Page 82 of A Bond in Flames

I sagged in relief and grabbed her hand. “Thank you.”

She gave it a squeeze. “Anytime.”

A weird pressure built in my chest as I sat there, as if I felt the hours, the minutes and seconds ticking down.

I wasn’t leaving in the morning, and I honestly didn’t know if I’d ever walk through that gateway ever again.

CHAPTER26

Zinnia

The last twodays had been brutal.

I shoved my hand under my pillow and stared out the window. Clouds had gathered throughout the day, and the darkness of the night sky was almost oppressive.

Else wasn’t eating, was barely drinking; she’d given up. She was ready to go, but Mags especially was having trouble accepting it. She’d been poring over the healing volumes in the library. Aunt Daisy was constantly baking and cooking, deep in denial, and the rest of us were just trying to squeeze in whatever time we had left with Else, one of the most amazing, stubborn, brilliant, loving females we’d ever met.

I was feeling so many things—guilt, sadness, and, yeah, confusion. I missed Death. Admitting that to myself hadn’t been easy. Allowing myself to admit that I had feelings for a god who had a room full of things, treasured possessions from his previous, deceased consorts, felt like a kind of self-harm. What kind of idiot falls for a male who couldn’t promise them anything at all, not even life?

What kind of idiot contemplated going back to that?

How could I do it knowing my family was already suffering, knowing they were about to lose Else? Considering leaving, with the possibly of never making it back, was selfish.

Letting myself fall in love with Death was so goddamn selfish.

I clung to my pillow tighter and let my eyes drift closed. I needed him, was desperate to see him, and sleep was the only way, even if it was painful. My lids grew heavy almost immediately; it’d been a long day. I sank into it and invited the darkness in.

The ground was cold, damp against my bare feet, and I shivered. The skull path stretched ahead of me, leading to the castle. Whispers, cries, and screams echoed through the forest. It was dark, and the feeling of dread that surrounded me had me gasping for breath.

I looked down at myself. I was wearing the dress, the black dress Nox had made me wear, the one Death had torn off me. Lifting the skirts, I ran as fast as I could. I rounded the bend, and the castle loomed ahead. A single candle was glowing in a window on the upper level. Death’s room.

I ran up the castle stairs and pushed open the entrance doors. Silence greeted me. A stillness filled the massive stone building as if it had been submerged, as if it now sat at the bottom of the Night Sea.

“Mors!” I called his name as I stepped inside.

The floor was cracked by big, jagged fissures that went from one side to the other. Shards of shattered glass and broken furniture littered the ground. No one walked out—no Egon, no Lyle. They were gone; everyone was gone.

Gathering up my dress again, I rushed up the stairs and down the hall to Death’s bedroom door. It was closed. I didn’t know if the heavy wood was keeping everyone out or keeping him in because I felt a dark energy through it. Dark and filled with fury. I pressed my hand to it. “Mors?”

Nothing, not a sound came from inside.

Hand shaking, I turned the handle and pushed open the door.

I searched the dark room, but I couldn’t see him—until my gaze slid to the bed. A shadowy figure lay there, unmoving. “Mors?” Nothing. I stepped closer. “It’s me.” I reached down and touched his shoulder. “Mors?”

He spun to face me with a feral snarl.

“I’m here,” I whispered.

One moment, he was on the bed; the next, he was in front of me, looming over me, backing me up. Light flared, the fire on the other side of the room igniting. He was in his cloak, the hood obscuring half of his face. “You didn’t come,” he growled. “I waited and you didn’t come.”

I opened my mouth, but it slammed shut. I tried, but I couldn’t open it; I couldn’t speak.

Death shook his head. “No more lies from those lips, consort. No more.”

My gaze slid over him. His shoulders heaved with his fury. His cloak hung open, revealing a strip of his naked body beneath. His chest and stomach were tight, his cock impossibly hard. I pressed my hand to his chest, over the intricate stars tattooed there, and pleaded with my eyes for him to understand.

He gathered up the front of my dress. “If you won’t stay with me, I’ll have you here in your dreams. I’ll own you here, little witch,” he snarled.

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