sure he wouldn't invade my dreams again. How did we go from that night to now? To me traveling through realms with him on the back of a beast.

The memory of that night rushed forward unbidden.

A voice whispered through my head, then another.

I felt awake, but I wasn't.

"There she is, brother. I found her for you."

The owner of that voice was nowhere to be seen. I was in a forest, dark and dense. I spun around, searching the trees. "Who's there?"

Electricity clawed over my skin, like tiny talons clinging to my flesh. Dread sliced down my spine, and the veins on either side of my throat felt as if they were struggling to pump blood fast enough. I felt dizzy and out of breath.

Shadows moved among the trees, and I tried to step back, but I couldn't move. My feet were locked in place, thick roots twisted around them, holding me fast. I shook my head furiously. Why wasn't I waking up? I needed to wake up.

The shadows swirled more furiously, twisting closer.

No, not shadows.

Oh goddess, it was a massive black robe, the hood up, concealing the being underneath. It moved as if it was alive. It came closer, and I fought harder, but there was no escape.

"Do not fight." A voice drenched in sorrow and agony and rumbling with earth-shattering rage rolled over me.

I froze, terror locking every muscle in my body.

Death.

Somehow, I knew who he was.

He stopped in front of me, bright blue eyes piercing me from beneath his hood. "You belong to me," he said in that horrifying voice. "On your eighteenth birthday, I will come for you, consort."

I stared at him in terror.

"You will belong to me, serve me… love me."

I wanted to scream, to cover my ears and curl up on the ground. The dread and despair that filled me made me want to die. If I had a knife, I would've slit my own throat then and there. I'd never felt this way, this hopeless, this depth of emptiness. Oh goddess, it hurt.

I tried to shake my head, to say no, but my body was locked solid, utterly immobile. I felt a hot tear streak down my ice-cold cheek while my mind screamed, the sound trapped inside me, unable to leave my mouth.

His arm lifted, a bony hand about to cup my face—

I jolted awake.

Jasmine stood over me, her face wet with tears. "You were screaming. I thought you were dying," she sobbed.

I pulled my baby sister into my arms as Hemlock scurried up my arm and curled around my neck, hissing in my ear, letting me know he was scared as well, looking for the danger. "I'm okay." I shoved back the covers. "Go back to bed, Jazzy. I just had a bad dream, that's all," I lied.

She nodded, her eyes wide and filled with fear. "Something's wrong."

I wrapped my arm around her narrow shoulders. "I promise I'm okay. I just… I remembered I had a paper due tomorrow. I dreamed Mr. Anders was chasing me with a knife, demanding I give it to him. Go back to bed. I'm gonna make some coffee and get it done." I couldn't go back to sleep, not when Death might be there waiting for me.

She nodded and yawned. "Don't ever scream like that again," she muttered and headed to the door.

"I won't," I said, which was useless since I had no idea I'd been doing it.

Jasmine wandered out, and I snatched up my phone and searched the word consort .

A wife, husband, or companion.

I shot to my feet. No. Never. I would never be his.

Zuri stumbled, jolting me back to the here and now, and I ran my hand down her neck to soothe her.

In the end, the fates had gotten their way, like they always did. There'd be no escaping my destiny, and there never had been. When I thought of the price I'd paid to conceal myself from him—I shuddered. I hadn't known. Even after what was stolen from me was gone, I still hadn't understood the magnitude of it.

I shook off the memories, not wanting to go back there, to what happened three days later in that grimy little house, or think about those dead yellow eyes that haunted me still on my darkest days.

Zuri tilted her head to the side, and I felt the tension in her body as unease built behind my chest; something was seriously off. We were still in Limbo, but I felt it—the Outer Realm was seeping through the gateway and polluting this part of the forest. What the hell would it be like on the other side?

Death continued to scan the area around us. He felt it as well.

"We're close, aren't we?"

