Page 100 of Torn Ivy
“You have fought her off since you became Death?”
He nods solemnly. “And my predecessor before me, and so on.”
“Fuck.” I wrap my arms around myself, feeling suddenly cold and very alone. “So, it’s sacrificing my life as I know it, or sacrificing all of reality?” I ask bitterly. “Some choice.”
“It is the burden of power,” Death says solemnly. “With great responsibility comes?—”
I snort. “Oh, fuck off.”
Death actually chuckles. “Fair enough. But the sentiment remains true.”
Dropping my face into my hands, I inhale deeply before exhaling. I know what I have to do. Thereisno choice. It’s a matter of fact. Plain and simple. As much as I hate to admit it, he is right about the guys not being involved in this. They will try to stop me. Or even if they didn’t, what then? Whichever way that pans out, it would fall back on them. I can’t let that happen. This is my choice and mine alone.
I lower my hands to my sides and lift my chin. “How do we do this?”Please don’t say a ritual. Please don’t say a ritual.
He opens his arms wide, his black cloak billowing around him. I see the depth of the darkness now. I see an eternity of the void, of souls swirling in an endless space. I see the weight of countless deaths, of guiding spirits to their final rest. I see the responsibility of maintaining the balance between life and death.
“Are you ready, Ivy Hammond?” Death asks, his voice echoing through the emptiness.
I take a deep breath, steeling myself. “I am.”
Death nods solemnly. “Then step forward.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Are you ready, David Beech?”
He rears back slightly, and I choke back the sob as tears of blood roll down his skeletal face. “I am ready.”
Nodding with a depth of emotion I never thought I would feel for the creature standing in front of me with shaking legs, I move towards him. As I get closer, I feel a pull, like gravity increasing exponentially. The darkness swirls around me, tendrils of shadow wrapping around my limbs.
Death places his bony hands on either side of my face. His touch is cold but not unpleasant. It feels like coming home to a place I’ve never been.
“Embrace the darkness, Ivy,” he whispers. “Let it become a part of you.” He wraps his arms around me.
I close my eyes, and darkness rushes in, filling every cell of my body. I gasp at the sensation—it’s overwhelming, terrifying, and exhilarating.
Memories flood through me, not just my own, but Death’s—Millennia of guiding souls, of maintaining the balance. The weight of responsibility settles on my shoulders like a heavy cloak.
I feel myself changing and expanding. My consciousness stretches across time and space. I can sense every soul in existence and feel the ebb and flow of life and death across countless realities.
When I open my eyes, I’m no longer just Ivy. I am Death. The power rushes through me, ancient and terrible and beautiful.
David Beech stands before me, his form already fading. “It is done,” he says softly. “The mantle has passed to you.”
I reach out to him and claim my first soul. He dissipates into wisps of shadow, but I grasp him by his hand and lead him into the army of souls that occupy the void inside me.
I’m alone now. Death. The protector of balance. The commander of a soul army.
I close my eyes as it washes over me and when I open them again, I’m back in my bedroom. My guys are frantic, but before they can ask, or I can tell them anything, Life appears. She must’ve sensed the exchange of power, and she isfuming.
“I see,” she spits out. “David Beech, you are a fucker of the highest calibre.”
“No, he’s fucking smart, and you are not going to win this fight, Life. Not now, not ever.”
She drops her shoulders, and her form shifts. My mouth drops open in shock as the form standing before me is one I instantly recognise. Fury slams into my chest, and I lunge forward, hands outstretched, prepared to be obliterated if need be, to just wring her scrawny fucking neck.
