Chapter 66

Racing through my mind for tendrils of a plan, my back completely shredded and everyone who cared about me at their breaking points, I rose against the desire to slump and beg. Death liked bargains. I could do this. I just needed to think. Quickly.

"Release me and I will speak the terms."

I hated the delight on his face when his power flowed away and I slipped in the pool of my own blood, falling to a knee. The jarring pain nearly caused a scream, but I remembered where I was. Who I would be feeding if I let myself falter. So, I rose, limping across the stage to stand before the first man I'd ever killed.

"I am sorry. If you can trust me for even a moment, and you have a desire to leave this place, I will prove it to you."

The man narrowed his eyes as the crowd that had become restless and uncomfortable with Death's gruesome show stilled. He took my hand, and I walked him to the front of the stage. He said nothing when I held too tight, using him to keep my balance as the world swayed below me.

Cold steel wrapped through my veins as I turned to Death.

"Your bargain?" he asked, so intrigued he'd let his magic recede, the cage around Orin flickering as if it were only an illusion.

"The only thing stronger than fear is hope," I yelled, loud enough the crowd could hear every bit of diction in my words as I planted a palm into Garrit Faden's chest and let my power ripple. Just as my mother had, his body turned to ash, and his soul was released.

I couldn't hear the crowd's collective gasp over Death's absolute roar.

Still, I shouted. "You replace your fear with hope and take away his power. Find me and I will release you," I shouted, just as the world was enveloped in inky black shadows.

The banks of the Lake of Lost souls had crumbled, expanding the body of water as if Death's anger had rattled the world. But I was too foolish to be scared, too reckless to be careful. Too desperate to listen to the warnings that had been Ezra's mantra since the moment we met.

That man had stood for me, had offered to take my suffering, and I'd thought he didn't care for me at all. When in reality, as I peered over the lake and watched Orin dangling above it, gripping Death's shadows wrapped around his neck, I realized Ezra cared beyond rage. Beyond reason. He cared enough to try to keep us all safe, no matter the cost to him. Because they were his family. His weakness, just as Orin was mine.

And Death knew it. My heart plummeted. All resolve melted away as sheer panic rose until my fingers went numb. Until my breaths were shallow and all I could do was look out over those dangerous waters and pray to any of the gods to help us. Because I was only a single soul drowning in an eternity of Death's wrath.

Still, I dared to stare him in the eyes. To appear more than what I was. Because the only other option was to fall to my knees and beg. Death's eyes, once cold and calculating, now wild and frenzied, like an unhinged predator on the brink of madness. He began to pace, steps uneven and disjointed. The shadows billowing beneath him flickered, and he jerked.

"If you want to know where Cythronia is, you will release him."

"Are those the terms?" he asked wildly. "You have no power here. Not really. Do you think your little parlor trick was enough to change the minds of thousands? You're already mine, and you damn well know it. You're desperate now. I can see it. I can feel your fear like a vibration. I can fucking taste it."

Each step I took was poised and deliberate, a mirror to the quiet assurance that settled over me like a cloak. "You're wrong. I'm not dead, and you have no power over me. I'll never be yours because I already belong to him."

I didn't need to point for Death to know who I meant, and he flinched as if I'd struck him. The very existence of his son was a threat to him, just as my mother had warned while standing in this very spot.

"You would've never gotten past my hounds if you weren't dead, Deyanira. Don't tell lies."

I smiled, matching one I'd seen him share for over a decade. "You're the one who told them I wasn't a threat, don't you remember?"

He swept a hand toward Orin, and the shadows mimicked his gesture, until they became an extension of him, their tendrils matching his shape, no longer ribbons of murky shadows but fingers wrapped around his son's throat. He lowered his arm, watching only me. Waiting for me to cry out.

But instead, I played the final card I had in the game. The one I'd saved. The wild card that might've gotten me nowhere. "If you do this, Reverius, the Supreme Sovereign and Keeper of All Realms will ban you from every world, not only Requiem and that of the gods. Everywhere, across all time and all realms. You will become obsolete." It was a lie, one pulled from desperation and yearning. Ro had given me the name of the highest god. She planted the weapon and trusted me to wield it wisely.

