VII

Being held by the corpse of the Grim Reaper, which was currently controlled by an external force, was certainly not the most relaxing experience of my life.

But hey, at least he wasn't trying to eat me.

As I struggled to stay still, the corpse's tongue flicked out to trace my lips. Warmth spread through my body. Christ on a cracker, I was getting turned on by a corpse. But how could I not? What I could see around the silver mask was utter perfection. Michelangelo himself might have carved that angular jaw, shadowed with dark, delicious stubble. His lips were full and kissable. This is not him. This is wrong and sick on so many levels .

I tore my gaze away, trembling as the corpse straightened to his full height with me tucked in his arms. Around us was utter chaos as guests scrambled to leave the ballroom.

"Stun the humans and dump them in the lobby!" Devin Star ordered seven men in tuxedos. Death's reapers. Their eyes glowed with power as they were given the command. " Nobody leaves this building!"

Devin stormed toward me, halting when Death's corpse grabbed me firmly by the nape of my neck with his taloned hand. The humanlike appearance of the corpse's face wavered like a hologram as his jaw unhinged, revealing a mouthful of fangs that extended like daggers. Terror paralyzed me, and the corpse unleashed a bestial howl of warning. The monstrous sound echoed around the ballroom like thunder and rattled the massive chandelier overhead.

I was so screwed.

Up close, the corpse's eyes were too alien and terrifying to be real. The eyes that had haunted my dreams and stained all those canvases I'd painted rapidly dilated as the corpse turned his head down to look at me.

"Hey," I whispered, my voice trembling. "It's cupcake. Remember me?" His pupils swelled as I spoke. He inclined his head. "Of course you don't. It's not you you. But you gotta have some instinct in there that we know each other, right? You don't want to hurt me. We're friends. Kinda. Let's not get into the nitty-gritty . . . "

The corpse released a low, menacing growl that made me audibly gulp like a cartoon.

"Faith!" Ace's voice snapped my attention to the violet-eyed warlock, who was still presumably possessed by Death. He stood beside Devin in a wide stance like he was prepared to attack. "I'm going to distract . . . well, myself . Soon as you get the chance, you run like hell."

The corpse leaned in to inhale my throat. When I leaned away, I felt those claws dig unhappily into my spine. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" I squeaked.

"You're going to get her head ripped off!" Devin exclaimed.

"You got a better idea, old man?" Death snarled.

Judging by the sickly color of Ace's skin and the gleam of sweat over his brow, Death didn't have much time until he was expelled from the warlock's body. He had to get back in his corpse. Fast.

Fate had other plans, as a ring of blue fire sprang from the ground. It startled Death's corpse into releasing me. The fiery blaze circled around Death, his corpse, and me until we were imprisoned, leaving Lucifer and the chaos around us muffled by the crackling flames.

Two dark figures emerged from the fire like gods summoned from the depths of the Underworld. I rushed backward into Death and grasped the warlock's arm.

One of the figures was Malphas. The other was less corporeal, waning in the light like a mirage against the fiendish flames . . .

"Ahrimad," Death said.

Ahrimad narrowed in on the warlock and lingered. "Alexandru." An unnerving smile revealed the sharp ends of his teeth. "You look so . . . unlike yourself."

"Same to you, Casper," Death sneered.

A vein in Ahrimad's forehead bulged. He shifted his face slightly to Malphas, and the raven demigod's complexion changed. Suddenly, Malphas snatched Death's corpse by the back of the head, bringing it to stand by his side. Despite the corpse's imposing size and monstrous strength, Malphas controlled it with ease, like a giant puppet.

Ahrimad's amber eyes fixed on mine, sharp and intense, predatorial. "Is this fragile little thing the mortal he spared, Malphas?"

"Yes," Malphas replied.

"What do you want?" Death ground out.

"What do I want ?" Ahrimad turned away from me to Death, laughing under his breath. "I want that which belongs to me . I want to reign once more as the mortals' greatest fear and turn them into the hogs they are meant to be. I want to be corporeal, and I want a body. I shall never again have the one you took from me, only this illusion of the vessel you destroyed. Nevertheless, this will all be rectified once you hand over the Book of the Dead ."

Death curled his hands into fists. "Looks like you're barking up the wrong tree. Lucifer doesn't have the book either."

Ahrimad's amber eyes flared to life, frightening and intense. He turned his head to Malphas. " Malphas . Find me the truth in his mind."

The raven demigod's complexion shifted to an otherworldly monster. He took a step away from Death's empty corpse, dark veins spreading outward from his soulless eyes like a disease as he focused on his son. Death kept his head forward; his jaw set as he stared down his father in what appeared to be a silent battle. A small, vicious smirk lifted the corner of Malphas's mouth, and suddenly, Death dropped to his knees with a scream, clutching at his skull as though to keep it together. It didn't stop there. Malphas continued to unleash his power on Death's host in the most casual, unrelenting manner, all while Ahrimad cackled like a madman in the background. It was too much to bear, too much to watch. I clutched at my chest, frozen in a helpless panic, knowing that if I didn't intervene, Death's soul would leave Ace's body.

