Page 92 of A Bond in Flames

Death didn’t see the shell, not really; he saw my soul, the only thing that could make him whole again, make us both whole again. I’d been with him since almost the dawn of time, taken from him over and over again. Then when he’d finally found me and I’d drawn him from the cloak, from the shadows, and he’d allowed himself to hope—I hadn’t recognized him. I hadn’t remembered the love we shared.

He’d been waiting, hoping I’d remember, but I hadn’t.

Until now.

I looked up at the females around me. Empty shells somehow still here, trapped, probably until I broke Nox’s curse.

This was torture.

I remembered every tragic life these females had led—thatIhad led.

There was only one way to end this, for them and me. I had to get to Death.

“It’s time to set you free,” I choked, pressing my hand into the grass and placing the tip of my blade to the base of my gold-wrapped finger. Gritting my teeth, I thrust the knife down on it with force—slicing my finger off with a cry.

Everything paused; the females blinked at me, not moving. Hemy squeaked, and then the world around me shifted—

I was back on the skull path, just inside the gateway.

Quickly grabbing a shirt from my pack, I tore it into strips and wrapped the bleeding stump where my finger had been; then I started down the path. This was the way home, finally. I recognized the forest, but it looked as dark and desolate as it had when I first arrived, and it felt the same as well. The horror and pain, the despair, it was all I could do to keep walking.

Hemy emerged from my pack, then scurried back in, feeling what I did.

We rounded the bend, and the castle came into view. It was like I was living out the dream I’d had. I walked quicker, breaking into a run, taking the steps to the main doors two at a time, shoving them open.

The air was punched from my lungs. It was dark and cold, a mess of broken furniture—and the floor was cracked from one side to the other.

Movement caught my eye. Egon. He lifted his head from where he sat in the shadows. He stared at me as if I were a hallucination.

“Egon?”

He jolted and shot to his feet. “My lady?”

“Where is he?”

“You’ve been gone… so very long.” He shook his head. “It’s too late. He’s… my lord is not the male you left.”

An awful feeling crawled through me. “How long? How long have I been gone?”

“In human time?”

I stilled. “Yes.”

Sympathy filled his eyes. “Twelve months.”

I rocked back, grabbing onto the broken table so I didn’t fall down. “Twelve months? I’ve been gone a full year?” I choked, shaking my head. “I was here.”

Egon twisted his fingers in front of himself. “He couldn’t feel you… you were gone. He thought…” His gaze dropped to my forearm, where my scar was, where the tattoo the demon had given me to hide from Death had once been.

He thought I’d hidden from him?Oh goddess, no.“Is he in his room?” I choked.

The demon glanced up to the second floor. “It’s too dangerous.”

I took off, running up the stairs, ignoring Egon calling after me, and moved along the shadowed hall to his door. A year? How could that be? Flinging the door open, I rushed inside. It was dark, the air stale. It smelled like actual death. Like a corpse had been left to rot away to nothing, and now only bones and dust remained.

“Mors?” I rasped, walking deeper into the room, using his name that he’d forbidden me to use for so long because it hurt, it hurt to hear it from me when I didn’t remember who he was.

Nothing.

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