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He quirked a brow and tilted his head, popping his neck. “Let’s get this show on the road.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath Bunny knew for a fact he didn’t need. She followed suit.
If he was taking her power, she couldn’t feel it. In fact, to start with, nothing felt different at all. She held off saying anything, not wanting to waste his obvious concentration, but a few moments later her impatience was starting to get the better of her.
She opened her mouth to say something just as the chill of the cool room began to recede, replaced by a glowing kind of warmth emanating from the table beneath their hands.
Bunny felt her moonstone pendant start to heat up, too, vibrating against her chest with sudden energy that made it feel like it wanted to leap into the air. Daring to crack open one eye, she could see that Death’s black obsidian pendant was already hovering in the air in front of him, drawn towards the body bag on the examination table as though compelled by a magnetic force.
She glanced down as her pendant lifted away from her body, too. The body bag was steaming, the heat of whatever magic he was weaving with their combined powers too much for the cool room to compete with.
The air was shifting around them as though it, too, was affected by the force creating those crazy vibrations between them. Pulsing energy swirled around them, making Bunny feel as though they were somehow trapped in a storm of their own making. It built and built, rising into a silent crescendo that made her wonder if she was going to throw up again.
And then Death gasped and stumbled back, his hands ripped out of her grip. He grabbed onto the shelf behind himself, holding it tightly as he wobbled on unsteady feet.
“Are you okay?” Bunny asked, rushing around to his side of the room. The fact that she was concerned was ludicrous—the guy was literally Death. But she stood on tiptoe to see if he was alright anyway, trying to peer into his face.
“Hellfire,” he growled, before coughing.
Bunny frowned, her concern amplified by the almost angry note in his tone. “What?”
“Your mother’s soul was cleaved with hellfire,” he repeated, meeting her gaze with concern evident in his dark eyes. “And there’s only one place that comes from.”
* * *
Being backon the couch in her apartment felt decidedly mundane after basically astral-traveling to Mosswood to undertake a celestial autopsy on her mother. Bunny had collapsed on the couch, her head lying back on the cushions, her eyes closed as she attempted to process what they had learned.
“So my mom was killed by demons.”
It was such a simple statement, with such complicated connotations. She took a deep breath in, letting it all wash over her.
“Your mom was killed by demons… or their boss.”
Death was seated beside her. His steady presence was oddly calming, even though it probably shouldn’t have been.
Bunny snorted. “Of course my mother was killed by the devil himself. Welcome to the Fuckening!”
Death didn’t respond to her sarcasm. “She’s gotta be beyond the gate,” he mused, turning it over in his mind. “She’s gotta be in Purgatory. If she was killed by them, they’re not going to want her soul topside.”
Bunny let her head loll in Death’s direction. “Okay, I’ll play asshole’s advocate,” she snarked, pursing her lips for a second. “Why would they not want her topside?”
“Because all demons care about is using humans as puppets,” he growled in response, “and they can’t do that if the human still has a soul.”
Well, that was a cheerful thought.
“Great,” she drawled. “So all we need to do is get through the gate and check if Mom’s in Purgatory.”
It was Death’s turn to snort. He somehow managed to sound hot even when he was making gross noises. Life, Bunny reasoned, was supremely unfair.
“Do you have access to go beyond the gate?” He looked at her pointedly. “Because I don’t.”
Bunny turned her head back straight, eyes narrowing as she scrutinized the ceiling. “Does Roberta?”
“Probably,” he admitted. “But she’s almost a law unto herself. If we tell her, she might help us. Or… she might decide to alert Middle Management.”
“No way of swaying her?” Bunny asked hopefully.
He sighed. “None that I know of. She’ll do what she wants to do.” He paused for a beat, and Bunny could feel his eyes on her. “Bit like someone else I know,” he added cheekily.
“Thanks,” Bunny said with a roll of her eyes.
