And when a soft burst of red appeared in front of me, all was still.
The flowers weren’t here before you came.
Caiden’s voice.
His soul.
That red flooded forward—across my eyes, into my chest… brushing against the thread that still led me to Cole, and the surge of strength I had let me push back against the handsholding me. They slipped, because Death wasn’t expecting defiance.
When I stood to face Death, I noticed a single red petal caught in my hair.
Chapter 31
Cole
I wasn’tsure if it was the way I was slamming my fist against his door, or the desperate look on his face when he wrenched it open, but Gethin’s expression went from annoyed to concerned to suspicious so fast it made my head spin.
“What did you do?”
Not what do you want? Notwhathappened? What did you do?
It was a fair question.
“Sephtis is gone.” That was what I’d done. I hadn’t been paying attention.
I’d stepped over the barrier.
I’d been so caught up in my grief over Caiden that I’d slipped… and he’d sacrificed himself to save me.
I wasn’t going to let it happen.
“What do you mean, gone? Like he ran away because he was tired of your shit, or…” He trailed off at my expression, and there was a flash of something that almost looked like pity on his face. Just as quick as it came, it was replaced with a frown. “Who took him?”
“I think it was Death.” It sounded so impossible, and it was stranger still when Gethin’s shoulders slumped like he was relieved.
“Did you leave the graveyard?”
That guilt washed over me again. “I didn’t realize we had. There’s an area in the back where the fence is down.”
Gethin’s expression fell. “They were expanding. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you’d be wandering around back there.” I wasn’t sure if it was accusation or guilt in his tone, and it didn’t really matter. I blamed myself enough for the both of us.
“That isn’t important. What’s important is that we get him back.”
I was already pushing past him and walking into his kitchen. He followed behind me with an exasperated sound. “Yeah, you gonna go figure out where Death lives and knock on his door?Oh please, Mr. Murder, give me back my spooky boyfriend.”
I found what I wanted and turned on Gethin. His eyes dropped to the knife in my hand and he arched a brow. “Is that for me or him, because I don’t think?—”
“Neither.” I cut him off. “It’s for me.” That finally got him to shut up. He stared at me as I walked forward and pressed the blade into his hand. “I want you to stab me.”
It wasn’t really thebestplan… but it was the only thing I could think of. There’d never been a time when I was hurt that Sephtis didn’t come, and if Gethin put the knife to my chest, over my heart… where that red thread connected the two of us…
Well…
Vitality could change the world, right? It would cause chaos.
Upset the balance.
I’d tugged on the thread, and it had trickled out. I wasn’t willing to break our connection, but I was willing to die trying to bring him back to me.
