“She’s beautiful,” I said, smiling at Zinnia’s little one. “Do you have many dolls?”
She nodded. “I love them. Me and Ryk made a town for them in the music room. We’re playing in there after breakfast if you want to join us?”
“Thank you for the lovely invitation,” I said. “As long as Ryker doesn’t mind me playing as well?”
Ryker looked at Lothar, and his cheeks turned pink. He was Egon’s son, but his mother must be more humanoid in looks. He had his father’s horns but not his skin color or red eyes, or at least not all the time. “I don’t care. I hate playing dolls. They’re dumb. I’ll be a warrior when I’m older. Warriors don’t play dolls,” he said, still watching Lothar.
Mari’s eyes widened with outrage and hurt. “You do not hate playing dolls.”
He looked down. “Yeah, I do,” he muttered.
Mari turned her back on him, and Ryker huffed, but his gaze was locked on his best friend, and I could see he regretted his words. He looked back at Lothar and realized the big hound wasn’t paying him any attention, focused on eating his breakfast, and didn’t care one way or the other.
“I’m sorry, Mari,” Ryker said, swallowing thickly. “I didn’t mean it.”
“You shouldn’t say things if you don’t mean them.” She huffed. “I’m going to play…by myself.” Then she stormed off.
Ryker jumped off his chair and, calling her name, ran after her.
Zinnia sighed.
I stared after them. “Friendships can be complicated.”
“You’re not wrong. Especially BFFs,” she said and chuckled.
I glanced across the table, and Lothar’s stare locked on mine. He was getting impatient but said nothing as Death took the last bite of his breakfast, then drained his mug of coffee.
Finally, he stood, and his dark stare slid to Lothar, then to me. “We can talk in the library,” he said in that soul-shaking voice. When he spoke it felt as if he reached inside your body and sent ice through your bones.
Zinnia stood, and he took her hand in his.
Loth and I stood as well, I said my goodbyes to Somnus and Pascal, then we headed upstairs to the library.
The library was all dark leather and deep mahogany furniture. A fire blazed in the ornate fireplace and the walls were lined with ancient leather-bound books. Death stood to one side of the room, in front of a wide window that looked down to the grounds and the forest beyond. Everything we could see, and so much we couldn’t, had been created by Death thousands of years ago, including the sky and the stars, that he’d mirrored, mostly, after the ones we saw on Earth.
“You are here in my realm because Zinnia asked it of me. I have no time for Lucifer or his games. If one of his lords has trespassed, and if he still hides here, he will receive no mercy from me. If I find him first, I will slice him in two and send Lucifer the pieces. I don’t give a single fuck what the king of Hell wants or thinks about that.” His gaze slid from me to Lothar. “Just to be clear.”
“Totally understandable,” I said. “Beelzebub is no longer in Lucifer’s favor. He has committed treason and is possibly still attempting to take Lucifer’s throne, so the lord of Hell is no longer any friend of ours…but we need to take him back alive. There are more pieces to this treasonous puzzle, and B can provide us with those missing pieces.”
“I can’t promise you anything,” Death said, his voice void of emotion. “And I have no intention of doing so. If I see him first, he’s dead.”
Lothar made a rough sound. “What do you know about wraiths?”
“They are creatures without souls, they have no mercy, no conscience. They live for the hunt, to inflict pain.” He looked at Zinnia. “Did you see them?”
She shook her head. “No, but I trust Roxy. If she says that’s what they were, then I believe her.”
Death cursed.
“What is it?” Lothar said.
Death crossed his tattooed arms over his wide chest. “They have been locked away for a very long time. It took some doing. I was part of the alliance, as was Lucifer and several other powerful beings. We fought them, contained them, then locked them away. Whoever freed them has to be of the same ilk, or have some very powerful friends.”
“Beelzebub is powerful, but not like that,” Lothar said. “And they had weapons, the kinds that can kill immortals.”
I bit my lip, because the more Death and Lothar talked, the more the unsettled feeling grew inside me. I’d tried to tell myself I was wrong after seeing that weapon, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Death’s gaze came to me then, slicing into the deepest part of me. “Do you have any idea who it could be, Roxana?”
