XXVIII

Past heavy glass doors reared a greenhouse straight out of a garden magazine. Hundreds of feet above us, forty massive beams came together across a glass-paneled ceiling to create an intricate design. Rays of light slanted through the glass, twinkling off the reflection of a magnificent pond with lily pads, water hyacinths, and foliage along the rim. A fountain with scattered bubblers added a tranquil backdrop.

"Beautiful," I said breathlessly.

The heat and humidity in the air had increased. We followed Ace down a leafy path. I'd entered a fairy tale. Tropical plants and trees stretched up as far as I could see, rooted around potted herbs like peppermint, witch hazel, sage, and lavender. Strange flowers with petals in blues, purples, yellows, reds, and oranges gleamed and glistened as if painted with glitter.

I reached toward a plant to trace the moisture of a leaf when Death's warm, gloved hand closed around my wrist.

"You can look, but don't touch," Ace said from ahead of us, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. Given the supernatural things I'd encountered, I wouldn't have been surprised if he really did. "My garden is enchanted. Some of these plants are carnivores, I'm afraid."

I gulped. "Like that piranha plant from Super Mario ?"

"Precisely." Ace performed a dramatic spin to disappear behind foliage. "Except my carnivorous plants expel a bubblegum fragrance when blooming!"

"Bubblegum," I repeated. "That's very specific."

"It's how they attract their prey, ma chérie ," Ace replied from somewhere far away. "What mortal doesn't enjoy bubblegum?"

I edged away from the creepy plant and pressed my hands to my sides. Death faced off with a prickly plant that snapped at him like an animal and latched on to his cloak. With an irritated growl, he opened his jaws to hiss with a sound unlike any other creature—bared fangs and all. The plant released a high-pitch shriek and shrunk down to an itsy-bitsy trembling flower.

Death turned his glare on me, fangs retracting into smaller, human-sized teeth. "What?"

We approached a Victorian-style wrought iron gazebo with thorny vines and roses tangled in the framework like a fairy's home. The inside had ancient iron furniture with cushions, and at the center of the space sat a small table for two. I sat across from Ace.

Death ducked underneath the archway of the gazebo, shrinking the space to the size of a dog crate. He kept his head bowed to avoid hitting the ceiling. "Cozy," he mumbled sarcastically.

"I can't believe I missed your garden from the road," I said to Ace. "It's huge."

"You cannot see it because it is hidden. I concealed my greenhouse with magic to protect it," Ace explained, pouring three mugs of tea. "There are thousands of different species of plants in here, most of which are endangered in other realms."

Death dropped his colossal frame onto the couch beside my chair, shaking the floorboards beneath our feet. I was shocked the antique hadn't pancaked beneath his weight, smashing him through the gazebo's wooden floor. He adjusted himself as the poor little cushion flattened beneath his butt, then draped his long arms across the back of the couch and spread his legs.

"Let the record show," Death said, "you willingly let Pyro Girl into your second most flammable room."

Ignoring Death's taunting, the warlock held out a cup of tea. By Death's instantly disgusted expression, I expected him to strike it from the warlock's hand.

"To relax your . . . other side," Ace explained.

Death's eyes narrowed then darted to mine as he reluctantly took the drink. Death holding a little teacup. I never thought I'd see the day .

I eyed my own tea skeptically. "This isn't anything funky that will roar, right?"

Ace chuckled. "It will not roar, ma chérie . It is called cinnamon bird tea, a very mild sedative for anxiety, kind of like chamomile. Give it a whirl."

"I do like cinnamon," I said and sipped it. Milk, cinnamon, and some other flavorful spice soothed my dry throat. "Not bad."

Death gazed inquisitively down at his tea like a cat watching a goldfish swimming inside a glass bowl. "There's a bird in this?"

"No, but there is a shot of my best fifty-year-old whiskey in yours."

"Hell yeah." Reaching a long arm around me, Death grabbed the ceramic bowl of sugar cubes off the gazebo's table and dumped the whole lot of them into his drink. Then he tipped the scalding tea back and devoured the whole thing in one gulp, making my jaw fall open.

Death aggressively tugged at the neck of his vest and set down his cup. "I'm trapped in a carnivore's nightmare right now. Starving and surrounded by endless goddamn shrubbery. You still preserve raw crocotta meat?"

