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Her body trembled, and she pressed her face against my chest.
“Why were you in that forest? Why did you keep it from me?”
A sob burst from her.
Panicked, I flipped her and stared down at her tear-streaked face in horror. Her eyes were no longer black but had returned to vibrant blue, and they were filled with pain. “What is it? Are you in pain? Did they hurt you more than I realized?” My heart gripped in my chest. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No.” She dragged her hands over her cheek, smearing her bloody tears. “It’s…it’s Zinnia. She’s…oh god, Ronan, she’s gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean, gone?”
Her fingers moved restlessly against my biceps. “There’s something…something I never told you.”
Rose’s emotions were rolling from her, being broadcast from her and through me as if they were my own. I’d never felt anything like it. I was feeling what my mate was—and it scared the fuck out of me. “Tell me.”
“After Iris’s task, when my family used magic to remove an evil soul from Limbo and send her to Hell, they made Death…angry. The spirit belonged in Hell. Death doesn’t care about that, though, and he’s been demanding a replacement…”
“Rose?”
Her lips trembled. “Me. He wanted me.”
“What?” I spun, searching the room. Could he move between realms? I’d tear Death apart before I’d let him take her from me.
She took my chin in her hand and made me look at her again. “Death came to me in my sleep. He said it had to be me or he’d take someone else…someone I love. I was sick when I agreed to his terms. I thought I was going to die anyway.”
There was more, and I waited, my heart pounding.
“That’s why I was in the forest tonight. He gave me a deadline, and tonight, it ran out. Zinnia was here to help me. She said she could stop it. I didn’t know what she was going to do, or if Death would agree…”
“You went there tonight thinking you might not return?” My voice was broken. I rubbed at the center of my chest. I thought I’d felt all there was to feel, but at her words, it was as if all the emotions I’d already regained heightened and became so much stronger. “Believing that you might die?”
Another tear streaked down her face. “Yes.”
I wanted to roar, to tear everything down around me. I wanted to hunt down Death and destroy him, something that I knew was impossible. He was a being older than time. The ruler of Limbo. The harbinger of darkness. If he’d decided to take her, he could have, and there was nothing I could have done. “He wanted to possess you?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
A growl was ripped from me, and Rose jumped.
Her hands flew to my face. “He…he took Zinnia instead. Oh goddess, he took her.”
CHAPTER 35
Rose
Ronan walked into the bathroom while I washed my hands and met my reflection in the mirror. He’d been quiet this morning, contemplative. I didn’t blame him after what happened last night.
I was struggling to process it all myself, and now I had to go home and tell my family, tell Jazzy that her big sister was gone. That for the next month, if Death actually stuck to his bargain, Zinnia was trapped in Limbo, that she was Death’s consort.
Whatever the hell that meant.
You know exactly what it means.
I shuddered, and Ronan moved in behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “Agatheena, she predicted this.” The old witch had seen this nightmare coming. “She said there were two paths ahead of me, and no matter which one I chose, our coven would suffer. It was either me or Zinnia. One of us was always going to end up in Limbo. There was no escaping Death.”
He pressed his mouth to the side of my throat, his eyes closing briefly before meeting mine again. He was relieved it wasn’t me. I saw it on his face, and I was glad he didn’t voice it. “It’s okay, petal, it’s over now. You’re safe.”
“But it’s not over.” I lifted my hand to the side of my throat where his mouth had been, over the markings the mother had given me. The vines were closer this morning, a ticking time bomb on my skin, counting down to my coven’s doom if I failed. “Until I pass this task, until I win my trial, the threat to our magic remains.”
