Page 30 of A Bond in Flames

“You called me by my name, consort, three times—”

“And what? Now you’re going to use one of those times to force me to fuck you?” I fired at him, all thoughts of trying not to piss him off further flying out the door. “You’d really want that? For the first time we have sex to be because you forced me?”

He blinked, his heaving chest stilling for several beats, and then he shook his head, like he was trying to shake something from his mind. “I would never force myself on you,” he said, the shadows starting to swirl around him. “You are my consort. I protect you. I’ll never harm you.” His nostrils flared as he dragged in another breath.

“Glad to hear it. Whatever that was that just happened a moment ago, you need to rein it in. I’m here with you because I have no choice, but I’m not powerless. You said it yourself, I’m a warrior, and I will fight to protect myself, even against you, and even if that means it kills me.” Which it would; there was no beating Death.

The shadows swirled more fiercely, and one side of his face had transformed, now a skull, with the other side unchanged; he had one glowing blue eye, but the other was a black void. He took a stilted step forward, and it took everything in me not to stumble back, but somehow, I held my ground as he strode across the room.

I tilted my head back when he stopped in front of me. I tried to say something, but my voice wouldn’t work as his hand came up. Still, I flinched.

He made a rough, wounded sound, and then gently, so gently, his fingers brushed under my chin, across my cheek. “Forgive me, Zinnia,” he said, the power of his voice making my knees weak. “I would never harm you. I am… not myself here.”

I locked my damn knees and searched his pained expression. He was sorry, tormented by what just happened, and I couldn’t bring myself to punish him more when he was obviously punishing himself. “I forgive you.” I shoved my hands into my pockets. “And I believe you.”

He nodded, obvious relief in that one blue eye; then the shadows swirled again, dissipating, and he dropped his hand. “Gather your things. We need to leave.”

* * *

The dinghy creaked as Death rowed us away from the shore and toward the black ship anchored and waiting in the Night Sea. Horace sat behind me, not saying a word.

The water was as black as the ship, the only contrast from the white foam when the waves broke.

“How long will it take to reach the Night Realm?”

Death pulled the oars through the water, the veins in his biceps popping. “Tomorrow night, when we reach land.”

The ship was getting closer, and I could see the crew watching from the deck. “How dangerous is it?”

“You will be safe as long as you stay close to me,” he said, the same thing he’d said to me before, and the same thing he’d said to the Stella I’d seen in last night’s vision.

We reached the ship, and a rope ladder was tossed down. Death held it and motioned me forward. I climbed it quickly, and the demons on board stood back, keeping a respectable distance when I reached the top, but all of them were looking at me as if their last meal had just boarded the ship. No way was I turning my back on them, and it was hard not to pull my knife free under the weight of all those hungry eyes.

The rope ladder creaked, and the sound of the oars knocking the side of the boat reached me. I refused to turn and look, but I knew Horace was rowing away, leaving us here. The thump of Death’s boots hitting the deck echoed behind me, and the demons quickly dropped their gazes.

Death handed our bags to one of them and turned to another. “Anchor up,” he said to who I assumed was the captain of this ship—a ship that looked as if it would be more at home at the bottom of the ocean. The demon called the order, and the rattle of a heavy chain came as the anchor came up and a massive black sail dropped. The old ship groaned as wind filled the tattered sail, and we started moving.

The demons rushed off to do whatever it was they needed to do, and I turned and gripped the railing, watching as the land grew more and more distant. I had no idea what was coming, but dread filled me, growing deeper the farther from shore we got. The demon captain called orders, Death now at his side, and his crew called back, their collective voices filling me with more dread.

I wanted the hell off this ship already, but I didn’t want to reach land either. The gods only knew what Nox had in store for us.

CHAPTER10

Zinnia

The ship seemedto lift completely out of the water before crashing back down. Rain and wind battered us as the ocean churned, throwing the ship around like it was a rubber ducky in a hot tub.

We went up again, and my stomach dropped as we slammed back down. My feet slipped from under me as water washed onto the deck. I grabbed for the railing as a strong arm locked around my middle, and I was hauled off the deck and dragged back under the small eave above the door that led down below. The door swung open behind us, and Death reached back and yanked it shut.

“Thanks,” I said and tried to move out of Death’s hold.

He tightened his grip. “You’re not going anywhere, little witch,” he said close to my ear, making me shiver. “No fucking way I’m letting you get swept overboard.”

“I’m fine. I’m just more of a land lover,” I called over the wind. “In case you hadn’t figured it out.” I’d spent the first couple hours throwing up over the side, much to the amusement of the crew.

“Yeah, I got that,” he said, still way too freaking close.

The way his voice affected me made my face heat. Thankfully, in this position, with him behind me, he couldn’t see his “warrior consort” blushing like a besotted teenager. I didn’t want to want him, but with every day that passed, lying to myself got harder—because I was definitely feeling things, or my body was, anyway.

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