Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Zinnia

We entered into darkness.

"This way," Death said, voice low, tugging my hand and leading me into a forest of jagged obsidian. Lightning flashed through the night sky while thunder rolled repeatedly in the distance.

Hisses and growls came from somewhere behind us.

Death spun around and cursed. "Run."

He didn't need to tell me twice. "Go, I can keep up." He was fast, really fast, veering left and right through towering rocks. Pumping my arms, I shadowed his every move, afraid I'd fall and impale myself on one of the vicious-looking rocks poking out of the ground like giant stalagmites. The growls grew louder. "They're gaining on us," I called.

Death spun around suddenly, hooked me around the waist, flung me over his shoulder, and took off, just as a horde of something loud and angry exploded around the edge of a wide rock behind us. I hung on to him as he sprinted over boulders and tore around the jagged towers of stone that seemed to have burst through the ground.

Lightning flashed bright, turning night into day, giving me a good look at what was chasing us.

Holy fuck .

Their mouths were hanging open, drool streaming behind them as they chased us, moving faster than should be possible on all fours. Death's powers were all but smothered here, but my magic still burned bright inside me. I couldn't call on nature, to shake the ground beneath our feet or call on the wind, because we weren't in the Earth Realm anymore; we were somewhere else, somewhere Mother Nature wasn't.

So instead, I sent my power at them with a roar from deep in my gut, blasting them with a wall of magic. It had strengthened after cutting, after spilling blood, and several of the creatures flew back, smashing into the sharp rocks, but there were more coming. I called on the fire inside me, and it manifested, flames dancing above my palms. With another cry, I fired it at them—not easy while I was bouncing on Death's shoulder and close to throwing the hell up. Several were tossed aside, engulfed in flames and screaming, but there were still more.

I had hoped to save Magnolia's potions, but now seemed like a good time to use one. I shoved my hand in the side pocket of my pack. There were several different vials, all different shapes. I finally found the one I was looking for—the long, thin one. I tapped Death's back. "Let them get closer," I yelled.

"You better have a good plan," he yelled back but instantly did as I said and slowed.

If I weren't facing a horde of bloodthirsty monsters, I'd probably wonder why he so easily did what I asked, without question, but I was, so instead, I egged them on. "Come on, you ugly fucks," I yelled. "Catch me."

One of them roared, spittle flying everywhere and flashing their long, piranha-like teeth. They bounded toward us at full speed, and my heart pounded in my ears as the huge demonic creatures got closer. It roared again, so close to us now that I got a clear view of its tonsils. There were five of them left, and their eyes were wild and filled with hunger. Just a little closer.

The one at the front leaped, snapping its teeth barely a yard from us. The rocks had become less crowded. I needed to do it now, before the creatures had a chance to spread out. They snapped and bounded closer—

I tossed the vial hard, smashing it against the rocks beneath their feet. It shattered, the potion and its toxic fumes covering them. Their roars turned to shrieks as their flesh melted, dissolving, leaving only bone as they all but turned into piles of goo behind us.

Death spun around. "Fuck," he said roughly, lifting goose bumps all over me. "That'll do it, little witch."

Silence surrounded us. We'd gotten them all—at least, the ones chasing us.

"So, um… you wanna put me down now?" I said from my position still dangling over his wide shoulder.

His hand pressed against the backs of my thighs and applied pressure as his other hand went to my back, and he carefully eased me down. He did it slowly, too slowly, and my front dragged all the way down his chest.

We were close, too goddamn close.

"Nice work," he said, looking down at me.

I cleared my throat. "I'm glad you approve. My cousin's potions are vicious." I stepped back, and his hand, still resting on my back, slipped away.

He seemed to lean forward, his eyes darkening.

"So now what?"

His chest expanded sharply. "Now we walk. Stay close."

I had to power walk to keep up with him, and every now and then, he'd tilt his head and listen for anything else following us. The terrain changed as we went, the rocks becoming even more sparse now, and I'd spotted the odd vine of an ivy-like plant curling around boulders and crawling along the ground.

Lightning flashed over us, forking through the dark sky, followed closely by ground-shaking thunder that felt as if it rolled right through me. "Is it always dark here?"

"It never used to be, but it is now."

"Because of your mother?"

"Yes."

"When will we reach her realm?"

"In a few days," he said, scanning our surroundings.

"Will we see her while we're there?"

"Not if I can help it." When he spoke about her, the shadows instantly gathered around him.

Ahead were trees; they were sparse, but as we got closer, I could see they shimmered, like they'd been sprinkled with fairy dust. "It's beautiful."

"Don't touch anything unless I do, and definitely don't eat anything," Death said.

Awesome. The vines I'd seen were thicker here, and some had grown up the tree trunks. I rushed to keep up with Death, who hadn't stopped. As we traveled deeper, I realized the vines had flowers, and they unfurled, opening and closing as we got close, like stars blinking in the sky. "What are these?"

"They're deadly," Death said, "like most things here. The Outer Realm should be more of a no-man's-land, relatively safe to move through and ruled by no god, but over centuries, Nox has been slowly claiming it for herself. Now it's like an extension of the Night Realm—always dark, the lightning, the plants and trees, and now crawling with her demons and other creatures. It used to be all rocks here, like the ones we ran through, but my mother is greedy, and she knows taking the only buffer that exists between us will anger me."

