Page 1 of A Bond in Flames

PROLOGUE

Zinnia

Rose looked into the mortar.“Will there be enough?”

“That’s just for you.” I took the blade from my pack, sliced both palms, and smeared blood all over my naked body.

My sweet cousin’s eyes widened. “What will that do?”

I flashed her a grin, refusing to let her see my fear. “Boost the hell out of my power… and make me look badass. I’m coming face-to-face with Death. I plan on making a memorable first impression.”

She stared at me in disbelief. “But your soul… you need the oil.”

“My soul is going to be just fine. It’s going to be okay, Roe, I promise,” I lied. This was far from fine, but there was no other choice, not for me, not anymore.

Rose quickly finished covering her body with the oily potion, and I took her hand.

The pile of stones rumbled behind us, and we spun around as the ground shook, the earth rolling beneath our feet as if it were trying to force Rose to let me go. Her hand slipped in my blood-covered one, but we linked fingers, holding tight.

The stones rolled, reforming, revealing skulls, as if the bones had been fossilized in each one, empty eye sockets and jaws hanging wide. When they stopped, we were staring into a gateway—right into Limbo.

It was dark on the other side, shadowed, cold. A thumping sound echoed in the distance, rolling through the portal. It was a slow, steady beat, growing in volume until I felt the thump in my bones.

Death.

Rose trembled.

He was coming for her.

She squeezed my hand. “What should I say?”

The wind became violent, her blonde hair whipping around her lovely face. I squeezed her hand in return. “Let me do the talking,” I called over the raging storm.

The rumbling sound was constant now, the icy blast making it hard to draw breath.

Then I saw him.

A shroud of moving shadows. He kept coming until he stood on the other side of the gate, so tall, he towered over us. I watched, unable to breathe as he lifted the twisted wooden staff in his hand, glowing with power, and thumped it one last time against the ground.

The wind stopped in an instant, the world seeming to still around us.

I gasped for breath, and I felt Rose’s fear spike higher. I tightened my hand on hers. I’d seen Death once before, when he came to me in a nightmare and turned my world upside down. He had to be close to seven feet tall and was completely concealed, except for a thin, tattooed hand gripping his wooden staff and blue eyes that glowed from beneath his hood.

We waited as that frigid glare moved between us.

“I told you to come alone,” he said to Rose.

The deep way his voice resonated, arctic and terrible, washed over me, invoking a multitude of emotions—grief and heartbreak, loneliness and despair, but worse, oh goddess, the pure, raw horror. It took everything in me not to fall to the ground, shaking and sobbing.

I had to be strong, though, for Rose, for my entire family. “I’m afraid you can’t have her,” I said and hoped like hell he didn’t hear the waver in my voice.

Rose moved closer to me, and I held on to her tight.

Death studied me for several long seconds. “And you think you can stop me from taking what I’m owed?”

“If you take Rose’s soul, you’ll be interfering with a bargain between Lucifer and her sister’s mate. Lucifer granted immortality to the Thornheart sisters if they mated. Rose is mated. She can’t die.”

Rose spun to me, shocked.

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