Want! Need! More! More! More!I didn’t know what I wanted or needed; I only knew the words hammered ceaselessly throughmymind.
Somehow, I managed to work past my insatiable greed as bone broke, sinew snapped, and the last of the muscles holding Greed’s hand on gave way. I found myself gazing at the curling fingers of the hand when I pulled it away from thehorseman.
Rings! I must have thoserings!
With an angry shout, I threw the hand aside before I could pull those rings free and slide them on. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if I put them on, but images of becoming one of the horsemen or spontaneously combusting filtered through my imagination. My head lifted, and I found myself gazing into Greed’s hate-filled,astonishedeyes.
Greed’s attention was drawn away from me when Corson climbed onto the saddle behind him once more. With a ferocious shout, Corson buried his talons in the side of Greed’s neck and sliced across his flesh. Greed swung out, backhanding me so hard across the face that bells rang in my head and blood burst into mymouth.
My hands clawed at the horse’s red mane when it reared again, and I started sliding to the side. Another heavy blow knocked my grip loose. Black hooves filled my vision as I toppled beneath the beast. I didn’t have time to roll away before it landed on topofme.
* * *
Corson
“No!” I shouted as Wren fell beneath the horse. “Fucker!” I snarled and sliced my way through what remained of thehorseman’sneck.
The decapitated head bounced off the horse’s flank before falling to the ground. I was about to leap off the horse’s back when the animal dissolved beneath me. Red and black ash filled the air, sticking to my skin and filling my lungs as I hit theground.
“Wren!” I shouted as I searched for her amid the cascadingdebris. “Wren!”
Through the falling ash, I spotted her limpform. “Wren!”
Something twisted and broke within me, rage built toward a breaking point as I scrambled to her. This rage had nothing to do with any of the horsemen and everything to do with the weakening I felt in my bondtoher.
“Wren.”
Ash coated the blood seeping from the corners of her mouth and oozing out of the gash in her chest. Her breath wheezed out of her. I gathered her in my arms, careful not to jar the broken bones in her concave chest. The horse’s weight had crushed her; its hooves had sliced open her shirt and flayed her skin down to the white bonebeneath.
I cradled her against my chest as she gazed dazedly up at me. “I should have come sooner. I should have figured out what was happening faster,” I whispered as I kissed herforehead.
Her blood-coated fingers curled into my forearm before she lost her grip on me. Her hand fell limply to her side as she inhaled a rattling breath. “Not your fault, demon. It was only… a matter… of time… before myendcame.”
Her body lurched as a convulsion rocked it. Her blue eyes rolled in her head and more blood spilled from her mouth. Helplessness and anguish rose to replace my fury. I’d just found her, and now I waslosingher.
“Listen to me, Wren,” I commanded when she became still again. “You’re dying and that is one of the steps for the change to occur. If you tell me yes, I can give you my blood for the second step. If you survive the change, you’ll live, and you’ll be an adhene demonlikeme.”
Her eyes rolled toward me, their whites were bloodshot, and one had a starburst of blood in it. Her skin held the pasty sheen of death I’d seen many times before. Terror spurred me into speaking faster. “You’ll feed on wraiths. You may have a difficult time adjusting and controlling yourself in thebeginning.”
I didn’t want to mention any of the bad things that could come with the change, but she had to know everything before she agreed to this. She was dying; she might say yes to life and later grow to hate me for what she’d become if she didn’t knowitall.
“You could accidentally hurt someone until you adjust to what you are,” I told her. “However, if you survive the change, you’ll live forever. You’ll be stronger, faster, and you’ll be with me. No matter what you decide, know I love you, Wren,” I whispered as I kissed her forehead and silently begged her to choose life, tochooseme.
“I love you too, Corson,” she said in a blood-chokedwhisper.
My name and those words on her lips caused me togroan.
“If I die, will I go to Hell? I’ve killed…” She broke off when a round of coughing wracked her. Agony twisted her features, her fingers twitched on the ground, but she didn’t seem to have the strength to lift them as they fell limply beside heroncemore.
“No, lahala,” I whispered, knowing I could be uttering the words that would take her from me forever. “You won’t go to Hell. You’ve killed because you had to in order to survive. You are not selfish orcruel.”
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Tears burned my eyes as I leaned over her. I wasn’t ready to lose her, but she was slipping further awayfromme.
Another rattle emitted from her, and I knew this was the end for her. If she said no to me, I would be holding her corpse. She loved me, but was it enough to chance becoming something she’d hated for most of hershortlife?
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Do it,demon.”
I froze, uncertain if I’d heard her right. “You want me to give you myblood?”