I shook my head at his blatant rudeness.

"I see your beast is rearing its ugly head," Ace said. "Are you ingesting those soporific herbs that I prescribed you?"

"I don't want sedatives, I want meat ." Twiddling his gloved fingers, Death used one of the prickly ends from the flower he'd battled earlier to pick between his fangs. Ace gave Death a scornful look. "What? Your tomato plant started it."

"I don't have raw crocotta meat," Ace said, "but I do have prime rainbow serpent that I've been meaning to thaw. I've sent a telepathic message to my chef. Faith, would you like anything?"

"Got any plain ol' tortilla chips?"

"Yes, I'll send for some." Ace leaned his cane against his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Death, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here. Frankly, my dates with Faith were never intended to be dates per se . I want to help her refine her gift so she's strong enough to go with you when collect your scythe, but it's been brought to my attention that you—"

"This is an intervention ?" Death hissed. "As we discussed earlier, Faith is not coming with me."

"My approach is simple," Ace continued without pause, and I could feel Death's temper flare. "We must find the trigger that is blocking Faith's ability. For example, a bottled-up or unreciprocated emotion."

I choked on my tea. "Oh my God."

He was couples therapy-ing us.

"Hell's horns . . . " Death speared a hand through his hair. "The last thing I need is for you to convolute our situation any further."

"He's right, Death," I said.

Death's harsh glare landed on the side of my face. The tension in the room was unbearable, but the hot-and-cold relationship between us had without a doubt affected my power.

"I will leave you two to discuss!" Ace said chirpily. "I do suggest a resolution, for the sake of your fates. Not to mention, I've locked you two inside, and Death won't be able to manifest out until I feel you've resolved this." Before either of us could protest, Ace tapped his cane against the gazebo. "Toodle-oo!" Violet magic swirled around him like a tornado, and he vanished.

"Great." Death lowered his hood and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, lighting up a roll-up. "This blows—"

"What do you get out of it?" I asked.

His eyes snapped up. "What?"

"The whole ordeal with me, Lucifer, and the Book of the Dead ," I said, feeling as though I'd been holding back. "You get something out of all this at the end. I know you do."

Death slung his arm over the back of the couch again and inhaled from the cherry cigarette. "You're sharp as a tack."

I grated my teeth at his sarcasm. "I want to know what it is. You owe me that much information."

"Did you forget the blood exchange, cupcake? You answer to me . Not the other way around."

I stood up sharply, knocking my chair over. "Let us out, Ace! This isn't going to go anywhere." When there was no response, I released a huff. "I'm finding an exit."

I stormed from the gazebo, only to find Death standing outside, exhaling smoke into my path like a barricade. "Where are you going, mouse?" he purred, that unmarked accent thickening. "We were having a conversation."

"Wow, you want to have an other conversation? Looks like I broke the back of the beast! When we first met, I could barely exchange three words with you without you vanishing inexplicably into black mist."

I barged past him toward a path through tropical plants and vines, but he grabbed me around the waist and spun me around. A lusty fever dizzied my vision at the sight of his beautiful, poisonous features inches from mine. "There are a thousand other things that affect your focus other than us. Like you missing your family, or Marcy, or your home. Or wanting a friend to confide in about all of this."

"All of which you can't give me. All of which you used against me—"

"I told you, I'm not the one in charge," Death suddenly snarled. "I have orders and obligations . . . and . . . " He worked his neck to one side, as though contemplating what he could reveal. "The truth is, Faith, I have been seeking something for a very long time. Now it's finally within my reach, and there isn't a force in this entire realm that could stop me from attaining it."

His cold confession shouldn't have surprised me, but my throat felt tight.

"I can't give your old life back," Death said, his voice slipping to a warmer velvet. "But I can give you something else. I can give you me. For one night."

"You're kidding, right?"

Those mismatched eyes drifted down my frame. "Serious as a heart attack."

Burning from head to toe, I backed away from him. "Thank you, Your Highness , for your gracious offer," I said sarcastically. "Are you cracked in the head ? Did you even hear yourself?"

"Yes or no, cupcake?"

" No! I'm not desperate for your glorious dick, and I already told you my feelings about sex."

