Page 17 of A Bond in Flames

“He likes to do it.”

“Take care of you?”

“Yes.”

Death cared about Egon, considered his feelings, wanted him to be happy. “He’s your friend.”

He grunted and stabbed a piece of meat and put it in his mouth, and as soon as he’d swallowed it, his gaze came back to me. “Why wouldn’t you kill me if you had the means?” he asked, picking up the same line of questioning from the night before.

I’d really been hoping he’d forget about that, but the male had the memory of an elephant. There was no reason to lie. “I don’t hate you. I never really did. When I was younger, I was scared, so I hid from you. But I figure, you didn’t specificallychoose meto be your consort, and this whole… thing, whateverthisis”—I glanced between us—“was out of your control as well. So how can I hate you for it?”

The muscle in his jaw jumped, but he said nothing.

I took another sip of my wine. “My turn.” I could ask what exactlythis thingwas. He demanded I be here in Limbo with him, but I had no idea why. I didn’t think asking that right now was a great idea, though. “What’s with this place?” I asked instead, deciding to appease my curiosity.

“What do you mean?”

“I live in your castle. This place is the complete opposite of that. This is not you.”

“No, it’s not me, but it was the first thing that came to mind, so I recreated it.”

“Recreated? Who lived here before?”

“You asked your question, and I answered it,” he said and carried on eating.

I studied him. “It belonged to one of your consorts, didn’t it?”

He said nothing.

Which meant, why yes, yes, it did. “So what was this place? Did she build it here in Limbo? Or was it something she lived in before she became your consort, and if so, how do you know what it looked like?”

Still, he said nothing, and then a thought occurred to me: was this where they spent quiet time together? Like a night away from the castle, just the two of them… the Limbo equivalent of a dirty weekend?

A weird feeling swirled in my belly, and without my say-so, my eyes slid to the opulent bed, big and draped in soft, richly colored fabrics. I swallowed audibly in the utter silence that had engulfed the room. I was right. Somehow, I knew I was right. I mean, the bathroom didn’t even have a proper door. This place was for people who had no boundaries, no inhibitions, and were completely at ease around each other.

I turned back to Death and noticed he was watching me closely.

Clearing my throat, because it felt impossibly tight all of a sudden, I carried on eating, but Death didn’t look away from me, not once. If anything, he grew more intense, and the energy he was throwing off was filling the room. Goddess, goose bumps had lifted all over me. I licked my lips nervously.

Death made a low sound that shot right through me, and I took a swig of my wine.

“So what time will we reach the gate tomorrow?” I said because the silence, the tension, felt like a rope pulled taut and about to break at any moment.

He snapped out of whatever this was and unfroze, the tension dialingwaydown. “If we leave early, we should be there before midday.”

I nodded. “I’ll need to prepare before we leave. If there’s a chance I’ll be fighting, I need my magic at full power, and an extra boost would be a good idea as well. I’m not ready to die quite yet.”

“You can have as much time as you need,” he said. “Do you need to perform a spell or some kind of ritual?”

Whenever he talked to me like this, no deals or bartering or demands, like he could be anyone, just your average Joe asking questions—well, except for that voice—I was always taken aback, but I knew better than to let my guard down. Not with how fast his moods shifted. “Yeah, a simple ritual. I’ll use blood to increase my power.”

“Do you want me to kill something for you?” he asked in his destroyer’s voice, but somehow, it came out like crushed velvet.

It slid over my skin, and I barely suppressed my shiver. Jesus, the way he said it, so intimate, as if he were whispering dirty things in the dark.

This was a different version of Death, again. This transformation hadn’t been slow and steady; no, he just seemed to have suddenly changed when I came back, and every day that passed, this new side of him was making an appearance more and more. He was giving me more “human” vibes and less of the vengeful God of Death. Though that was still there as well, it just wasn’t all he was now. He was… more.

I cleared my throat again. “Ah… no, thank you. That won’t be necessary. I’ll use my own blood.”

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