Based on the way Death had described his mother, it seemed Nox had created a world as toxic as she was. "She sounds bored. Time to get a life."

Death's gaze sliced to me, and his eyes did that brightening thing they did sometimes. "Yes, it is."

We carried on walking, and the trees went from sparse to a dense forest. I stayed close to Death. It was impossible to avoid everything with how thick the forest had become, and my leathers were the only thing protecting me from the noxious plants around us.

A weird hooting sound came from above, and Death stilled immediately. One moment, I was beside him; the next, he'd pulled me in close to him, and we were surrounded by darkness, by shadows. His cloak had settled around us.

"Be still," he rasped.

I blinked up at him, trying to breathe with his arms around me again, with him so impossibly close, and with those blue eyes glowing down at me in a face that now looked like a skull. The shadows hadn't just covered us; they'd gathered around his face, turning him into the god he was. Again, I tried to breathe, but being this close to him while he looked like that? Yeah, I was having some trouble.

The hooting came again, closer this time.

One of his large, tattooed hands came up, and he took hold of my jaw. He dipped closer, his face only a couple of inches from mine, and shook his head, telling me to be quiet. My heart smacked against my ribs with force. I opened my mouth, but I couldn't drag in the oxygen I needed. What I felt coming off him… it was nothing like I'd ever experienced—the darkness, the anguish, the rage, and all that banked power, locked down against his will, unable to be accessed. It wasn't gone, though. No, it was still very much there, writhing under the surface.

And alarmingly, it wasn't just fear I was feeling all of a sudden. My nipples tightened, and a pulse throbbed between my thighs.

The hoot came a third time, but it was in the distance now.

"Breathe," he said huskily.

Finally, I was able to drag in a ragged breath.

"And again."

I stared at him, unable to look away from those glowing eyes and that shadowed face as I drew in oxygen like I'd never breathed before. My head spun, and my body was still thrumming. Goddess, I was so hot and achy.

"What was that?" I whispered to break the unbearable tension.

"An owllike creature that can tear a face off with one swipe of his talons. He's Nox's pet, and she can see through his eyes."

"That doesn't sound good," I said, still whispering. "Do you think she knows we're here?"

"Possibly."

I licked my lips as nerves coiled impossibly tight in my belly. "Your cloak… I thought your powers didn't really work here."

His glowing gaze studied me closely. "My cloak isn't a power," he said, still perilously close. "It's part of me. We are one and the same."

The mournful hooting sound came again, and it was far in the distance now. Still, he didn't take the cloak away, keeping us ensconced in his camouflage, turning us into shadows.

His breathing grew rougher, and he wasn't moving away. His arms were still around me, and his hands were hot against my back.

"Who's Aster?" I blurted. Ever since I dreamed about her last night, I'd been wanting to ask.

He flinched.

"One of your consorts?"

"How do you know that name?"

The roughness to his voice tore a shiver from me. "She came to me while I slept. She showed herself, offering me a vision of her… and, ah, you while we were in the tree house."

"What do you mean showed herself?" he bit out.

"I'm a medium, communing with the dead is what I do. I didn't think those powers worked in Limbo, but somehow, she showed me a… a memory of the two of you."

"What were we doing?" His eyes bored into me.

I wished I'd kept my damn mouth shut, but he wasn't going to let it go, not until I shared what I saw, because he never let anything go. The fact we were so close, still under his cloak, and he looked like… that while my traitorous body burned for the terrifying god holding me made it all the more humiliating. "You were… making love."

His nostrils flared, and a growl rolled from his chest.

I didn't dare tell him it wasn't the first one that I'd seen or that I'd started to wonder if the consorts that came before me were trying to warn me of something. "She showed me. I didn't ask for it. She—"

"Stop," he growled out, so much banked rage in that one word.

I swallowed convulsively, my mouth impossibly dry. He'd loved her. He'd loved Aster, and he'd lost her, like the rest. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you pain."

He released me suddenly, and the cloak vanished, the shadows going with it. "We need to keep moving."

I nodded and followed as he strode off, wondering what the hell just happened. I felt that way a lot when I was with Death.

We didn't speak much after that, and in the darkness, I lost track of time and place. I had no idea how long we walked for—long enough my feet ached, anyway. Finally, we broke through the trees, and the landscape changed again. The only constant here was the thunder and lightning, and when the next flash forked through the sky, it gave me a better look at what was ahead. It was wild and vast; there was rugged coastline and the sound of a turbulent sea along with the squawk of birds, or at least birdlike creatures, echoing in the distance.

"We'll rest for the night," Death said.

"This place is way too exposed. We should keep walking," I said, even as my feet screamed in protest.

Death lifted his staff, pointing to something in the distance as more lightning flashed.

There was a glossy black tower, thin and tall. A beacon of pale light glowed from the top, aimed out to the furious black ocean, like a demonic lighthouse. "Does anyone live there?"

"Yes."

"Will we be welcome?"

"No, but they will let us in," he said and started for the tower.