Tobias stood, his form swirling and twisting in on itself. When it settled, Samkiel looked at me, his silver eyes glowing in the darkness. My pulse quickened, and my hand fisted the doorknob, ready to escape. Samkiel stood in council garbs stained silver with his blood. The skin under his eyes and around his mouth was burned from the release of his power when he opened the gates. Blood oozed from the gash I had made with the spear along his side. He stepped toward me, and I yanked at the door behind me, but it did not budge.
Memories flashed through my mind, images that were branded into my soul. I watched as the sky rippled, and I saw myself charge Samkiel. His dark blade rose so quickly that I didn’t have time to react. I saw it swing for my head and felt the brief pinch of pain, but the agony of the knowledge that I’d failed Isaiah overshadowed it. Then I was in absolute nothingness. That was what drove me mad. I was afraid to close my eyes now, the pure blackness a stark reminder of where I was, where I’d return.
Death, wearing Samkiel’s face, stopped in front of me. He brushed a piece of dirt from my cloak, and I flinched and turned my head away, squeezing my eyes shut. My heart thudded, sweat beading on my skin. I needed to get away from him, out of this damn room. A low growl rumbled from my throat, the Ig’Morruthen thrashing beneath my skin, wanting to burst free.
“It’s what you always wished for.” His voice grew closer, his boots echoing through the room, through my skull. I told myself it wasn’t Samkiel, but my body did not respond. “It is not a unique desire. Most who live and breathe crave a place of love and acceptance. A family is something to live and fight for.” He leaned close enough that I could feel his breath. “To die for.”
My skin prickled, and I shoved past Death. His form burst into shadows before solidifying into Samkiel once more. My feet tripped over upturned and broken chairs, crashing through the debris as I scrambled for an exit. The door at the back was my escape, but it slammed shut just as I reached it, nearly bashing me in the face. My hands latched onto the knob, and I twisted with such force it should have broken, yet it did not budge.
Measured footsteps came from behind me, his boots heavy on the wooden floor. “You formed a family built of lies and betrayal to replace the one that abandoned and locked you and Isaiah away. Did it help? Did it help repair what is so broken in you?”
“Shut up,” I snarled and turned toward him, fangs and talons on display.
“I don’t think it did,” Death said, looking at me with a glint of amusement in his gaze. Samkiel’s large frame oozed arrogance, his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his lips. Even in this form, Death’s power flared around him like a coat made of shadows.
“Why?” My voice broke between my labored gasps. No matter how hard I tried, my lungs could not get enough air to stop my racing heart. Emotions overwhelmed me, and my eyes stung. A part of me welcomed it. At least the pain let me know I was alive and rooted in the here and now. “Why do you torment me?”
“Torment?” Death wagged his finger toward me, tsking in disappointment. “My name has been on your tongue longer than you care to admit. Did you ever tell your brother how you begged for me in Yejedin? Does he know that the thought of him being utterly alone was the only reason you did not take yourself out of the world that had so thoroughly abandoned you?”
I struck out, my hand tearing through the air. If Death were flesh and blood, his face would be in ribbons, but my claws just passed through. Death smiled. I’d never told Isaiah about the thoughts that plagued my mind while he slept in Yejedin. How I’d watched his every breath, knowing the second they stopped, I would too. How I’d thought of finding a way to end it, aching to leave the world that had never wanted me in it. Death was right. The only reason I had forced myself to continue breathing was to make sure Isaiah survived.
“You are cruel,” I spat.
“Says one of the cruelest creatures who has ever lived,” Death snarled back, taking a step closer. His hands never left his pockets. “You are so fractured, and nothing helped, did it? Nothing fixed what ached and bled in your soul, not until …” Death’s form changed, masculine features melting into a smaller, lithe frame. Dark hair spilled down her back, a few wavy strands cascading over her shoulders. “Me.”
I flinched away from the sight of her, but it was to no avail. Perfectly red dipped nails tipped my chin back toward her. Her eyes were like soft, warm pools of the darkest honey. I took a deep breath and nearly moaned. Even her smell was right. My Ig’Morruthen settled at her familiar scent, no longer sensing a threat but recognizing her as someone I loved. It couldn’t be further from the truth. I loved Dianna, but she was most definitely a threat.
“For a second, you believed things could be different,” Death said with a voice like velvet midnight. “But duty outweighs love, and you are bound to the one who calls herself king. You have been for a while.”
My hands clenched. “If you brought me back just to rehash my past, end me now.” I mustered as much courage as I could when facing the true end. “Because even for an entity such as you, this is pathetic.”
Death smiled, raised his hand, and snapped his fingers.
Emptiness. Cold, howling, dark emptiness.
I heard the echo of a second snap, and life reformed.
I dropped to my knees, sobbing for breath. My hands grasped at my chest, air flooding in and out of my lungs. I coughed, my eyes wide and skittering over the room, desperate for proof that I was still living. Death had done it, and he’d done it so quickly and effortlessly. I was here and then back in the suffocating darkness. My shoulders heaved, my chest feeling as if it would rupture and turn me inside out.
A set of heels stopped in front of me, and Death, in Dianna’s form, crouched, filling my gaze. I lifted my head, still gasping for air, and braced my hands against the floor. Her dress draped elegantly to one side, revealing one toned thigh. Jewels glinted around her delicate wrist as she raised her hand and cupped my chin, tipping my head up so I would meet her eyes again.
“Do you see where you will go, where you’ll end up? Oblivion is it for you, endless, dark, screaming nothingness. Are you sure you wish to return?”
“What do you want?” I panted, pulling my head from her grip, my hands trembling against the broken floor.
Death’s hand ran over the back of my head. “First, I want you to save your brother before he dies.”
“Dies?” My head snapped up.
“He is rotting in the bowels of the god king’s palace. I need him for what’s to come.”
I took one more breath than another. My heart slowly stopped its rampant wild beat. That had been my primary concern since I rose. “I have tried to find him but had no leads. This information is helpful, but I still don’t know where Samkiel’s palace is.”
“I do.”
Her words hit me like a knife to my cold heart. They resonated through my head, mind, and whatever was left of my soul. That was the resolve I needed. Those two words broke through my fear of the eternal darkness. I rose to my knees, and she smiled because she knew what I had already done for my brother and what I was still willing to do. Like honor to a warrior, Isaiah was the only thing in this realm or the next, besides Dianna, that I would not forsake. I pushed resignedly to my feet, one foot then the other, and Death rose with me. Her glee was triumphant, but I did not know the justification for it yet.
“Show me,” I said.