With a growl, several demons burst from the trees and attacked Zuri. She shrieked in pain, and Raze spun around, roaring. I jumped from her back, before she bucked me off, and went after the demons biting and slicing her with their claws. I pulled out my knife and stabbed the one closest in the eye, about to spin him around and stab him in the throat—but then Death was there. He still had powers, even if they were diminished, but instead of making them go poof , he grabbed the one I'd stabbed. His hand and forearm turned black—something I'd never seen before—and as soon as he touched the demon, blood spilled from the creature's mouth. Death gripped him under the chin and wrenched his head back, tearing it clean off with a snarl.

Another came at me, and he slashed its throat with his staff, kicked it in the sternum, and went down with it. He pulled a knife from his boot, and gripping the demon's face with that black hand, holding him down, blood oozing from between his fingers, he hacked its head off, and it turned to ash.

Death finished off the rest before I could even get to them. The touch of Death was real, and I'd just seen it in action.

When the last demon disintegrated at his feet, he strode to me, his gaze slicing over my body. "Are you injured?"

"No, I'm fine." I quickly checked on Hemy. He was curled up, trembling, and I held him in his bag close to me. "I'm so sorry, baby," I whispered.

Death closed in. "It's only going to get worse. Let me send him back. Egon will look after him."

I hated being parted from Hemlock—he was my familiar, and it physically hurt to be away from him—but I would never forgive myself if something happened to him. He was terrified, and it broke my heart to see him like this. I nodded and scooped him up. "Egon is going to take good care of you until I get back, okay? You know he loves to give you treats." Hemy squeaked, then gave me a little hiss, not happy, not wanting to be away from me either. "Do you have enough power this close to the gateway?"

Death nodded.

I kissed Hemlock on his fuzzy little head and handed him over.

Death gently took him, cradling him in his big, tattooed hands. Hemlock looked up at him wide-eyed as Death closed his eyes, head tilted back.

One moment, Hemlock was there; the next, he was gone. When Death opened his eyes again, they were bright, glowing. "Egon has him. He knows what to do."

Zuri whimpered. She was bleeding badly, and Raze was pressed to her side. "Is she going to be okay?"

"As long as they leave now so Raze can tend to her wounds—his saliva has powerful healing properties," he said and strode over to them. "You may go now, my friends. I'm sorry your mate was injured, Raze. When she has recovered, come to the castle, and I'll make sure you have all the food you need and clean wool and cotton for your nest."

Raze made a low sound and leaned into Death when he ran his hands down the beast's side. We quickly got our bags, removed their bridles and girth straps; then Raze nudged his mate, and they loped off into the forest.

"We need to keep moving." Death scanned the trees surrounding us. "There could be more demons close by."

Slipping on my pack, I tightened the leather straps, then secured my hunting knife to my thigh and motioned ahead. "Lead the way."

We walked quickly and quietly through the dense forest, and every now and then I heard the crack of a branch or a distant howl. "They're stalking us."

He glanced down at me and nodded. "We'll be harder to detect once we pass through the gate with my power so diminished. We should hopefully get a head start before they work out we're there."

"So what are we doing when we get through? Is there something we need to collect, something that will wake your brother?"

Death continued to look ahead. "His physical body is in my castle, but his dream-self is in our mother's realm. It's the only way he's safe from her there. We need to go to the location his dream-self resides and call for him to wake." He tilted his head to the side, listening, and I did the same, but then he carried on.

"Why is his… dream-self there in the first place?"

"He guards something there that only he has the ability to protect."

"What's he guarding?"

He paused, just for a moment. "Something precious."

That pause was enough of a tell that I knew he wasn't going to share more than that—not yet, anyway—but there were also a whole bunch of holes in that story, not just what this "precious thing" was.

We carried on without too much trouble after that. At one point, Death spun around with a snarl, pounding his staff on the ground, and whatever had been following us changed their mind and stayed back.

The trees were dense here, and when we broke through to the other side, I saw it. The gateway. It was stone, similar to the gate out of Limbo, but this was made of glossy onyx, flecked with silver, like tiny stars.

Coldness, dread, evil seeped through the gateway as I stared at it. "I can hold my own, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid."

"I won't let you die," Death said, his voice resonating through me.

I swallowed, my throat impossibly dry all of a sudden. "Promise?" I smirked up at him, as if I could hide just how scared I was.

"You have my word."

Then Death took my hand, and we stepped through.