"Who said anything about intercourse?" His grin was slow, arrogant, and stupid hot. Curse him . "And you wouldn't be so sarcastic about the glorious part if you saw it up close."

"Unbelievable." I turned sharply on my heel. "You are the epitome of an egomaniac."

"I don't understand what the problem is." Death was right on my heels again. "You have urges, I have urges. It's because I'm a dead guy, isn't it?" I could hear the amusement in his voice. "Necrophilia is nothing to be ashamed of."

I pivoted to punch him in the face, but he was gone.

Death's laughter startled me as he materialized to the left of me, tendrils of dark matter expelling from his frame.

"I like you better when you're cranky and hardly talk!" I shouted, then started down another path. "What is this, freaking Labyrinth ? There's no way out!"

"That's the whole point, cupcake," Death said silkily. "He wants us to resolve our issues, and I'm the one being solution-oriented. You, on the other hand, keep running away from me. But I can't complain about the view of you from behind."

My libido performed a series of backflips into a split at the thought of him checking me out. God, what was wrong with me? He'd basically confessed to having no problem ending any innocent life that stood in his way. What if one day that innocent life was mine?

"We both know our ‘tension' isn't going to be solved in a magical rainforest," Death continued. "You want me, and I'm game. The sooner you see the simplicity in what I'm offering, the sooner we solve your block, don't you think?"

"You're disgusting, and you know that's not why Ace trapped us in here. He wants us to resolve our emotional issues and defeat Ahrimad together, but you're too thickheaded and stuck in your old ways to see that." I strode quickly away to split us apart, him on one side of an iron fence covered with vines, me on the other.

"You asked me to open up; I showed you my wings," Death said, stalking parallel to me from the other side of the fence. "I did that for you."

"Bull," I seethed. "You wanted to show off."

"I mean, yeah , but that wasn't the only reason. I am, perhaps, the tiniest bit . . . " Death cleared his throat into his fist. "Remorseful. About my behavior toward you. Although, you are rather sensitive, don't you think?"

I gave him a vicious look.

"Nix that last part," Death growled with a frustrated swipe of his hand. "Listen, I'm trying here, all right? I told you; I'm shit at this. The last time I talked about feelings was—oh wait, I don't talk about feelings, and I'm never concerned about anyone because I'm the Grim Reaper. Yet here I am. Feeling like a bitch because I'm imploring you to understand that I . . . " He stopped and glanced around. "Do you think Ace is listening in on this entire conversation?"

The rational part of me knew this ridiculous attempt at an apology from Death was a sign of progress, but the stubborn part wasn't satisfied. "You said showing me your wings was the equivalent to showing me your"—I waved my finger toward his general crotch region— "thing!"

He visibly fought back a smirk. "And?"

" And I think you and I have two very different definitions of opening up! Just because you showed me your wing-dick doesn't mean you can get into my pants. And getting into my pants doesn't fix the broken trust between us."

"Wing-dick."

"When's the last time you were in a serious relationship?" I interrogated. "When's the last time you were called a boyfriend ?"

"Me? Tied to a silly mortal label? Don't make me laugh."

"Why not laugh? Have a big chuckle. It's so funny, leading me on, lying to me, and then trying to solve everything with sexual favors. Ha ha! Har har!"

"Am I wrong, then? Do you not want me?"

"Are you even hearing yourself? Do you not know me at all? I am not going to be your sex buddy, your sex slave, and wherever the hell else your sick fantasies lead! In fact, I think we should be platonic!"

Death's eyes darkened, raking a scorching path up my legs. "Is that so?"

"Yes, that's so ," I sassed. "Welcome to the friend zone, angel. Population: you. The last thing I want to do is waste my time and energy getting involved with an immortal fuckboy."

"How can so much annoying be packed into one mortal? It's beyond comprehension. I'm curious, how the hell do you know what a fuckboy is? You sleep with a teddy bear and own more cartoon pajama bottoms than a Disney gift shop. Not to mention, you cerebrally explode at the mere insinuation of sex."

My cheeks burned.

"Nothing?" Death held out a leather-gloved hand. "Not even a laugh? You know that was funny."

"I think it's funny how you think you can keep me around like a prisoner and toy with my emotions when I had every intention of helping you get your scythe back!"