I fumbled for the hidden dagger in the skirts of my dress and curled my fingers around the hilt.

"Leave him alone!" The words tore out of me, and I lurched into action. I lifted my arm and threw the dagger with all my might. The knife released from my palm toward Malphas with a burst of light. At the last second, he veered out of the way, and my eyes widened as the knife hit Ahrimad instead. The light and the blade slashed into his semi-transparent face. Bile rose in my throat at the missing portion of Ahrimad's jaw. He glared at me as the blue fire surrounding us transformed to black, consumed by hissing shadow.

"What was that?" he demanded. Death's scythe suddenly appeared at Ahrimad's side, imprisoned in his white-knuckled grasp. The second Ahrimad touched the blade, his wound healed and he solidified, a dark halo outlining his silhouette. "You dare attack me?"

Scythe in hand, Ahrimad started toward me, and I imagined that massive blade could cut me in half with ease. Having no idea what I was doing and little time to react, I curled my fingers in tight and punched toward Ahrimad. Energy vibrated down my arm and exploded outward like a lightning bolt, nearly knocking me off my feet. Missing by a mile, the light carried into the dark shadow wall behind Ahrimad and burned a hole straight through.

"You missed," Ahrimad mocked.

But it wasn't over. The hole I'd formed in the wall broadened, outlined by a vibrant ring of my strange light, which burned like an eternal blaze even as the darkness tried to consume it.

Dark and light, like oil and water.

Ahrimad slowly turned away from the strange phenomenon to look at me, and an eerie feeling of being exposed crawled over my skin. I felt him seek something deeper—seek my soul —as he peered into me.

A small, serpentine grin lifted his lips. "Interesting."

A force slammed into the wall of shadows from the other side, exploding like a bomb.

Malphas, who now had Death and his corpse kneeling submissively on the ground before him, barked out, "Forget about the girl! The portal is closing!"

The portal? What portal?

"This is not the end," Ahrimad said to Death. "May tonight serve as a reminder: the Devil cannot hide in his tower any longer. This is just a taste of the chaos that is to come. The grimoire will be mine."

Ahrimad lifted the scythe, and the staff blazed a brilliant blue, electricity firing from the top of the blade. The energy rocketed into the mirrored ceiling of the ballroom, causing one of the mirrors to ripple like silvery water. Ahrimad dematerialized into black smoke and shot up into the ceiling. He was gone. But Malphas lingered behind.

Death's father remained at the center of the ballroom floor, using his son's empty corpse as a shield. The corpse foamed at the mouth like a rabid animal, its mismatched eyes rolling back into its head.

" Fight me , you coward!" Death exclaimed, his voice raw as he staggered to his feet. He moved with jerky, mechanical strides, as if Ace's legs were no longer fully cooperating with him.

Over the corpse's shoulder, Malphas's features visibly strained, his lips twitching. I had the strangest thought that he'd stayed behind because he'd wanted to say something to Death, but he couldn't .

Malphas shoved the corpse forward and exploded into a thousand ravens. They spiraled high and vanished through the mirror still rippling in the ceiling above us.

And that's when it all went down the crap chute.

The corpse stumbled between me and Devin and Death. It unleashed a bloodcurdling howl as it grew , joints popping, bones snapping. Clothes tore, its height and width expanding just like it had in the alleyway when Death had fought off Malphas's demons. Except now I could see the transformation, the man becoming the monster, well over seven feet of muscle and rage. Ink blotched the corpse's tan skin in patches, spreading across the body like wildfire until it was night itself. Features sharpened, too sinister to be human. Shadows fired from his broad back, unfurling in wicked tendrils and briefly outlining the exoskeleton of two enormous, invisible wings.

Then the corpse roared, the deafening sound unlike any apex predator in my wildest imagination.

All I could do was gape in disbelief.

Another creature suddenly crashed into the corpse, tackling it to the ground. The red, scaly being rippled with lean muscle, a barbed tail with an arrow point slashing the air behind him. Lucifer. He crawled onto all fours before standing, a forked tongue flicking out of his mouth.

"Get her out of here!" Lucifer thundered, his voice monstrous and otherworldly. "We need the girl alive!"

"I'm not leaving until I'm back in my corpse!" Death snarled, gripping his wound as Ace's body bled.

Fire exploded from Lucifer's hands as he charged to attack Death's corpse first, and I managed to snap out of it enough to get out of the way. Death's corpse launched into the air to avoid him, plumes of smoke momentarily outlining his phantom wings again as they swept forward. One flap and they cut through the ground like it was made of papier-maché, the sheer force hurling wind through the ballroom like a hurricane. I held on to one of the guest tables for dear life, but when the corpse lowered to the ground, I imagined those lethal wings sliced back like a pendulum of doom.

