My eyes widened, and I took a step back, her intensity odd and disconcerting.
“Milani,” Nismera’s voice held power, “give the girl some space, will you?”
She sneered at me and tucked her wings in tight, clearing her expression before turning and bowing slightly toward Nismera. “Of course, my king.”
“Besides, it won’t matter. You’ve been loyal, and it has earned you a lovely surprise. We will capture him, and then you can use it on him. Then we will be done with it, yes?”
Milani’s face lit up, and my stomach soured. “But, of course. I am forever indebted to you.”
Nismera smiled, the light not quite reaching her eyes. I didn’t like that they obviously had a plan that involved hurting Samkiel. I needed to find a way out, not just for myself, but to warn him, too. With that thought in mind, I did what Dianna had taught me to do. I lied.
“I’ve changed my mind,” I said, and both of them looked at me. “I’ll help you. Just please don’t send me to the dungeons.”
Nismera smirked, thinking she’d won. She had no idea that the game was just getting started.
23
KADEN
The walls in my room were too close, making me feel trapped. It didn’t help that I couldn’t sleep. I tried all night, but I found no peace. Every time I closed my eyes, my body jolted awake as if trying to keep me from slipping into Oblivion’s eternal, harrowing darkness. I swallowed, and it felt like my saliva had turned to razor blades in my throat. I wondered if it was just a phantom pain from where my head had been separated from my body.
If that were the worst of it, I probably could have coped, but it wasn’t. The voices were the worst. They whispered and screamed, resonating through my skull and the aching, swirling darkness. Soft, sullen cries ebbed and flowed, fading to almost nothing before returning. My brain was a rocky shore, being washed away one damned wave at a time. If only they would just stop crying. I grasped my ears, my nails biting deep, and sweat coating my skin. I rocked back and forth on the edge of my bed, wishing the voices would just stop. They were like thousands of biting, crawling bugs infesting my skull, scraping and chewing on bone until it bled marrow.
A tap came from the window. It was so different from the noises plaguing me that my head swiveled toward it. My room was far too high for anything to reach, yet still, it went, obsessively tapping and knocking. I stalked over and ripped the curtains from the rods, expecting to see another demon from my nightmares. Small droplets of water hit the glass as rain began to fall. I sighed. Maybe my hearing was still adjusting to being back in this world. Now, if only the crying would stop.
A knock came from behind me, and this time, I knew I was not alone. A frigid chill swept across my ankles, and when I took a breath, releasing it from my aching, empty body, a cloud of fog formed in front of my face.
I turned slowly, already knowing what to expect, yet I was stunned, nonetheless. A dress made of the blackest night spilled to the floor, disappearing into the shadows around her feet. Death rested a toned, slender arm on the mantle. It again wore Dianna’s face and stood with her posture, but the eyes were cold, empty, and lifeless.
“Why do you have to wear her face?” I growled.
“Would you like a comforting truth or a lie?” Death asked.
“The truth.”
Death stared at me with those opaque, empty eyes. “She intrigues me. She will intrigue beings far beyond here. But, above all, she is the one being that actually terrifies me. She has no idea the power she strokes with her mere fingertips, what she controls. The one being that could fix or destroy everything, depending on how we play our cards.” Death leaned back on his heels. “Her will is indomitable, you know? I’ve never met a being like her, and I think I am starting to understand the infatuation so many have for her.”
My skin bristled from the cold, and I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, seeking warmth. “Is that why you’re here? To talk about your sudden interest in Dianna?”
“You know, my specters tried to take your brother’s soul in that tunnel, and they could not. Even after I arrived …” Death paused. “Imagine loving someone so violently you can hold off Death itself. So, in exchange, I took something from her.”
My lip curled, already bored with this conversation, yet a part of me wished it to continue. At least it kept the voices at bay. “Took something from her? I’ve seen her. There’s nothing …” I stopped, remembering the ring Samkiel flashed at me. Only a ring. Not a … “Their mark?”
Death clicked her tongue and walked over to the bed. Lying down on her side, she wagged a single finger at me. “Close. Think harder. That mark is only there to bind what has been split. What binds mates, Kaden?”
This time, when a chill ran across my skin, it wasn’t because of the cold that followed Death but from the harshness of the truth.
“Her soul.”
Death smiled. “Correct.”
“Why?”
Death’s stare never wavered. “You will learn that no matter your choices or your belief in your free will, there must always be a balance. Stars died so that you could breathe air. Creatures crawled on their bellies so that others may have legs. It is and will always be the nature of things. It is older than time, and not even I can change it.”
“Yet you changed me,” I said. “What is my payment for being here?”
This time, when Death smiled and lightning cracked, the flash revealed his true face. It was all bone, with jagged teeth and half a skull that stretched far too wide and far too high. “I want Nismera dead.”
