Page 21 of A Bond in Flames

Zuri stumbled, jolting me back to the here and now, and I ran my hand down her neck to soothe her.

In the end, the fates had gotten their way, like they always did. There’d be no escaping my destiny, and there never had been. When I thought of the price I’d paid to conceal myself from him—I shuddered. I hadn’t known. Even after what was stolen from me was gone, I still hadn’t understood the magnitude of it.

I shook off the memories, not wanting to go back there, to what happened three days later in that grimy little house, or think about those dead yellow eyes that haunted me still on my darkest days.

Zuri tilted her head to the side, and I felt the tension in her body as unease built behind my chest; something was seriously off. We were still in Limbo, but I felt it—the Outer Realm was seeping through the gateway and polluting this part of the forest. What the hell would it be like on the other side?

Death continued to scan the area around us. He felt it as well.

“We’re close, aren’t we?”

With a growl, several demons burst from the trees and attacked Zuri. She shrieked in pain, and Raze spun around, roaring. I jumped from her back, before she bucked me off, and went after the demons biting and slicing her with their claws. I pulled out my knife and stabbed the one closest in the eye, about to spin him around and stab him in the throat—but then Death was there. He still had powers, even if they were diminished, but instead of making them gopoof, he grabbed the one I’d stabbed. His hand and forearm turned black—something I’d never seen before—and as soon as he touched the demon, blood spilled from the creature’s mouth. Death gripped him under the chin and wrenched his head back, tearing it clean off with a snarl.

Another came at me, and he slashed its throat with his staff, kicked it in the sternum, and went down with it. He pulled a knife from his boot, and gripping the demon’s face with that black hand, holding him down, blood oozing from between his fingers, he hacked its head off, and it turned to ash.

Death finished off the rest before I could even get to them. The touch of Death was real, and I’d just seen it in action.

When the last demon disintegrated at his feet, he strode to me, his gaze slicing over my body. “Are you injured?”

“No, I’m fine.” I quickly checked on Hemy. He was curled up, trembling, and I held him in his bag close to me. “I’m so sorry, baby,” I whispered.

Death closed in. “It’s only going to get worse. Let me send him back. Egon will look after him.”

I hated being parted from Hemlock—he was my familiar, and it physically hurt to be away from him—but I would never forgive myself if something happened to him. He was terrified, and it broke my heart to see him like this. I nodded and scooped him up. “Egon is going to take good care of you until I get back, okay? You know he loves to give you treats.” Hemy squeaked, then gave me a little hiss, not happy, not wanting to be away from me either. “Do you have enough power this close to the gateway?”

Death nodded.

I kissed Hemlock on his fuzzy little head and handed him over.

Death gently took him, cradling him in his big, tattooed hands. Hemlock looked up at him wide-eyed as Death closed his eyes, head tilted back.

One moment, Hemlock was there; the next, he was gone. When Death opened his eyes again, they were bright, glowing. “Egon has him. He knows what to do.”

Zuri whimpered. She was bleeding badly, and Raze was pressed to her side. “Is she going to be okay?”

“As long as they leave now so Raze can tend to her wounds—his saliva has powerful healing properties,” he said and strode over to them. “You may go now, my friends. I’m sorry your mate was injured, Raze. When she has recovered, come to the castle, and I’ll make sure you have all the food you need and clean wool and cotton for your nest.”

Raze made a low sound and leaned into Death when he ran his hands down the beast’s side. We quickly got our bags, removed their bridles and girth straps; then Raze nudged his mate, and they loped off into the forest.

“We need to keep moving.” Death scanned the trees surrounding us. “There could be more demons close by.”

Slipping on my pack, I tightened the leather straps, then secured my hunting knife to my thigh and motioned ahead. “Lead the way.”

We walked quickly and quietly through the dense forest, and every now and then I heard the crack of a branch or a distant howl. “They’re stalking us.”

He glanced down at me and nodded. “We’ll be harder to detect once we pass through the gate with my power so diminished. We should hopefully get a head start before they work out we’re there.”

“So what are we doing when we get through? Is there something we need to collect, something that will wake your brother?”

Death continued to look ahead. “His physical body is in my castle, but his dream-self is in our mother’s realm. It’s the only way he’s safe from her there. We need to go to the location his dream-self resides and call for him to wake.” He tilted his head to the side, listening, and I did the same, but then he carried on.

“Why is his… dream-self there in the first place?”

“He guards something there that only he has the ability to protect.”

“What’s he guarding?”

He paused, just for a moment. “Something precious.”

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