Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Zinnia
The leathers were sturdy but well-worn. Whoever owned them before me had obviously kicked ass because they were scarred and patched in a bunch of places. From the inside, you could see most of the damage was from clean slices, most likely knives or swords. If I was wearing what amounted to armor, then there was a chance I’d be fighting, so I’d strapped several throwing knives to my waist and my larger knife to my thigh. I also had a few of Magnolia’s nasty potions with me—one that was straight to the point and melted the face off a creature in seconds, and another that caused temporary confusion, hallucinations, and blindness.
I walked out of the castle and had to fight not to suck in a sharp breath.
Death stood at the foot of the stairs, wearing heavy boots and worn leather like me. It molded to his tall frame, and dressed like that, goddess, the already large male was massive and even more imposing. I thought about the way he’d looked in the garden—utterly transformed, his features skeletal, his eyes aimed at the sky while his lips moved rapidly, speaking to… only he knew who—and shivered. He’d never looked more like the God of Death than he had last night. My gaze trailed over him now; yeah, there was no mistaking who he was right now either. His shoulders looked even broader this morning, his long, lean body hugged to perfection in all that black. His muscle wasn’t bulky. If I had to describe Death, I’d say he had the body of an extremely tall Olympic swimmer: long muscles, agile, fast. His movements would be smooth in a fight, gliding from one move to the next—
“Ready?” he asked.
I jumped, not prepared for that voice. I never was.
“As I’ll ever be.” I carefully lifted the strap of the small bag I’d borrowed from Egon over my head as I descended the wide stairs. The bag was small and made of a soft but thick felt, perfect for Hemlock to stay warm in. I carried my pack in my hand. Hopefully, I had everything I’d need since I’d packed light as instructed. “So who did the leathers belong to?” I asked him.
His gaze swept over me, from the boots to my wavy red hair that I’d braided down my back to keep out of the way. “A warrior,” he said.
“A friend of yours?”
Something moved through those crystal clear, glacial eyes. “No.”
“Lover?” My belly twisted in an uncomfortable way for some reason.
He didn’t answer, which was answer enough, wasn’t it? I was wearing his ex-lover’s armor. Realization struck. “She was your consort?”
“Yes.”
What did it matter to me? Still, I felt kind of weird wearing something that had belonged to a female he once… cared about? Loved? Then again, who’s to say he loved her? I was his consort, and we sure as hell weren’t in love. “Where is she now?”
“Dead.”
He was doing that thing he often did, watching me in a way I didn’t understand. The way he replied, leaving things unsaid, as if he was waiting for me to figure out the punch line on my own when there was no way I could. “How did she die?”
“Gruesomely.”
I couldn’t read him at all, which was nothing new. “You don’t seem very upset about it. Was she consort number one or number ten?”
He said nothing.
I jerked back. “Do all your consorts die gruesomely?”
“Not all.” He held my gaze. “Some a little more peacefully.”
Well now, wasn’t this a new and horrifying discovery. “And how long do you expect me to last?”
“That is entirely up to you, consort,” he said, then held his fingers to his lips and whistled.
He’d actually answered several questions without asking for anything in return. A crashing sound came from deep in the forest. “What the hell is that?”
“Our transportation.”
The trees at the edge of the forest, several yards away, shuddered, followed by the sound of several large branches cracking; then two giant monsters burst through.
“Holy fuck.” I stumbled back, but Death grabbed me, his fingers curling around my wrist and holding firm, and then he tugged me forward. I jolted as electricity bolted through me. Still, it was less shocking than it had been in the library. I could breathe at least. He called out to the beasts in that same language, in that same low, guttural voice he’d used with Somnus.
They slowed, stopping in front of us.
Their skin was thick like a rhino’s but mottled black and gray. They had long, thin, muscular legs and claws like razors. Their heads were elongated, birdlike, with lower jaws that jutted forward and mouths that were full of sharp teeth and fangs like a wildcat.
Death said something to one of them, again in that language I didn’t understand, before he turned to me. “She won’t hurt you unless you mistreat her. She understands verbal cues.” He still held my wrist, and even through the leather, I felt his touch pulsing through my arm.
