Death was Death for a reason; he delivered his ability on the unsuspecting with unrelenting remorse. Now Corson, Wren, and I were close to that,tooclose. Sensing this, Corson spun and pushed Wren back, pushing her into the snow, as I skidded to a halt beside him.
As Wrath’s shout echoed over the land, I tried to stagger back, but when Death closed his raised hands, I realized we were too late. Corson jerked beside me, and my heart stuttered when an unseen, cold hand fastened onto my throat.
The cold of Death’s lethal grip spread down my throat, into my chest, and through my veins. With every laboring beat it took, my heart pumped ice throughout my veins. That ice numbed me from the inside out until I couldn’t tell if I was still holding my sword or not.
Already weakened from the loss of his arm, Corson went to his knees in the snow.No, I moaned.Not Corson. I can’t lose Corson.
He’d been my friend for hundreds of years. Together, we’d fought loyally by Kobal’s side and helped to take down Lucifer. We’d helped defeatLucifer;one of these bastards couldnotdefeat us.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think we had a choice.
When that hand clamped down tighter, I clawed at my throat, but there was nothing there to tear away. My legs wobbled, and I almost went down in the snow, but I somehow managed to stay standing.
It wouldn’t last.
And then, as if materializing out of nowhere, Wrath threw himself from Zorn’s back and into Death. They tumbled into the snow as I sank to my knees.
Chapter Forty-Six
Wrath
Wrapping my arms around Death,I twisted to the side as I fell from Zorn and slammed him into the snow. It billowed up around us and slid down the sleeves and back of my shirt. I was already cold from blood loss, but the snow against my skin caused my teeth to chatter as I strengthened my hold on Death.
Before Death could recover from my attack, I locked my arm around his neck and jerked back. My muscles strained as I sought to tear off his head. For every other demon, the removal of the head killed them, but Death removed his head regularly.
Only the destruction of his head would kill him, or at least I hoped it would. None of his enemies had ever gotten close enough to kill him. With his power, he stopped them before they got the chance to go for his head. But his power didn’t work against me.
Death’s skeletal fingers clawed at my arms. Beneath the tips of those pointy bones, my flesh shredded from my arms, and blood oozed free. Under normal circumstances, my blood probably would have poured free of the deep, muscle-rending gouges he created, but I had little blood left in me for such a thing.
Through sheer willpower, I found the strength to enclose my legs around his thighs and pin them to the ground. He bucked, kicked, and flailed in my arms, but he couldn’t break free. Flames flared to life at the end of my fingertips and slid up to my elbows. I tried to get the fire to encompass my entire body, but I’d lost too much blood, and my strength was dwindling.
Still, I gritted my teeth and adhered to him as his strength outmatched mine. I could not,wouldnot, let him go. If I did, he would go for Bale again, and I couldn’t stand to see the color draining from her face, the panic in her eyes, or her skin sloughing off the way Shax’s had.
The reminder of her suffering caused a fresh rush of strength to course through me. My flames burned hotter as they raced over the two of us. Death didn’t scream, but my fire did not affect him like it did others. He had no flesh for the flames to consume.
Instead, they ate away his clothes and left his bones in my grasp. The fire would also destroy his eyes, but he would never let me know if that happened. Even if my flames didn’t harm him, I still kept us engulfed in the hopes of destroying his eyes.
I was so focused on trying to decapitate him so I could smash his head to bits, that I didn’t see his mount until its hooves flashed over my head. I rolled to the side in time to avoid having the powerful beast stomp on me.
My roll was enough movement for Death to throw back his head and batter it into my nose. My legs lost their grip on his, but I clung to his throat as he clawed at the snow to break free of me. From the corner of my eye, I saw his horse coming back at us and rolled again.
This time, I wasn’t fast enough to completely avoid its attack. Its hooves struck me in the back, sliced open my flesh, and something cracked in my back before my legs went numb. I tried to move my toes, but if they twitched, I couldn’t tell.
When Death’s mount reared over me again, I held my breath as I waited for another spine-crushing blow. This one might tear me in half.
But instead of feeling the weight of the horse coming down to sever my spine further, and my bones splintering into jagged pieces, I was saved from the blow by Zorn crashing into its side. The sound of the impact caused me to wince as the two horses vanished into the snow.
With my legs now useless, it took everything I had to keep my hold on Death. My newest injury had weakened me further, and my flames were little more than small sparks that danced across my fingertips and ran down to my elbows.
Still, I hooked my fingers inside Death’s mouth and twisted his head to the side. His teeth clamped down hard enough to pierce through my skin and hit the bone. As he worked his jaw back and forth, he scoured his teeth against my bones while I continued to twist his head to the side. My index finger tore away, and my stomach turned when the fucker gulped it down.
I had to get his head off before he succeeded in eating the rest of my fingers. Gathering my dwindling strength, I yanked to the side and experienced a moment of grim satisfaction when a crack echoed throughout the day.
As I twisted his head further, he somehow managed to turn beneath me, so his bony fists pummeled the side of my head. My cheekbones gave way, and blinding white stars filled my vision; he consumed another one of my fingers. Still, I managed to keep twisting his head until I succeeded in rending it from his shoulders.
The decapitation didn’t slow Death’s attack. His teeth continued to grind against my remaining fingers while he pummeled my broken skull and face. I dragged his head toward me with the intent of smashing it into tiny pieces, but the loss of another finger destabilized my hold on it.
Snow suddenly billowed up in a cloud around me; the chill of it felt good against my battered head. From my one, barely good eye, I saw legs, but snow covered the feet, or at least I assumed they were in the snow. I couldn’t tell anymore as my vision narrowed to little more than a pinpoint.