"Believe me, if it were up to me, you wouldn't have been my prisoner at all. You've managed to make three weeks feel like a millennium of agonizing, unrivaled torment from a termagant misandrist."

My jaw fell open. "How dare you use complex offensive words that I happened to learn for the SAT! I apologize for not living in Death World, where women fall to their knees before you in ecstasy and scream, ‘Take me, D!' I apologize for the fact you're a two-thousand-year-old antisocial jerk who gets exasperated like an old fart after only a brief conversation with someone who was forced from her normal life, forced to live with you, and forced to deal with your infuriating personality!"

Death leaned into the fence so that our faces were close. "Get off your high horse, Faith," he seethed, his voice fluctuating between man and beast. His pupils were merely slits, and sweat misted the edge of his hairline. "I don't need you and your precious morals and your ridiculous giggly laugh and your na?ve perception of how life is supposed to be constantly reminding me that I'll never be good enough for you. I'm already well aware!"

He blinked. He couldn't believe he'd said that, and I couldn't either.

"I abjure any inkling of interest I ever had in you," I said. "You're a coward."

Death manifested in front of me like a violent storm in the night. A cynical smile showed his razor-sharp teeth. He grabbed me, and everything whirled. We landed somewhere else in the greenhouse, the darkest part, I assumed, where shadows collected from snakelike plants that reminded me of Death's shadows. He backed me into the hard bark of a tree, his head stooped to reach my height, heat firing out of his body like a furnace.

"I am not a coward," Death said, his accent velvety thick. "Do you want to know what I am, Faith? If I will a creature with all of my might to cease its last breath, it dies. If I barely touch a living creature without these damn gloves, it dies, and if I hate a living creature and have even the tiniest slip of control, it's dead. Everything I am leaves destruction and pain in its wake. Peel away my skin and see what little lies beneath. I'm a monster with a razor-thin layer of control and a selfish, deep-rooted hate for a world that keeps saving me."

I turned away, unable to take the intensity of his soul staring into mine.

"That's not true," I whispered, despite all the hurt I felt. "You're more than your curse."

"What you see is an illusion of a man," he said coarsely. "All I am is death."

"Then why do I feel your heart beating when we kiss?" I pressed my hand against his chest. All I felt were the cold buckles of his intricate armored vest and the hard wall of muscle beyond it. Death went rigid beneath my touch, and my whole body felt electric from the strange energy charging between us.

He reached up a gloved hand and started unbuckling his vest beneath my fingers. One by one, the clasps undid. I forced myself to look away from the trail of dark hair leading into his leather pants.

"What are you doing?" I asked breathlessly.

Death's head bent down, his cheek nuzzling the side of my face. "Making amends," he said hoarsely.

I tried to remember why we'd fought and the things he'd said, but all was lost when I felt his fingers gently encircle my wrist and guide my hand back to his stomach. My fingers trembled as I pushed the rest of the clasps aside and spread the material until the scorching, bare skin of his tattooed abdomen met my fingertips. He released me, and my shaking fingers spread out, sliding down his taut stomach. To his belt. His zipper. To the place my mind went to in the dark, no matter how hard I tried to deny it.

He inhaled sharply.

The stubble on his jaw grazed all the way down my neck as I explored him through his leather pants. "Faith . . . " My name left his mouth like a prayer. He kissed my throat and then licked a slow path up the hollow of my neck to my ear. "Keep doing that and you'll lose your virginity against this tree."

I shivered so hard that my teeth rattled. "We shouldn't be doing this . . . "

"What's a few bark splinters in your ass?"

He swallowed my laughter with another kiss. His mouth sought mine and devoured it like a punishment. My chest arched toward him as his hands slid down my spine and pulled our bodies together. Our tongues crashed in a fierce battle, tasting, wanting. His kiss was my favorite toxin, a slow, agonizing poison. When I bit down on his lip, he released a throaty growl and grabbed my butt with both hands.

Death hoisted me up into his arms like I weighed nothing and slammed me back against a tree with his hips. "Like that," he said, demonstrating again. "Except your panties are off and in my mouth."

