CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
I smiled politely as I opened the front door. “Hello, Poppy.”
She charged right inside and past me, mumbling over her shoulder. “Hey, Mina. Where’s Finn at?”
“In the kitchen.”
She marched off in the direction of the kitchen, her black boots eating up the ground quickly.
I shut and locked the door and scrambled after her. For someone so short, she could really move fast. I finally caught up with her as she entered the kitchen.
I was breathless.
She was not.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have had that last hamburger.
Poppy continued to march into the room, but she slowed and turned in a circle. “He’s not in here.”
“But I am,” Cassander stated. He walked into the far doorway and stared directly at Poppy. “Will you do something for me if I ask it? A favor to me?”
“I don’t really have the time for it right now. But if it’s not tonight, I can do it. You know all you have to do is ask,” Poppy stated gently. “Can we talk about it tomorrow? I’m going with you guys tonight. I don’t care what you say or what God says. If they’re letting Mina go, another mate, then I am going too.”
Cassander took a step forward. “What if I told you if you go tonight, God is going to die?”
She snorted. “Have you seen that man fight? Nothing will bring him down.”
“I urge you to reconsider.” He took another step forward. “If you go, God will die.”
“There are only two people who can actually kill him. And you and I would never do that.” She shook her head, her brows puckered. “I’m going.”
“Please.”
Her lips thinned. “You thought I was going to die today. And now God. Have you been sleeping? God says that you have problems sleeping occasionally.”
He sighed heavily and ran his finger through his hair. “We’ve run out of time. Jimble-Wamble-Boom.”
“What?” she asked, utterly confused.
She didn’t even see him coming.
Her back was to him per their plan.
Finn moved so fast through the doorway behind me that the wind whipped against my face as he passed. His short sword gleamed under the interior light as it arced through the air.
I shut my eyes. I didn’t want to see it.
I’d hoped she would have listened to what Cassander was saying. She might have even been getting there. But she wasn’t fast enough.
The thud of her head hitting a wall across the room caused my stomach to roll. Finn had decided head and arms. Those extremities would give us until we got back tonight. I flinched as the floor vibrated in front of me as her body fell.
The two final hacks for her arms had me turning and running to the bathroom with my right hand over my mouth. Hearing it had been enough.
* * *
“What do you need me to do?” I asked, my entire body stiff with anxiety. “I can help with the cleanup if you’d like.”
Finn had a rolled up clear tarp over his shoulder, the blood inside it smeared and Poppy’s torso and legs filling it. Apparently, when immortals come back to life after they die, the magic that regenerates them starts with the heart and works its way out.
