Page 3 of Torn Ivy
“That I either kill my guys or he takes my soul.” I look at Vex. “That’s why I was running.”
“You think you can outrun Death?” he asks with narrowed eyes. “Interesting.”
“Look, the plan,” Josh says slowly, “is to use your connection to Death against him. To essentially hijack his power.”
I blink. “Hijack his power? What the fuck does that even mean?” I seem to be asking that a lot lately.
Vex sighs. “It means we think you might be able to tap into Death’s abilities, to siphon them off and use them yourself.”
“What? You wantmeto become Death?” I ask incredulously.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Josh says, nodding like one of those bobbleheads.
I close my eyes and breathe.This can’t be happening. It just can’t.
“Ivy.”
My eyes snap open when I hear the familiar voice, and I grimace. “Aunt Cathy. I might’ve known you were part of this.”
Her perfect eyebrows shoot up. “You knew?”
My shoulders slump. “No. I didn’t know any of this. What are you even doing here? Are you one of these rejects?”
“Hey,” Josh snaps. “Rude.”
“Sorry,” I mutter.
“I am one of these rejects,” Cathy says, folding her hands primly in front of her. Her dark pants suit is smart and businesslike, much like I remember her. “Don’t forget that you are, too.”
“Even more so,” Josh says snidely.
I shake my head at him, giving him a vicious scowl. “I can’t get my head around this. How am I supposed to stave off Death taking my soul or killing my guys, or forcing me to kill my guys, or whatever? That is all I care about right now. Your end game isn’t mine.”
“It is, though,” Cathy says. “It is your legacy.”
“Huh? What legacy?” A tightening on my wrists makes me frown down at my arms. Poison Ivy has taken the place of my fingers and is creeping up my arms as dread fills my soul about what she is going to say. I beat her to the punch, “Are you saying that my parents were part of this?”
Her green eyes meet mine, and she shakes her head slowly. “No,” she says quietly. “It skips certain people. It’s just the way it is. My grandfather was one, not my parents, nor your father, and you.”
I stare at Cathy, my mind reeling. “So you’re saying this cosmic Death candidate thing runs in our family?”
She nods solemnly. “It’s a rare genetic quirk, passed down through generations. Some of us are chosen, others aren’t. You and I were.”
“But I didn’t know,” I protest weakly. “How could I not know?”
“The knowledge is suppressed,” Josh explains. “It’s part of the process. You’re not supposed to remember until you’re activated.”
I turn to glare at him. “Activated?”
“It means,” Vex cuts in, “that something triggers your latent abilities. Something wakes up the part of you that was meant to be Death.”
“But you aren’t one of these Death things?” I ask him, ignoring his statement for a moment.
“Nah. But I have inside knowledge of The Syndicate, and everyone has their price.”
I blink at that, wondering what his is, but push it aside. “Okay, but because I’m not really one of these Death things, I’ve never been activated, so I have zero idea what this even is?”
“Yep,” Josh says.
