Chapter 18
MISERY
My ears rang when Death’s heart stuttered. And stopped. Silence wrapped like a shroud around the corridor. My hands shook as I knelt beside him, hands unsteady as I fastened the buttons of his shirt, still wet from the downpour outside.
“He’ll be insufferable when he wakes up if we leave his shirt undone. You know what he’s like, flashing abs all over the place,” I croaked.
“Miz,” Madness said in a gentle voice that made me want to snap at him.
I was fine. I shrugged off the hand he set on my shoulder, all my focus going to Cat as a fine edge of pain tore through the bond.
Her first sob broke me. Her second had me dragging her into my arms and squeezing so tight I felt the touch breach the pain rampaging through her soul.
“He’s a death god, my universe,” I said against her hair as she shook against me, more sobs crawling up her throat. “He’s a death god.”
“I’m cursed,” she said in a voice so strangled and wretched it cracked my ribs apart, grabbed my heart, and ripped it in two. “Everyone I love dies. Everyone leaves me. He promised—he promised he’d never leave.”
“This is a nasty shield,” Madde murmured, getting to his feet and assessing the wall of invisible power Death had smacked into. “Violence’s, I think.”
Cat flinched in my arms.
“He died in pain. He died tortured, like Violence tried to do to me,” she said between broken gasps, shaking harder. “I felt it, I felt his pain.”
I hauled her closer until she straddled my knees and crushed her chest to mine. “Look at me. Cat, look at me.” Weepy eyed lifted to mine, her mouth pressing into a wobbly line as she tried to get her sobs under control. “His heart has stopped but he is not dead.”
“Well, he’s already dead,” Pain added, and winced, putting his hands up when Cat wailed.
I glared at him, but none of this was Pain’s fault.
The blame lay with those piece of shit siblings, and I would make sure they paid for every sob and cry and shudder they’d inflicted on my Cat.
For every second that Death’s heart didn’t beat, they would endure unadulterated agony.
“Pain’s right,” I said, softening my voice as much as I was able. I brushed a lock of wet hair from her face and moulded my palm to her cold cheek. “He’s already dead. He’s been dead this whole time, my universe. He’ll come back to us, we’ve just got to give him time.”
Her sobs lost their intensity, their frequency slowed, but tears still poured down her cheeks, hot when they splashed on my hand. “He’ll come back?”
When I nodded, her eyes screwed shut, pain scoring her soul, and the cold that had spread through the bond gradually lost its icy edge.
“We don’t have time,” Pain breathed, rubbing her back before he stood, scanning the short hallway. “They know we’re here. Madde, can you get through that shield?”
“Ehh…” Madde wobbled his hand. “Not without my heart stopping, too.”
“No!” The word burst from Cat, guttural and commanding. “Don’t you dare.” Her throat bobbed, her silver eyes filled with hurt and longing as she stared at that door just out of reach. “But he’s—I can feel him on the other side of that door. Tor is in there.”
Her words were four daggers sent rapid fire into my chest. My stomach physically cramped as I fought off the need to shatter that shield, fuck even knows how I’d get through it, and destroy that door to get to Tor.
“We can—” Cat began, seeing the desperation in my face, pressing her trembling hand to my chest. She could feel it—the need tearing me apart—and I knew she was about to suggest finding a way to break the magic block even if Cruelty and Violence found us.
But Death chose that moment to surge up off the floor as a heaving breath filled his lungs.
Like a call and response, a rough breath of relief left my chest. I scrubbed a hand down my face, refusing to admit that I thought Cat was right, and we’d truly lost him.
“You ever do that again,” I snarled, a giant lump in my throat, “and I’ll murder you myself.”
Cat threw her arms around him the moment he propped himself in a seated position, and my eyes slammed shut when Death’s eyes met mine, familiar and warm and worried.
I jumped, my chest crushed under the weight of agony, relief, and love when he caught my hand in his, lips brushing my knuckles. I’d know that touch anywhere.
“Guys,” Pain said urgently, a whoosh of magic going up around us.
Before I could open my eyes, her voice rippled through the hallway, and I ground my jaw as it abraded every last nerve. “Awww, isn’t this touching?”
“You touch them—” Cat began in a snarl as I uncoiled to my feet, throwing an arm around Death when he wavered. Alive, but clearly still affected by the magic we’d walked into.
“Oh, I know.” Cruelty waved a hand, smiling with something like true amusement as she looked from Cat to Death and I, then Pain and Madness.
She was back in her bridal dress, lace hood and all, and looked every bit as disarmingly normal as usual—until she grinned.
“Detailed threats of bodily harm, etcetera. I’m starting to think this is how you show affection, Kitty.
Do the threats mean you truly love me, like you loved Honey? ”
“Sure,” Cat breathed, her fear spreading to me like the slow crawl of frost. “That’s exactly what they mean. Can we get past, please?”
Cruelty tutted, her eyes brightening—at the fear in Cat’s voice. I gnashed my teeth, rage a wildfire in my veins, and startled when Cat’s fingers encircled my wrist, squeezing tight in warning. So I took a breath, then another.
We could take Cruelty, surely. Four death gods against one, it should be easy. But nothing about this had been easy since the beginning, and where I’d normally kill first, ask questions later, I was… wary.
“I really shouldn’t let you go,” Cruelty said, tapping her foot on the floor. “My brother’s just looking for a reason to punish you again. He told me it was so fun the first time.”
I launched forward with a snarl, Death right there with me.
Shadows snapped across the floor, creeping along the walls.
With Pain and Madde, we surrounded Cat. Both protection and backup, if she wanted to launch an attack.
Tor’s neck hung under this psychotic executioner’s blade, so I wouldn’t risk making the first move, but if Cat attacked, we’d figure out how to blast through that shield behind us.
“But,” Cruelty added after she’d savoured the moment of tension, “since you’re my best friend, and this is only your first rule break, I’ll let you go. But I warn you, Kitty, one more infraction and you’ll be in detention.”
“Detention,” Cat repeated breathily, squeezing my wrist. “Is that code for something?”
“Nope.” Cruelty swept a look over all of us—hostility barely sheered out by the soft veil of cordiality. “We’ll have you writing lines until you learn your lesson. My governess used to make me write lines all the time and look how I turned out.”
“Batshit insane?” Madde guessed.
“Well balanced,” Cruelty corrected through gritted teeth. She took a step aside. “Go, before I change my mind and bring Violence to fix this bad behaviour.”
I cast a look over my shoulder at the door, but if we pushed, Tor would pay for it. So even though my stomach twisted and burned, I followed the others to the staircase and back into our room.