"You dare speak that name to me? He has no power here."

Daring another step, I pushed. "Yes, he does, and I think deep down you know it. That's your fear. That's why the Whispering Grove bothers you. Your own fear threatens you there. But I'm still standing here, willing to make a bargain with you. A simple one. Release him, and I will tell you where she is."

The severity on his face flickered to worry. He was weakening, and he knew it. The hope I'd planted on that stage was growing, as he did not return to them immediately to reignite the fear.

"Only Orin can send Cythronia Eiria's soul to this realm now that you have no harbinger in Requiem, and only I can tell you where she is. For now. Unless she runs again."

"She loves me," he yelled. "She doesn't run. She is lost and waiting for me to find her."

"Oh. Is that what that is? I must've misunderstood her."

Death's eyes narrowed once more, but this time, when his power flickered, Orin dropped, his legs falling into the water as he screamed in agony. The Lake of Lost souls had captured him, and though half of him remained above the water, his very soul was being ripped from his body, inch by inch, ethereal hands clawing at him.

I broke. Screaming. All the strength and resolve I'd ever built against Death slipped away as everything turned ice cold. Watching Orin be taken from me, knowing the finality of that pit of water was like staring but not seeing. Speaking with no sound. As if Death's bloodied whips had wrapped around my heart. I screamed again. For every lashing, every time he'd seared a name into my palm. Every time I'd taken a life, each second of his madness that poisoned my soul. Down and down, Orin fell. I didn't want to see it, but I couldn't look away when those golden eyes flashed to me. When a calmness fell over him as he accepted his fate.

"Live, Deyanira," he managed. "Love another."

"No!" I crawled, fucking crawled, on my hands and knees to the water's edge, ready to plunge. My eternity would already be filled with longing without him anyway.

Death's thick fingers gripped the back of my hair, ripping me away from the bank as he pulled his son from the water and dropped him unceremoniously to the ground, smothering him in so much darkness, I couldn't see a limb, his face, or a slice of his clothing.

Orin's father kneeled, sliding a finger across my neck, stopping where my heart pounded furiously. "Your scream was more perfect than I remembered. Thank you for your fear. He will be such a good tool to control you."

Pure rage rattled beneath my skin. "The funny thing about me is, I've never done well with controlling assholes. Ask your son."

With no hesitation, I launched myself at him, driving my fingers around his neck as he fell backward, skin searing beneath my palms just as he'd burned me over and over again. He laughed at first, until the first pulse of my power surged through him. And then it was there. Death's own horror. Sweet, delicious fear. Pushing and digging deeper and deeper into the pit of my magic, a place I'd never bothered to explore, I dove, letting the power heal me as it took from him. I heaved everything I had at Death as he thrashed beneath me, fighting and swinging and shoving his shadows, trying and failing to knock me away. I felt them surge urgently into my body, searching for his darkness. But they were denied. Only light shone through. My light. Ro's ultimate revenge.

He stared back at me, so much less of a being than he had been. He was still in there, though, not defeated. Not gone. Weakened. Just as I was. Bone-tired and drained of all power, I continued to reach for more. I needed more. But there was nothing.

I'd lost.

A hand slid over my shoulder. "You cannot remove Death, my love."

Fingers still tight at his father's throat, I peered up at Orin beyond my tears and anguish to see his eyes still so dark, his veins still black, though he spoke with his softest voice.

"Fight back, Orin. Fight back."

"I am darkness," he answered, falling to his knees beside me as his father gripped my wrists, shoving away the final remnants of light.

A slew of fresh tears fell as I tried to hold on, to pour from an empty well. "No. You are perfection, and you're mine, not his. Fight back."

Orin's voice became so soft, so vulnerable, it eviscerated my heart. "Will you stay with me, my love? In the shadows?"

"And in the light and every shade between," I whispered.

Death's shadows pulsed, sending me flying backward, knocking the breath from me. "It's over," Orin said, calmly twisting his hand to reveal the slender curves of Chaos before plunging my blade into his father's heart. "I accept my role as Death."