Page 24 of A Bond in Flames

Finally, I was able to drag in a ragged breath.

“And again.”

I stared at him, unable to look away from those glowing eyes and that shadowed face as I drew in oxygen like I’d never breathed before. My head spun, and my body was still thrumming. Goddess, I was so hot and achy.

“What was that?” I whispered to break the unbearable tension.

“An owllike creature that can tear a face off with one swipe of his talons. He’s Nox’s pet, and she can see through his eyes.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” I said, still whispering. “Do you think she knows we’re here?”

“Possibly.”

I licked my lips as nerves coiled impossibly tight in my belly. “Your cloak… I thought your powers didn’t really work here.”

His glowing gaze studied me closely. “My cloak isn’t a power,” he said, still perilously close. “It’s part of me. We are one and the same.”

The mournful hooting sound came again, and it was far in the distance now. Still, he didn’t take the cloak away, keeping us ensconced in his camouflage, turning us into shadows.

His breathing grew rougher, and he wasn’t moving away. His arms were still around me, and his hands were hot against my back.

“Who’s Aster?” I blurted. Ever since I dreamed about her last night, I’d been wanting to ask.

He flinched.

“One of your consorts?”

“How do you know that name?”

The roughness to his voice tore a shiver from me. “She came to me while I slept. She showed herself, offering me a vision of her… and, ah, you while we were in the tree house.”

“What do you mean showed herself?” he bit out.

“I’m a medium, communing with the dead is what I do. I didn’t think those powers worked in Limbo, but somehow, she showed me a… a memory of the two of you.”

“What were we doing?” His eyes bored into me.

I wished I’d kept my damn mouth shut, but he wasn’t going to let it go, not until I shared what I saw, because he never let anything go. The fact we were so close, still under his cloak, and he looked like…thatwhile my traitorous body burned for the terrifying god holding me made it all the more humiliating. “You were… making love.”

His nostrils flared, and a growl rolled from his chest.

I didn’t dare tell him it wasn’t the first one that I’d seen or that I’d started to wonder if the consorts that came before me were trying to warn me of something. “She showed me. I didn’t ask for it. She—”

“Stop,” he growled out, so much banked rage in that one word.

I swallowed convulsively, my mouth impossibly dry. He’d loved her. He’d loved Aster, and he’d lost her, like the rest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you pain.”

He released me suddenly, and the cloak vanished, the shadows going with it. “We need to keep moving.”

I nodded and followed as he strode off, wondering what the hell just happened. I felt that way a lot when I was with Death.

We didn’t speak much after that, and in the darkness, I lost track of time and place. I had no idea how long we walked for—long enough my feet ached, anyway. Finally, we broke through the trees, and the landscape changed again. The only constant here was the thunder and lightning, and when the next flash forked through the sky, it gave me a better look at what was ahead. It was wild and vast; there was rugged coastline and the sound of a turbulent sea along with the squawk of birds, or at least birdlike creatures, echoing in the distance.

“We’ll rest for the night,” Death said.

“This place is way too exposed. We should keep walking,” I said, even as my feet screamed in protest.

Death lifted his staff, pointing to something in the distance as more lightning flashed.

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