I tried to pull away, but he turned to me, and his other hand came up fast, wrapping around my throat in a firm hold. I gasped and grabbed his wrist, trying to get him off, to pull away, but there was no dislodging him.
Was this how I died? Death having some random psychotic break and choking me to death?
“They only understand one language,” he said, voice low as he held me, gasping and thrashing, immobile in his grip. “Stop fighting me.”
I realized when I gasped in a desperate breath that I could breathe. At least he wasn’t trying to cut off my airway. Warmth filled my throat, and little sparks danced down to my chest.
He dipped his face close to mine. “Now when you speak to her, she’ll understand you.” He was right there, closer than he’d ever been to me before. Goddess, I’d actually felt his warm breath against my lips.
Blinking, I tried to fight the pull, but I was sucked into his gaze, like a black hole dragging my soul from my body. He didn’t need to cut off my breathing; I was holding my breath all on my own.
He released my throat suddenly, and I gasped in another lungful of air, but the reprieve was short-lived because he gripped my waist before I knew what he was about to do and hoisted me onto one of the beasts.
What I wanted to do was jump right the hell back off. I was disoriented and freaking the fuck out, but I had to get it together. No, I wasn’t a warrior, but I was no slouch either. So instead of letting him see how rattled I was, I scooted forward on the beast to the only place I could sit comfortably, where there was a natural groove behind her shoulders. Death wrapped a girth belt around her belly, just behind me, and strapped on my pack, then slid on leather bridle-like headgear over her beaky jaw, secured it, and handed me the reins.
I gripped them while Death ran his hand down her long nose. “Thank you, Zuri, for your service to my consort and me. I know being away from your loved ones will be painful, but you and your family will be rewarded for your sacrifice.”
I heard the words as he said them in another language, but this time, I understood them. “That’s her name? Zuri?”
“Yes.” He ran his hand along the larger beast on the other side of him. “And this is her mate, Raze,” he said as he secured Raze’s girth strap, then tied his wooden staff to it. He slid the bridle on before swinging himself up onto the beast’s back. “Let’s go,” he said, and Raze started walking.
Zuri instantly followed her mate, moving up beside him, so close that my leg kept brushing Death’s. I tried to steer her away, to put more distance between us, but she wasn’t having it. Awesome.
Death rode toward an opening in the forest.
“So where are we going?” I asked, because the silence was making me jumpy. I glanced at his staff. “And why do you need that?”
“My staff has many purposes, including a weapon.”
“You’re Death, what do you need with weapons?”
“I’m never without my staff. We’re also going to the Outer Realm, beyond Limbo, beyond everything, and I need a weapon because my powers will be significantly weakened there,” he said.
Fear coiled deep inside me. “Going there kind of sounds like a seriously dumb thing to do, then.”
“Perhaps, but it is necessary.”
“Why?”
He stared straight ahead, and his strong jaw tightened, the muscle there pulsing several times as if he was grinding his teeth. I didn’t think he’d answer, but then he glanced my way. “Because Somnus has been asleep too long. It’s why he suffers, why he’s in pain. He’s fighting it. If I don’t wake him, he’ll fall into an eternal slumber, never to return.”
Obviously not good for Somnus or Death. “Why won’t he wake?”
Death looked away from me again. “Because time moves differently in the dream realm, and his task there is of the greatest importance. He can only leave for a short time before he must return, but he must leave. He must wake occasionally, or he never will again.”
This journey was obviously dangerous, so what the hell did he think I could do? Why was he making me go with him? “And there’s something in the Outer Realm that can wake him?”
“No. What we need is in the Night Realm.”
His mother’s realm. “So we’re going there as well?”
“Yes.”
“How long will it take to get there?”
“It will take two days and nights to pass through Limbo’s forests and reach the gateway to the Outer Realm. How long it takes to reach our destination after that will depend on what is waiting for us on the other side.”
“We could die?” I said, filling in the blanks.
“You could. I can’t die—I’m a God—but I could be seriously injured and out of commission for a very long time.”
