Page 81 of A Bond in Flames

You’re losing your damn mind.

Shoving my hands in my pockets, I walked through the field where Ren had built my sister her dream house and headed down the road to Daisy’s house. Mags and Bram had been staying in Bram’s tree house in the backyard every night instead of heading to the crow village like they did a few nights a week. Good thing since I needed to talk to her, like now.

It was still pretty early, so instead of heading inside the house, I walked around the side to the backyard. The light was on in the kitchen; Daisy and Art were in there with Rose. I needed to speak with Mags before anyone saw me. They’d known what date it was, even if no one had said anything to me, because this situation was already hard enough. Jazzy had been avoiding me the last few days, and I got it. She was already hurting enough. Knowing her sister was about to leave while Else was like this, it was too much for her, for everyone.

I climbed the ladder to the tree house and knocked on the door.

Bram opened it a few seconds later. “Zinny, hey.” He frowned. “Everything okay?”

His black hair was tied back, the sides freshly shaven. He had a few new markers tattooed on the right side of his head since my last visit, and going by the massive knife strapped to his thigh and the frustration in his eyes, he was about to leave on a job. My cousin’s mate was an assassin, and he and his brothers frequently had to vanish for days on end to do what needed to be done. “How long will you be gone?” I asked him.

“I’ll be back by morning, all going to plan.” He pushed the door wide, letting me in.

Mags was standing at the kitchen counter, sipping a coffee. “Hey, Zinny. Hey, Hemy.”

Bram strode over to her, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her. When the kiss ended, he rested his forehead against hers and said something low for her ears only. Then he kissed her again, gave me a chin lift, and walked out. A moment later, he dove off the small balcony, his wings exploding from his back and catching the air, and then he was gone.

I turned back to Mags. “Okay?”

She leaned on the counter. “Yeah, I mean, I hate it when he goes, but I’m usually fine. It’s just now, with Else…” She shook her head. “I just want everyone close, you know?” Her eyes lifted to me, and she bit her lip. “Sorry.”

Yeah, no one had forgotten that I was supposed to leave tomorrow. “That’s kind of why I’m here. I need your help, Mags.”

She straightened. “What do you need?”

I wanted to hug her right then. She’d do anything for me; they all would.

“Do you think you could get a message to Death?” My baby cousin was one of Death’s reapers due to a whole shitty situation that happened when she and Bram got together. I knew she went to Limbo frequently, but I never saw her, and she couldn’t reach me. When she delivered a soul, she went straight to that soul’s “individual Limbo,” and she hadn’t found a way to veer off the path and find me, but surely there was a way for her to reach Death. There had to be.

She studied me closely. “What kind of message?”

“I’m not leaving, not yet, not while I can still be with Else, and not when my family needs me. I don’t know if it’s possible, but do you think you can find a way to get a message to him for me and tell him that?”

She put down her mug and rounded the counter. “I have no direct line to Death. He doesn’t communicate with me at all. I feel the call to collect a soul, and I deliver it—that’s it.”

“Can you try anyway?”

“I’m… I’m not sure how.” She looked as frustrated as I felt.

My only other option was to go to the gateway and wait, hope he came, and try to explain, but that would take most of the day, and I didn’t want to be away from Else that long. “Sorry to ask. I just… I didn’t know what else to do.”

She chewed her lip again. “Let me try, okay? I’ll see what I can do.” She walked to her shelf and pulled down an old book of spells and a wooden bowl. “I think I have an idea, but I’ll need to really focus.”

I needed this to work.

“Call me if there’s any change with Else,” she said and took a small vial from the shelf as well. “If this is going to work, I’ll know pretty quickly. I’ll come find you when it’s done.”

* * *

Else was sleeping more than she was awake now. This was agony.

Connor, her friend, sat beside her. He was holding her hand, talking to her softly, telling her how much he cared about her, how much he was going to miss her. Rose and Iris sat beside me, and we were all struggling to hold back our tears. One slipped down my cheek, and I quickly dashed it away.

Stan, as always, was her constant, even if she didn’t know it, though I wondered if she felt him now. There was a peace in her eyes when she was awake that was impossible to miss, as if she knew he was waiting for her.

Mags opened the door and walked in. I’d left her place two hours ago. Her gaze went from Else to me before she made her way to my side and took the seat beside me. She looked exhausted, dark rings under her eyes and fresh bandages on one of her arms. Whatever she’d done had taken a lot of blood, and she’d drained her power.

“I found my way there,” she said quietly. “Not to Death, but there was a demon, Lyle. He said he’d pass on your message.”

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