Page 125 of Death is My BFF

Another hideous creature identical to the others pounced into the pathway, hunched low and jaws wide open. It took one look at Death and its violent expression fell away in disbelief.

Dropping to its knees, the creature gasped with a forked tongue,

“Your Highnesss. We didn’t mean to interfere with your . . . dinner?”

Death stalked in the direction of the kneeling beast. “Tell me who sent you,” he commanded like thunder.

“Who sent us?” The creature laughed anxiously. “Nobody, my lord. We were well within our hunting grounds—”

Death kept coming at him.

“Please, please, don’t!” shouted the creature. “I’ll do anything you want! Have mercy! No,no—!”

I turned away, squeezing my eyes shut as Death lashed out. A sickening wet noise followed by crackles like embers from a fire cut through the air. Boots lumbered against the compacted ground.

“Are you all right?” Death asked. I knew it was bad when he genuinely sounded concerned.

All I could do was focus down at the ground, to avoid looking into the eyes of the beheaded male creature in front of me. My chest tightened, like I needed to scream to release the terror locked inside me.

Death clenched the hilt of the knife at his side so hard the thick leather of his gloves creaked. I had a feeling he wanted to keep ruthlessly stabbing these things. Instead, he withheld his monster and gestured with his hand. The corpses around us burst into flames that licked at my skin, until a bed of ash lay beneath my fingertips.

He spoke again. I tuned him out. Tuned everything out. A buzzing filled my ears, a sweet, blissful tune detaching me from the rest of the world.

A hand clamped down on my shoulder.

“Faith,” Death said in a sharp tone. “Answer me.”

“How do I know you’re real?” I mumbled at the ground.

“Illusions always have a fault. Once you control your fear and focus, they shatter.” His pause hung in the air as he lowered to the ground beside me. “Look at me.”

I tilted my head upward, gradually sliding up the length of Death’s cloak to his shadowy face. He was his usual scary self, all right. I focused on his clothing, the shadows snaking around his body, and concluded that it was really him.

“How did they find me?” I croaked.

“Same way I found you. Your soul attracts our kind. Its innate purity stands out amongst the other mortals’.” He methodically cleaned the bloody, jagged knife with a cloth. The way he’d easily grouped himself with those creatures, his kind, made me sick to my stomach.

Realizing I had forgotten about my aunt, I tore my gaze ahead to the path, where her body once lay.

“Where’s my aunt?”

“Don’t worry about her.” He twirled the clean blade between his fingers and tilted his head down at me. “She’s alive.”

And in Hell, he didn’t have to add. My insides crumbled in fear that I would never see her again, but I knew Death well enough at this point to know I wouldn’t get much more out of him. “What were those things?”

“Wraiths, or Tricksters.” He sheathed the weapon in his belt and stepped closer, the edge of his cloak and his leather combat boots in my line of vision. “Wraiths are a species of demon who feed on human fears. They use herbs and a hallucinogenic fog that expels from their mouths to guide their prey to a state of delusion. Then they mimic their prey’s darkest fears, and occasionally, their deepest desires, until they go insane. It’s their favorite playtime. You missed the grand finale—where they tear you limb from limb and crack open your skull to get to your brain. Fear makes the brain taste sweeter. Luckily for you, I didn’t pack any popcorn, so I cut your grand finale short.”

“Did you know this was their hunting ground?” I demanded through tight teeth.

“No, I did not know,” he said with a solemn voice. “Wraiths are senseless slobs and tend to leave behind a mess. I highly doubt they would be offered a farm like this to hunt. Especially on Halloween, with kids frequenting the area.” He paused. “Why are you holding your arm like that?”

As I became aware of my sore arm, I thought back to Tiara. I bridged the connection between her and this attack, and it dawned on me that she might not have been a Trickster.

“Oh my God,” I choked out. “She tried to kill me! Your insane gargoyle receptionist tried tokillme!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tiara Reid!” I shouted. “Tiara was here, and she tried to kill me!

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