Page 99 of A Bond in Flames

As it was, I could barely stand.

They came running back, and I tried to fight. I swung and kicked and bit and scratched, but there were four of them. They overpowered me, slamming me into the ground. The air was knocked from my lungs, and I fought for breath as they pinned me down.

One minute, one of the demons was looming over me, trying to shove his disgusting body between my legs; the next, the ground was shaking and the demon was flying through the air. The earth cracked and branches snapped. I rolled, pushing myself up so I was sitting. The demons were screaming, suspended five feet in the air, backs bowed, heads tilted up, arms and legs thrust back. Death sat on the back of Raze, his hand lifted and aimed at them, rage contorting his emaciated face.

He climbed off Raze and walked over to them. His hand was black and he reached up and grabbed the first demon by the throat. The demon screamed as blood poured from his mouth, brain matter slid from his ears, and then he disintegrated, turning to ash. The others screamed in terror as he gave them all the same treatment one by one.

Then, finally, when nothing but ash remained, his gaze slid to me.

I couldn’t read his expression. I didn’t know what he was thinking or feeling.

Unsteadily, I climbed to my feet.

Death started walking, his cloak opening, flowing behind him, and in only a pair of trousers, I saw just how much damage he’d done to himself. He was skin and bone. He didn’t stop until he was standing in front of me. So incredibly tall, he towered over me. I tilted my head back. “Mors….”

He lifted his blackened hand and held it in front of my face. I tried to jerk back, but he grabbed me with the other one, holding me in place. Power flowed into me from his palm, and I felt it tug on something, something foreign, something that shouldn’t be there. My mouth opened on a cry as it was drawn out, as Death manipulated it in midair, then flung it on the ground. A golden liquid. I watched as it ran together, forming a mass that hardened into solid gold.

“What was that?” I gasped, looking up at Death.

“Enchanted gold. It’s poisonous unless you’re a god,” he said, staring into my eyes, searching.

“Mors?”

He flinched, then dropped to his knees. Trembling, he wrapped his thin body around me. “Forgive me,” he choked out. “Forgive me, my love.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I slid my hands under his hood and slipped it off. It dropped, and I tilted his head back, exposing his drawn face and the agony shining from his blue eyes. “You see me?” I asked.

“I see the past and the future. I see my heart in your eyes and my soul sitting in the palm of your hand.” He stared deeper into my eyes. “I see you, my perfect, feisty, incredibly powerful witch, and I see your soul, a soul that is more familiar to me than the stars in the sky. I see the life we shared together, the loss, the heartache, and the joy. You have been mine since the dawn of creation. I see you, my love, and finally…” His throat worked, and a tear slid down his sunken-in cheek. “You see me too.”

Tears welled in my eyes, and I leaned down, pressing my lips to his. They were cool, not hot like they usually were. “How can I help you?” I rasped.

“Kiss me again,” he choked out. “The more I’m in your presence—the more you look at me like that, talk to me, touch me—the more I will be pulled from the shadows.”

When I first came to Limbo, he’d stayed concealed because, under his cloak, he’d wasted away. That was why he’d finally been able to go without it, because I’d been with him long enough that he’d been restored. I lowered myself to the ground in front of him and pressed my body to his.

“Are you hurt, love? Did they hurt you?” he said in a pained voice.

I shook my head. “I’m not hurt.”

His mouth slid down the side of my cheek, seeking my mouth, and I turned toward him, offering it to him. He kissed me again, deeper, more urgently. I shivered, and he surrounded us with his cloak, in his dark, rich, smooth scent. Warmth washed over me, the world around us disappearing. We were no longer in the forest; we were in the night sky, stars blinking above. Death lowered me to the ground, and it was like I was lying on the softest mattress.

“I need you,” I whispered against his lips.

“You have me, my beautiful consort, for an eternity.”

“Eternity?”

“Not even death can reach you now. You will forever be by my side.”

Finally, I got my forever with the love of my life. “When they tore our daughter from my back and I fell to my death, I vowed to return to you.” My hands trembled as I touched his face. “I’m sorry it’s taken me so long.”

He made an agonized sound. “No one will ever take you from me again.”

I ran my hands up his back, my fingers sliding over his cool skin, feeling every rib, every bone on his skeletal form. I held him closer, running my hands over him, touching him, whispering to him, doing whatever I needed to heal him, to bring every part of him back to me.

I kissed him more fiercely. “I love you,” I said as tears slid down my cheeks. “I’ve missed you.” A sob left me. “I didn’t know how much, but now I do, and it hurts so much that I’ve been parted from you for so long.”

He groaned. “Time was stolen from us, but our love transcends all. What we share will survive even the end of times.”

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