Page 225 of Curse of Darkness
“Hello, old friend,” Death mocks.
Kato stiffens. “What do you want?”
Death takes a threatening step toward the dais. “You know what I want,” it croons, shadows rippling toward it.
Kato actually pales, but it’s Orlagh who steps between them, drawing the sword at her side.
“Get you back, you dark fiend,” she spits. “You promised not to harm my husband.”
“Did I?” Death smiles, turning all his focus upon her. “I said I would talk to….”
And then he freezes as the drop of sunlight within the vial around her throat starts to glow.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she snaps. “My kind was born to hunt yours.” A line of light springs down the edge of her sword, as if she’s dipped it in sunlight too. “Bring your blade of Darkness, you wretched thief. And it shall dance with mine.”
“Orlagh.” Kato shoves himself between them, flashing her a look.
But Death doesn’t move.
It anything, he actually looks like he’s paled too.
“Where did you get that?” he whispers, his gaze locked upon the vial around her throat.
Orlagh’s hand curls around it. “It was gifted to me by my mother.”
“Where did she get it?” he snarls, shadows rising high behind him as if they’re prepared to strike.
“Thiago.” I grab his arm, but Death cuts me a dangerous glare.
“Do not meddle here,” it whispers in my head, somehow using the bond between me and Thiago, which is disturbing enough in itself.
Orlagh and Kato share a look, as if this conversation is going awry of their expectations.
“What is going on?” I hesitantly ask it.
And then Orlagh speaks again. “It has been gifted down through my line for centuries. My mother received it from her grandmother, and so on. All the way back to my many times removed great-grandmother.”
“Carolain,” he says, his voice so rough I can’t quite pick the emotion that charges it. “Was her name Carolain?”
Orlagh stares at him. “Yes. How did you know that?”
All the threat and menace seem to deflate from Death’s figure. His shadows fray until he looks like my husband again, albeit with those haunting black eyes that can’t seem to tear themselves from Orlagh’s face.
“How did you know that?” Orlagh demands, angry now. “What is going on here? What does the vial have to do with anything?”
Kato grabs her arm as if in warning.
But Death has subsided, staring down at his hands as if he sees something else when he looks at them.
“I will give myself up,” he says in a voice stained with grief. “I will give myself over to the Darkness, and willingly. On one condition.”
What?I gape at him, barely daring to breathe, to hope….
“What condition?” Kato demands.
Death locks eyes with Orlagh. “You will visit me once a month. You and the daughter you are carrying.”
Orlagh blinks, her hands clapping over her lower abdomen. “My what?”
