He smiled and said, “We still need to find out what we can about your missing soul. Reggie has no idea what it could mean, and I am unsure where to start looking.”
“Okay.” I let go of his hand and leaned in close to him, wrapping my arms around his waist and grabbing his ass with both hands. I pressed my body flush with his and grinned up at him.
His fingers threaded through my hair, and he cradled my head with his big palms before leaning down to place a kiss on my lips. “You’re a menace.”
I smiled slowly. “I know. So since the house is empty,” I said against his lips, “hot screaming shower sex that probably ends in a broken bed?”
Samkiel’s eyes flicked to mine as if I had ripped him from some pressing thought, a lightness returning to the warrior king’s expression. Whatever demons had raised their ugly heads receded, chased out by the promise of play and connection.
He sighed and rolled his eyes as if I’d asked him the most mundane, boring question before a slow, wicked smile danced across his face. “Well, if you insist.”
“I’ll race you,” I said with a smirk.
He frowned and peeled my arms from around him. “Dianna, do you truly think me immature enough to—” Samkiel took off running, not finishing his sentence.
I gaped after him, and he was nearly at the stairs when I yelled, “You cheater!”
His laughter boomed, bouncing off the palace walls and echoing in my heart as I chased after him.
4
NISMERA
Fire crackled, and flames clogged the air. The buildings bent from the heat, breaking and tumbling into themselves. Trees snapped, the water inside them boiling and steaming. Screams rent the air, and Death coasted in on currents of billowing smoke. Ah, there he was, the exact being I was looking for.
Hooded, ghostly shadows moved across the battlefield, Death’s minions collecting the lifeless body parts I’d left in my wake. They twisted and lifted, escorting souls far past these realms to whatever resting place their souls demanded. More wraiths clawed and crawled from the shadows. They darkened the darkness as they floated across the massacred town, picking up and leaving.
“How do you know he will even show?” Henri asked.
Arms folded, I turned slightly, trying to hide my annoyance. After Vincent had betrayed me, I’d reinstated Henri to his former position as my second. Black and gold armor added bulk to his already massive frame, but I could see his broad shoulders tense beneath my obvious displeasure. Although not terrible to look at, with a head of short, russet curls, striking gold eyes, and a jaw that could cut glass, he was a complete and utter idiot off the battlefield. His only redeeming talents were those relating to war.
“An infrequency,” I said. “Think of it like a current. Too much in a system too quickly, and he shows to make sure it’s not overwhelmed. It just takes a few thousand all at once,” I explained, flicking the blood from the nails of my gauntlet. I grimaced at the gore clinging to my armor. “There are too many corpses, and his specters cannot carry them all. He’ll have to come himself.”
It was the exact reason I’d chosen the town of Grivmohr. It housed more than fifteen thousand people … or it had. Now, it was nothing more than a smoking, bloody wasteland. After the flames ate the buildings and flesh, the fire would turn toward the land and lay it bare.
Henri’s gaze searched the darkness, his armor sliding against itself in a soft susurration. “I can’t see them.”
Of course, he couldn’t, even with his strength and power in battle. He, like everyone else, was beneath me.
“How will you know he’s here?”
I once more smothered my annoyance with him and said, “You will be able to feel him even if you can’t see him. There will be a cold wrench of air. He is made from the darkest parts of the universe. He is here but not here, there but not there.”
Henri shivered. Even with his rank, he was still Itian, and that race was barely above mortals. Sure, they had greater strength and were more durable, but the only true difference was their slightly raised ear tips and elongated life. “I’ve heard stories from half-dead warriors who have seen a demon appear on blood-drenched battlefields. Not to fight but to take. They say some souls smiled in bliss as they left. Others screamed and tried to claw their eyes from their heads after one look at the beast.” Henri paused and turned to look at me, his eyes haunted. “Will you wish to go blind when you see him?”
My smile was slow. “There are far worse things within and past our stars than Death.”
His dirty, blood-smeared throat bobbed, but he said nothing.
I placed my hand on his breastplate. “Keep your eyes closed until I tell you otherwise.”
Henri nodded and closed his eyes, his back straight and his hands clasped before himself.
The stench of death grew as more succumbed to their wounds. The town of Grivmohr grew silent, the wind stilling and the smoke no longer curling in the air. Cold swept across the ground, frigid and bitter. Leaves and rocks froze, turning an icy blue. It was a sickening cold, brutal as the edge of time. When Henri’s breaths slowed and clouded before him, I knew who had arrived. The caress of cold smoke followed a flutter of wings.
“Took you long enough,” I said. “I would have thought you would have shown after the first few hundred.”
“Your value for life is despicable,” Death said. “They had dreams and hopes, and you steal them carelessly. Your very being disrupts order.”