I couldn't help but laugh again as he kissed down the hollow of my neck to my collarbone. He slowed to a sizzling caress as his lips brushed mine once more, a good night kiss. The need for more friction overcame me as my mouth came down on his again and sought him in a darker, rougher way. I took control, crazed and fascinated by the monster holding me. He made me feel like I was sinning, permitting my lips to possess him over and over again. A fever spread throughout my body, the need to dig my nails underneath his clothing, rake my fingers through his soft hair. The crowding presence of his strong, protective body cocooning me in desire. His hips ground into mine again, and my palm spread out over his pounding heart.

And that's when I heard it. That strange ringing cutting through the greenhouse. It was soft at first, but then it grew louder, and I winced.

I fisted the back of Death's hair and pulled his face up from my cleavage to look at me. His wicked eyes bored into mine like liquid fire. He looked positively elated and erotic. His eyes were lustrous and wicked like two stolen, radiant emerald and peridot gems.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

He peered around. "No, and neither did you." He tried to face-plant back into my breasts, but I tugged on his hair again.

"That ringing, Death . . . "

The same ringing as when Ahrimad had appeared in the bathroom mirror.

I clamped my hands to my ears as the panic set in.

"Faith? Faith! "

In an instant, everything changed. Death's voice faded into the distance. The garden altered like I had taken a hallucinogenic drug. I turned in a circle. Exotic plants melted away, the ground stretching and shifting to wild grass.

I tilted my head up and fell to my knees.

It was the dead of night, and I was no longer in Ace's greenhouse. The moon shone through weeping shadows of branches that reached like roots across a starry sky and arced down like fallen angels. Wind caressed the willow leaves, swaying them softly.

The sound of footsteps edged closer.

I lurched onto my feet, my heart hammering.

"Who's there?" I demanded.

"This is certainly unexpected," said a bored, raspy voice.

A figure emerged from behind the willow tree. Moonlight slanted over Malphas's unforgettable features, creating a doll-like gleam to his stark black eyes and forcing the illusion of life within their cold, bottomless depths.

"Hello, Faith."

Fear slammed into me. I grabbed a rock off the ground and held it up between the raven demigod and me like weapon. "Don't come any closer!"

Malphas raised an eyebrow at the rock, then calmly slid his hands into the silken pockets of his pants. "How did you do this?"

I viewed him as if he were crazy. "Do what?"

"Find me," Malphas said, staring at me for a stretch of time. " You came to me ."

I couldn't breathe. What. The. Hell.

"Accident, was it?' A grin revealed Malphas's white teeth, which weren't dripping with black venom for a change. "Must have been because of the scar that marks your arm. Near-death experiences can form powerful bridges, you know."

"Am I . . . unconscious?'

"If I were to guess, yes. The strange part is . . . I'm not." Malphas corralled me back a few steps. We both knew the rock wouldn't save me from him. Tossing it to the side, I raised my fists. My heart was thrashing a mile a minute. Malphas showed his palms, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Why the hell should I believe you?"

"Because even if I wanted to, I couldn't," he explained, as if already uninterested in this interaction. "I believe you're having an out-of-body experience. It's called astral projecting. Your body remains on Earth, but your soul is here with me. At least, it appears that way, based on the glowing aura around you. Now I see what the big deal is. Your soul is indeed light itself."

I looked down at myself. Sure enough, I was a freaking glow stick. Great , I thought. I'm a lamp on Earth, and I'm a lightning bug here.

I gazed at the willow tree behind him. The same willow from Death's memories two-thousand years ago. "Where are we?"

"The Unknown," Malphas said. "It's a realm of time beyond Limbo, where forgotten souls and memories come to fade away."

"Where's Ahrimad?"

"Elsewhere." Malphas crossed his arms. "Preparing our army."

"Okay." I was going to have a heart attack. "Could you, um, help me get back? Please?"

"No. I don't think I will."

Ah, shit .

I needed to stall until I figured out a way out of this. "What were you doing before I came here?"

Malphas glanced over his shoulder at the willow. "I wanted to come back to a specific night. Traveling in the realm of the Unknown is a dangerous feat, but I learned a few tricks from a realm jumper in the Underworld." He stalked a half circle around the willow tree, inspecting it as if it would divulge something to him. "The particular moment I wanted to go back to was by our old family home. Alexandru's childhood home. I wandered through the forest to the willow nearby, and then you appeared."

I didn't know why he was telling me all of this.

"Has Death found a secure portal into the Otherworlds yet?" Malphas asked, deep in thought. "To retrieve his sickle-majiggy?"

