Page 126 of Death is My BFF

She must have bribed those creatures to do it!”

“Not possible. Wraiths are slaves to their master.”

“Then Tiara made some deal with their master! I’m telling you, she washere, Death. She told me that the moment she met me, she wanted to get rid of me, but she didn’t want you to—”

“Nothing you saw in this maze was real, until a few minutes ago,” he said. “You’re in shock.”

A sudden onset of anger pierced through the numbness within me. “Are you kidding me right now? I know what I saw! She wasn’t like the rest of the Wraiths. She was different. She washere. So were Marcy, Nathan, and . . .Thomas. . . ”

Death said nothing as he prowled around the open space.

“Why won’t you believe me?” I felt childish, like I needed the validation of him being on my side, as if that would suddenly make this night a little less insane.

“Your mind was altered by hallucinogens,” Death said in a dismissive, apathetic tone. I could tell his patience was wearing thin.

“We don’t have time to keep chatting. You are not safe here. We need to leave.”

“Unbelievable.” I shook my head with disdain. “You’re taking Tiara’s side. Why, because she’s been your slam piece for a couple hundred years—?”

“Enough!”

My vision blurred with tears. I tore my gaze away from him and gripped the ash beneath my hands. “Am I supposed to thank you? One monster killing another to avenge his property? You’re my savior. Myhero!”

“Get up. You’re acting like a child.” When I didn’t move, Death grabbed me roughly by the back of the shirt and lifted me off the ground. I tossed a handful of ash into his veiled face, making him free me at once with a curse.

Screw him. I was already too far away to hear what he shouted after me. I tore into the corn and avoided the trail altogether. Death was never on my side. He was a deceiving creature just like the rest of them, whose disregard and hatred for mortals was imbedded deep in his veins. His dismissal of my aunt’s life did not go unnoticed either.

For all I knew, this twisted fuck was toying with me again, and she was already dead.

In a moment of weakness and raw fear, I thought of the only person left who could help me. I summoned his name in my mind, and the air grew colder. “Malphas!”

The leaves of the corn cut through my flesh as sharp as blades, leaving behind thin cuts on my hands, face, and the skin exposed from the rips in my jeans. Reaching an end of the crop, my Converse hit compacted ground and I entered an open space in the maze.

Twirling in a circle, Death’s laughter rumbled from all around me, and my skin erupted into gooseflesh.

“Did you really think you could escape me?”

I whirled around, to find Death standing a mere foot from me.

“Christ!”

“Wrong.” Death looked taller and more menacing, if that was even possible. I backpedaled away from him. “Maybe you haven’t noticed,” he continued in a gravelly manner, blackness swirling around his frame as he fully manifested, “but I’m everywhere. Pull a stunt like that again, and I’ll make sure you never forget it.”

The wind kicked up. He stalked around me with a pantherine grace, the lapels of his cloak billowing out and revealing the muscular frame of the creature clad in black underneath. If he wasn’t my villain, I would have admired the peep show. Right now, I was trying not to soil myself. He circled me again, like a jungle cat analyzing its favorite meal and making sure it was unmarked by any other predator.

Once he was satisfied with whatever he was inspecting, he came to a halt in front of me. We stared at each other in silence. Every breath I took was labored.

“Cupcake,” he said.

“Death.”

He prowled closer. Too close. A part of me wanted to run the other way with my tail between my legs, and another part of me betrayed any logic and wanted to continue what we’d started the night before.

“You don’t want me as an enemy, Faith. End this. Come with me.”

Deep down, I knew those Wraiths paled in comparison to what Death could do to me. Everything about him was lethal. His build, his voice, his touch.

“I never wanted you to be my enemy,” I said, clutching at my chest as my body quaked uncontrollably. “I never wanted . . .anyof this. I’ve never felt so alone and isolated in my life. And you . . . you wanted me to feel this way. You toyed with me, like the manipulating creature you are!”

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