I felt a sharp pain in my side and screamed. My hands released the table, and I was tossed back, only to land in waiting arms.

"Cue girlish swooning," Death said dryly.

I fought to catch my breath. "Nice catch. Now get your hand off my ass."

"Get your ass off my hand." Death set me down—and not very gently, might I add—as I nearly toppled over. But I realized it wasn't him that had affected my balance as a wet warmth drew my attention down to my torso, where a massive gash tore into my side. Shock had numbed the sensation until now, and blood poured from the wound.

" Shit ," Death hissed.

I could see bone and bit down on my lip not to scream. The raw pain of the injury was like a branding iron. I must have almost fainted, because time seemed to skip forward a few seconds, and now Death was holding me upright. My eyes were glued to the deep gash as the most miraculous thing happened: my skin began to heal. The gash was closing inch by inch, and the pain was dissipating . . .

I looked up at Death with wide eyes. "Was that you?"

"No."

"Oh, okay. Cool. Awesome. Because that would have made me feel better ." The room spun. "Welp, good luck getting your body back. I'm going to go pass out now—"

"I don't think so." Death hauled me up into a standing position again. "Go out there and distract my corpse so I can sneak up on it and get back inside."

" What? Have you seen your corpse right now?" I said frantically. "The fangs? The talons? That famished, unrelenting need in its freaky eyes to tear my flesh apart?"

"That's just my resting face, cupcake."

"You need me? Then we're at an impasse. I want a guarantee that when you're back in your body, Aunt Sarah and I get to go home safe."

"The only impasse between us," Death said as we watched his corpse slam Lucifer into the marble floor, "was me five seconds ago considering tossing you in front of my corpse and forcing a distraction." Then he pinned me hard to the pillar and loomed over me, Ace's once kind features transforming into Death's fearsome wrath. "Be a good girl and do as I say," he said, "or the first thing I'm going to snack on when I'm back in my body is your mommy and daddy. Got it?"

It wasn't like I had any choice other than to help the jerk.

"Now here's what you're going to—" Death started, but I was already shoving past him and heading into the war zone. "Or you can just go out there and wing it!" he growled after me.

I stood in the centre of the ballroom floor and planted my feet.

Ahead, Lucifer was taking a beating from the corpse, but every laceration the beast tore into his scaly red skin appeared to be healing rapidly. Things quickly took a turn to for the worse as Lucifer noticed me. His eyes widened. "What are you doing, Faith? Get back!"

The corpse bit down on Lucifer's shoulder and tore, tendons ripping from muscle, and he howled in pain. The corpse tossed Hell's king away like a discarded Frisbee and then its attention twisted to me. And it charged .

As the monstrous creature closed the gap between us, something built inside of me. Growing, raging, about to burst at the seams. My fingers tingled with warmth. All my emotions, everything I felt in that moment, flooded to the surface and threatened to overflow.

In my peripheral vision, Death snapped into action and began to run at me to push me out of the way. He wouldn't get to me fast enough as his corpse lunged toward me with talons outstretched.

"Stop!" A burst of blinding white energy shot from my hands and smashed into the corpse. When I opened my eyes, the seven-foot monster hovered over me. His claws hung in the air like frozen knives at my throat, and he was stuck in a bent position.

When I glanced over at Death, his eyes were so wide they might've popped out of the warlock's head. "Whatever the hell you're doing, keep it up!"

I kept my glowing hands raised, somehow maintaining the blinding white light.

Death tossed Ace's walking staff to the side and inhaled deeply, chanting in a foreign language as he exhaled. The massive chandelier in the ballroom flickered, and my vision started to blotch around the sides.

Exhaustion crept into my bones, and my biceps shook. The light radiating from my fingertips dimmed as I struggled to hold on.

The warlock collapsed to his knees, gasping for air and writhing on the floor. Blood poured from his nose and the corners of his mouth. His arms, fingers, and legs bent as his body seized until a dark substance began to ooze from his nose and mouth.

The black matter tore across the air and smashed right into Death's paralyzed corpse. The corpse animated again and fell back, hitting the ground as a dead weight. Death's body shifted with harsh crunches, shrinking down until he resembled a human man. He lay motionless on his back, naked, drenched in sweat, skin as pale as snow. Lacerations marred his chest and his leg, black, oily blood seeping from the wounds. I thought the worst.

Death shot upward, and I screamed. He hadn't done it with sharp inhale like I'd seen in movies. No, he wasn't breathing at all. His pupils were expanded over his irises, and his fangs poked out from his parted lips. He was back.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and the hair at the back of my neck prickled.

"You're coming with me," Lucifer said.