"Why the hell would I answer anything you ask?" I snarled. His expression turned amused again. "All you've done is try to pit Death and me against each other, or screw with my head."

"All gods are tricksters; I await your point," Malphas sassed.

No DNA test needed. He was one thousand percent Death's father. "All you're planning to do now is get whatever info you can out of me to run back to your buddy Ahrimad with it and get a gold star."

Malphas gazed steadily at me in a way that made me think he was contemplating snapping my head off. He walked closer. Although he was shorter than Death by a handful of inches, that still landed him well above six feet. Add in the venomous look on his face and he was a nightmare come to life.

"Little girl, I must inform you, before you speak so openly again, that you are currently stuck here , and that mouth of yours won't bode well with me." He tucked his lower lip over his bottom teeth and bit down, pausing before deciding to admit more. "For your information, I have only seen Ahrimad once since the D&S ball, and it was in passing. I complete my tasks for him, and I wander wherever I please. Frankly, he is insufferably annoying to be around."

"You're telling me that you're avoiding Ahrimad?"

Malphas said nothing.

"That doesn't make any sense," I continued. "You're his—his second-in-command."

Malphas narrowed his eyes. "Where were you? Something must have triggered this new ability of yours, yes?"

I thought back to my make-out session with Death, and my eyes went wide. "None of your business, Polly Wants a Cracker."

Malphas cocked his head. "Have you forgotten how fragile your life is? How skinny and breakable your bones are? Perhaps I will remind you."

He took one forceful step toward me, and I reeled back.

"That's what I thought," Malphas muttered. He turned his head slightly toward the willow tree, and his even expression seethed into frustration. "Now," he said, walking toward the tree, "to figure out why you've come here—"

Those black eyes focused on my neck.

"That gem."

I absently touched the barracuda around my throat. "I'm sorry?'

Malphas lifted an arm as though to reach for the necklace but decided against it. "Your pendant. His mother wore one like it."

"Death's mother?" I inquired.

Malphas nodded, his eyes still trained on the necklace.

"It's a barracuda—"

"I know what it is," Malphas said sharply. "It has the classic serpentine shape around the gem. Hers was . . . different, though. There was no cross. It was only a blue gem and a serpent. An amulet. Hers contained a Familiar too."

"A Familiar?"

Malphas finally lifted his black gaze from the pendant and blinked at me. "A Familiar is a species of demon. An entity that follows witches. It was trapped inside her necklace."

We stared at one another for a long, confusing moment. "Did . . . she trap it there?"

"No." I almost missed the small flare of anger that sparked behind his cold, dead eyes. "The Familiar was put there as a price. A consequence."

"A consequence of what?"

Malphas shifted his attention to the willow. "I have done unspeakable things in this world that have left me entrenched in sin, but my greatest offence is my most painful secret. A secret that I will take to the grave. You must discover these answers on your own."

A riddle.

He'd given me a riddle. Just like he'd given Alexandru a riddle in the gladiator arena two thousand years ago.

"Your warlock, Ace," Malphas said at last. "You trust him?"

I nodded once.

"You shouldn't. Let's just say Ace and I crossed paths recently, and his mind had a lot of secrets to share with me."

I turned my head to follow him as he moved around me.

"There is a glimpse into the future that the warlock has kept from you," Malphas said in a solemn voice. "A fate only you can stop. Ahrimad will destroy him, Faith. He will kill my son." Wind swirled suddenly and threw his warrior braids to the side. It coiled around us, the cold slate of his face unflinching against our chaotic surroundings as they faded. "Unless you jump."

The world was melting away like a dream, and coldness washed down my spine. Death . He was close. But I was far away, and I didn't know how to get back.

My breath came out fast and unfulfilling as I swung my gaze around the shattering world, searching for a way out. Suddenly, I heard a clicking noise and whirled around. My scalp prickled with fear. The creature standing before me had reflective skin like a mirror, with no visible features. Gazing at me with its eyeless face, its body swayed like a charmed snake. All at once, the mold of its face shifted, and it opened a large jaw filled with piranha teeth and howled.

I jumped back and hit a warm body. I turned, and violet eyes met mine.

"Return," Ace commanded.

I awoke with a sharp inhale.