Page 31 of Curse of Darkness
And a part of me loves the fact that she adores stories too.
Grimm blinks, looking pleased with himself. “Who is Death?”
“It was a creature who stalked this world long before the fae arrived. A god.”
“Perhaps,” he murmurs, resting his chin on his paws as he stares at me, “you should ask yourself ‘what is Death?’”
What is Death?Everything inside me goes still.
He is older than time immortal….
Been here even before the fae arrived.
“The Shadow Sinister,” Grimm says, conjuring a ball of shadow on the walls with a twist of his claw. He twirls his paw, and the shadow spins itself out into a hooded figure atop a nightmare horse.“The Ancient Chill. The Hungry One. The Inevitable. A creature who struck terror into the heart of every mortal alike, and that fear gave him strength and power, for what is fear if not belief?”
Death.
Death was an Old One. They were forged of prayer and belief, gaining strength over the centuries from the otherkin who made their sacrifices to the Hallows, until they finally became gods.
My jaw drops open. That’s impossible. “Death is… forged of the primordial Darkness.”
“What is the Darkness? The Old Ones wieldala, the power of the leylines, the power of the earth beneath their feet, the power of creation. But there are other power currents to tap into.”Grimm smirks as I gape at him. “The Lord of Death rode these lands on a vicious black steed; carved of shadows and midnight. He carried a scythe as his weapon of choice and cast a shroud of shadow across the lands behind him.” It almost sounds as if Grimm is quoting something he once read. “And there were only three things he feared: Love. Light. And the Lord of Life.”
Lord of Life?“Who?”
Grimm blinks smugly, watching me as if he’s waiting for me to make the connections. “Sing to the darkness. Kick up thy heels as night falls. Bring mead and wine and dancing to distract him. Bar thy door. For the Erlking is coming.…”
There’s a rock sitting heavy in my chest.
The Erlking.
TheErlking.
Savage and merciless and as capricious as the west wind.
There’s a smile on the grimalkin’s face as our eyes meet and his voice drops into a mocking whisper. “Only the Erlking was a match for Death.”
* * *
I tryone more time before we leave.
“Eris?” I call, knocking on the door to her rooms. “E?”
There’s no answer.
But I can feel her inside, listening.
“You said you would always be there for me,” I whisper, letting my palm lie flat against the door. “That we’d do this together.”
Nothing.
I bow my head against the door. “We’re leaving in half an hour. Finn’s taking me north. We’ll be back… well, soon, hopefully.”
Again nothing.
“Goodbye,” I whisper.
I retreat to the yard, my heart heavy and all my nerves screaming at me that this is wrong. That I need Eris at my side.