Fuck. “I’d rather not die, if it’s all the same.”
“If you do as I say, you’ll be fine. Now hold on tight,” Death said, then patted Raze. “Run, my friend.”
The beast took off, and Zuri bounded forward. I jerked back, almost coming off, and yanked on the reins to right myself, then hung on like hell. They were massive and ungainly, but they could move.
Death kept that pace for the rest of the day, and by the time we stopped for the night, I was exhausted. My thigh muscles ached and cramped, my back hurt, and my fingers were stiff from gripping the leather reins so tight.
Death jumped down as if we’d been riding for minutes, not hours, and removed Raze’s girth strap and bridle. I groaned, dragging my leg over Zuri’s back, and kind of slid to the ground. My legs buckled under me, but before I could hit the dirt, Death was there, his arm hooked around my waist, stopping me from falling.
“You need to work on your stamina,” he said roughly.
The coarseness to his voice lifted goose bumps all over me. I quickly pulled away, clinging to Zuri’s girth strap while the blood pumped back through my muscles. “I’m not used to riding all day, that’s all. I’m not weak.”
He stepped away from me. “If you say so.”
I gritted my teeth and barely resisted picking up a rock and tossing it at his head. I removed Zuri’s girth strap and bridle and hung them over a branch, watching as she and Raze trotted off into the forest to eat and rest.
Wordlessly, Death led me to the mouth of a cave that cut into stone at the base of a tall cliff. It was getting dark, but there was still enough light that when I looked up, I could tell it was hundreds of yards high.
“What is this place?” I asked as we walked in. I stopped in my tracks. “Whoa.” There were candles already going, and an ornate fireplace was carved into one of the rock walls. A small kitchen was on the opposite side, a wooden table and four chairs beside it, and a large bed on a four-poster iron frame sat back, recessed in the stone. Dark fabric hung down the sides, tied back by leather cords, and the bed was draped in black velvet. Everything smelled clean and fresh, as if someone still lived here and had just done a spring clean.
“This was my home when I first created this realm,” Death said, surprising me.
I spun to him. “You lived here? How long for?”
He shrugged a broad shoulder. “I can’t recall. A long time.” He opened his jacket hurriedly, sliding it off, and instantly rolled his shoulders as if he had been desperate to remove it. He turned to the entrance as he tugged off the shirt he wore underneath, visibly relaxing. The entrance vanished, just from a look, and now stone covered it—trapping us in. His gaze slid to the fire next, and flames immediately ignited in the hearth. “Sit. We’ll eat.”
I looked around again, for a door, for an escape, if I needed one, but there wasn’t one. I was trapped in a cave with Death.
“Consort,” he said, jolting me. I tried not to look panicked as I turned back to him. “Sit. Eat.”
When I turned back, the table was set, plates piled with food at either end. “Neat trick,” I said and managed to walk to the table without collapsing again. Sitting at the table, I took Hemy from his bag and set him on the table beside me. He blinked up at me, still drowsy. He’d slept all day. “You hungry?” I looked down at my plate. All my favorites were there. Slow-roasted beef, gravy, crispy potatoes, green beans, and glazed carrots. I put a couple carrots and a potato in front of Hemy and poured some water into a saucer.
Death’s boots thumped against the stone floor, echoing through the room, and somehow, I managed not to jump, but my nerves zipped across my belly as he drew closer, then pulled out the chair opposite. I glanced up as he sat. His plate looked the same as mine, but he had twice the amount of beef. There was a pitcher with water and a mug, and a glass of wine as well. I took a fortifying sip. It hadn’t escaped me that there was only one bed, and the idea of lying on it next to Death was more than I could even contemplate.
“Stop staring at your food and eat it,” he said, voice low. “You’ll need to keep up your strength.”
I picked up my cutlery and sliced off a succulent piece of beef. “For all the fighting I’ll be doing?”
His gaze dipped to my mouth, watching as I slid the fork past my lips. “I don’t know what awaits us. We need to be prepared for anything.” He shoved food in his mouth, his biceps flexing, then took a gulp of wine. “Where we’re going, demons are rampant, but you’re a warrior. I’ve seen you fight. It’s nothing you can’t handle.”
