Page 43 of A Bond in Flames

He was roaring again. “Stop yelling at me,” I bit out.

“It seems it’s the only way to get you to listen to me. ‘Do not leave my side’ means exactly that, or are you hard of hearing?”

I scowled. “If I wasn’t before, I am now. Lower your damned voice. If you said, ‘stay by my side because my megalomaniac mother will send crotch-sniffing demons to abduct you,’ then I would have stayed in bed and ignored my need for fresh air.”

“What? They did what?” he roared again, then spun back to the temple doors, about to storm back inside.

I grabbed his arm. “I’m fine. And I’m pretty sure you decapitated the offending demons back there already, so punishment has been meted out.”

Death’s gaze sliced down my body and back, and a strange stillness moved over him. His brows lowered. “Take that off.”

“What?”

“The gown, take it off.” He didn’t yell this time; no, his voice was low, tight.

There was a note to his voice I’d never heard before. “My clothes are back in the temple.”

“Take it off, Zinnia, now.” Then he grabbed the front of the dress, holding the delicate fabric in his hands… and tore it off my body.

“What the hell are you doing?” I tried to cover my nakedness as he stared down at me, nostrils flared, panting like a furious bull.

His hand shot out, and using his weakened powers, he summoned my leathers and knives from inside. They appeared in his hands. “Cover yourself.”

If I weren’t cold, I’d ignore him and stay naked just to piss him off. “What the hell is your problem?”

“Put them on,” he growled.

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I said as I snatched my clothes from his hands and quickly pulled them on.

Death watched me the entire time, his gaze sliding over my bare skin until I was finally covered. Then he tilted his head back and made a strange throaty sound. A moment later, a creature appeared at the edge of the forest in the distance and headed straight for us.

It was similar to Zuri and Raze but also not. It was stockier, its legs thicker. It trotted over and stopped beside Death.

He ran his hand down its side. “Thank you for your service,” he said, then grabbed me around the waist and tossed me up before he swung up behind me as well.

Then the beast took off.

CHAPTER14

Zinnia

We rode for several hours,picking our way through the forest before, finally, we came to a small clearing. A stone building sat in the middle, not huge, but still a decent size. It was made of glittering steel-colored marble with vines wrapped around the columns on either side of the entrance and partially over the roof.

Death jumped down from the beast, grabbed me around the waist, and hauled me off after him. He’d been quiet the entire ride, barely saying more than a few words.

At first, I thought it was about his mother and what just happened and the fact he thought I’d disobeyed him, but now, I wasn’t so sure. The rage that had radiated from him had receded, and something else had replaced it. Something that felt a lot like melancholy.

“What is this place?” I asked, standing beside him.

“Somnus and I spent most of our time here as children. I created it when I was very young. It was safe, warded, impenetrable by anyone but him and me and those we chose to grant admittance.”

I studied his profile. The night sky swirled in his eyes, but again, there was no anger. They were wide, as if he was about to face something that frightened him. “Not even Nox?”

“Not even her.”

So even as children, they’d avoided their twisted mother. “You created it? When you were just a child?”

“Yes.”

---