Killed him.
Him.
An emptiness rattled her insides as she choked on a sob. Empty without him there. A void that not even the greed of her past could fill. The same greed she’d just killed him for.
She didn’t want to do this. She didn’twantthis.
Was it worth it? Was all that power worth losing him? To become mindless and numb and a shell of herself. That was what awaited her. More ofthis. More pain and sorrow and suffering, andfor what…
The knife lying beside his body caught her eye.
Because maybe it wasn’t worth it.
Nonetheless, before she could reach for it, before she could move her body and make that final decision, a black shadow curled around her trembling hands. The same shadow she’d seen the night before in the cemetery, and Ana nearly hurled onto the floor.
A flash of rage surged through her depleting body. Rage and hatred and anger for every time she’d looked for this shadow and it had never come. For all the times a lowly demon had cleaned up after her kills and never Death himself. For every time she’d begged and pleaded for that end.
The shadows curled over Sam’s arms and inched across the floor.
“You…” Her voice was shaking, barely audible. Her breath wouldn’t catch for the nausea in her throat. Her vision blurred behind that rage, that hatred.
“You show now…now… after all these fucking years…All this time—” She released Sam’s jacket, her hands curling in on themselves. Pain pricked her palms, and she hardly realized she was breaking her own skin.
“Show your cowardice face for once,” she seethed, her voice growing. “Show me,Death. Come out of your shadows and face me.The things I have done for you!” She was screaming then, throat aching, burning, and raw from everything building inside her.
“Come for me!” she screeched. “Show your face!” She grabbed the knife and held the point to her wrist, staring at those shadows and into the darkness surrounding her—save for the lamppost outside and the light from the TV cascading over her figure.
He was there. She knew he was. He was in her apartment.
Death watched her.
And she dared him to step forward.
“Will you show your fucking face this time?” she choked out, the tip of that knife now digging into her skin. Hyper breaths had her mind numb. She was ready.Ready. This was the final time she would ask for that darkness. He was here this time. He was watching. He couldn’t stop her. He would finally take her.
She looked at Sam’s face one last time. Hisbeautiful fucking face. Remembering every time he’d held her and laughed and smiled. Every time he’d made her feel whole, like her past didn’t matter. Made her feel all the things she never thought she deserved. Happiness and love and peace.
A home in his arms.
And then, she turned back to the darkness.
“Show me,” she begged through screeching breaths, having to take those audible gasps, feeling her own blood seep from the cut and dribble down her shaking arm.
“Stop hiding in your shadows—“
The knife dragged further across her skin.
“—Live up to your name andcome for me!Come for me!—”
“Stop.Shouting.”
It was a hiss—awarning, and the voice…
There, in the pitch-black corner of her room, scarlet eyes lit up the darkness. Leaning against the back wall, one hand in his pocket. Eyes cold and carmine and unblinking. The lights flickered and then went completely dark. Lightning flashed, and tattered black wings arched high behind him like a shadow waiting to be unleashed.
Broken. Burned. Hollow.
Ana nearly started shouting again. Nearly rose to her feet to demand he step forward into the light. Nearly threw herself at him—