I lowered my knife and fork. “You think I’m a warrior?”
“I know you are. My consort wouldn’t be anything else,” he said as if it were obvious, a fact, then lowered his gaze back to his food.
I sat there, kind of frozen, surprised he saw me that way and, yeah, pleased that he recognized my abilities and didn’t see me as some weak female. “So all your consorts were warriors?”
“Not all warriors wield a sword.”
This was true.
“Eat, Zinnia,” he rumbled, not looking up, and the oxygen was punched from my lungs.
I quickly shoved a piece of carrot in my mouth so he didn’t feel the need to look up again, but my heart was pounding wildly in my chest. He never called me by my name. Ever. It was always consort or occasionally wife . I took another sip of my wine and tried to get it the hell together while he ate across from me.
Finally, he wiped his mouth on a napkin and sat back. “Do you have a question for me tonight?”
I nodded, swallowing my last mouthful. I’d asked him multiple questions today, and he’d answered most of them. I didn’t remind him of that, though.
“Good, but I have one for you first,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I’m too tired to fight with you about it tonight.”
“Why would you fight with me? It’s my turn,” he said, and his eyes glittered in the candlelight.
“Sure it is, Mors,” I said, firing his name at him. If he was doing it, then so was I.
He stilled, unnaturally so, his eyes darkening. “I told you what would happen if you spoke my name again,” he said. “Did you forget?”
Fuck . I had. I was full and warm from the fire and the wine and growing sleepier by the minute, which was why I was more relaxed than I’d ever been around him before. “I guess I did.”
“You realize you must do whatever it is I ask? You vowed, and a vow cannot be broken.”
In other words, I’d fucked up big-time. “What do you want?”
“I’ll tell you when the time comes,” he said.
Awesome, that didn’t sound ominous at all. “Fine, not much I can do about it now, right?” I was doing my best not to let him see how freaked out I truly was. How the hell could I forget? He was watching me closely. Maybe he was waiting for the freak-out? Well, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “So what’s your question? I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
His massive, scarred hand curled around his glass, and he took another sip of his wine, dragging it out, trying to torture me with suspense. “If you had the means, would you kill me?”
Okay, I hadn’t expected that one. Was that Death’s way of asking if I liked him? Yes, I’d kill you, equals no? No, I wouldn’t kill you, equals yes? Despite everything, I didn’t hate him. I wasn’t na?ve enough not to understand that there were bigger things at play here. He hadn’t chosen me to be his consort any more than I’d chosen him, and going by his actions since we made our deal, I wasn’t so sure he even wanted me here. It felt more like he needed me than wanted me. So no, I didn’t hate him. “No, I wouldn’t kill you.”
He abruptly sat forward in his seat. “Why?”
I automatically jerked back; the intensity flowing from him had skyrocketed. “You get one question, remember?” Again, I was struck by how different he was. He was more… animated, and he seemed to possess more than one emotion. He wasn’t just angry all the time like he had been before.
He ground his teeth, then visibly forced himself to relax, his big shoulders losing their rigidity. “I remember. Ask your question.”
After all that had happened at this dinner alone, I should go for an easy one, but I couldn’t stop the question that was forming in my head from coming out of my mouth. “Do you miss them, grieve them… your past consorts?”
No, he didn’t like that question, not at all. His face had turned to stone. He didn’t want to answer it, but we’d made a deal, and he had to. A low, rumbling growl came from him, and I barely managed to hold my ground and not jump from my seat and find a hole to shove myself into.
“If I allowed myself to truly feel the weight of their loss, I would never sleep come sunset, and I would never leave my bed come sunrise.” Then he stood suddenly and strode to the hearth, giving me his back.
Shock had me glued to my seat. Again, Death had surprised me. He’d cared for them, and he’d lost them, all of them.
“You should get some sleep. Take the bed,” he said without looking at me.
I jolted from my chair, scooped up Hemy, and did what he said without a word.
We’d done more than enough talking for tonight.