Page 96 of A Bond in Flames

“I was trapped going from one damned soul to the next, trapped in the worlds you created for them. I couldn’t get out—”

“Lies,” he roared again. “You are one of Nox’s creatures sent to torment me.”

He searched my eyes again, and hatred flashed down at me. He truly didn’t see me; something was stopping him fromseeing me.

“Egon,” Death yelled.

The demon open the door. “My lord?”

“Choose four demons to escort Nox’s creature back to her. I won’t have her here.”

“But, my lord—”

“Do as I say.”

“I won’t do it,” he said.

Death snarled and flung his hand out, slamming the door and shutting Egon out. I stared up at Death, begging him to see me. “How do I know everything I just told you? How can I know those things if I’m something Nox created?”

“Nox knows exactly what happened, and she has spies everywhere, as you well know,” he bit out.

“You’re wrong,” I said, trying to pull from his hold. “Look at me.”

He shook me brutally. “All I see when I look at you is a lie. Be thankful I don’t just end you here and now. The only reason I’m letting you live is so you can deliver a message.”

“What message?”

“She will never win.” Then he dragged me to the door, flung it open, towed me along the hall and down the stairs. There was a group of demons sweeping the floor, and Death ordered them to come to him.

Four of them rushed over, and Death shoved me at them. “Take her to the Night Realm and deliver her to Nox. I want her gone tonight.”

They instantly obeyed, towing me from the main room in only a T-shirt and underwear, my feet bare and fresh blood oozing from my bandage.

I called for Mors, but he did nothing, he said nothing.

He let them take me.

The demons dragged me from the castle and into the night.

CHAPTER31

Death

I stood outside,listening to the sounds of the night. There had been no light here for a year, only darkness. My realm was part of me, and I felt as black and cold inside as it was out here.

Nox lived to cause me pain. How could you despise your children so much? I would give anything to have Marigold with me, to end the curse my twisted bitch of a mother put on me and have her back. Sometimes, just the thought of my daughter shattered me into a million pieces. If it weren’t for Somnus taking care of her, I would have lost my mind long ago.

But that wasn’t enough for Nox; no, she wanted to destroy me in every way possible. Her curse had blocked Zinnia’s soul from remembering me, from remembering us and our life together, and had bound Magnolia to her realm.

Surrounded by her demons, Nox sat in her temple plotting ways to fuck with me. She’d even gone as far as creating a soulless creature to impersonate the only female I had ever wanted—the mother of my child—and make me think the end of the curse was near, that I could have my family back with me like we’d once been.

Another god more malicious and evil didn’t exist.

I strode back inside, and even though I told myself not to, I stopped at Zinnia’s bedroom door. My Zinnia. When I first saw her when she was only fifteen years old, something had reached through the shadows and tugged sharply. Her soul had been back many times before. Somnus would find her, would take me to her, and I’d bring them back to the castle. But none of them had been able to reach me; they’d cringed away in fear, in horror. And I’d stayed in the shadows, trapped in darkness.

Zinnia wasn’t just a vessel for her soul; she and Aster were one and the same. Zinnia hadn’t been second best or a replacement for the female I’d lost; shewasmy beloved. And somehow, I loved her more now than I ever had. My soul had ached for hers. We were meant to walk side by side, but again, she’d run from me. Nox had cursed me to be alone, which meant she would always run from me. I would always lose her.

On our journey to the Outer Realm, I’d taken her to the cave we’d lived in together so very long ago, then to the tree house where we’d spent countless hours in each other’s arms, but nothing had worked, not the castle, or the bedroom she’d slept in when she first came here, not Egon, and not me, nothing had made her remember.

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