Page 20 of Death is My Ride or Die

The corpse leaned in to inhale my throat. When I leaned away, I felt those claws dig unhappily into my spine. “Are yousurethis is a good idea?” I squeaked.

“You’re going to get her head ripped off!” Devin exclaimed.

“You got a better idea, old man?” Death snarled.

Judging by the sickly color of Ace’s skin and the gleam of sweat over his brow, Death didn’t have much time until he was expelled from the warlock’s body. He had to get back in his corpse. Fast.

Fate had other plans, as a ring of blue fire sprang from the ground. It startled Death’s corpse into releasing me. The fiery blaze circled around Death, his corpse, and me until we were imprisoned, leaving Lucifer and the chaos around us muffled by the crackling flames.

Two dark figures emerged from the fire like gods summoned from the depths of the Underworld. I rushed backward into Death and grasped the warlock’s arm.

One of the figures was Malphas. The other was less corporeal, waning in the light like a mirage against the fiendish flames . . .

“Ahrimad,” Death said.

Ahrimad narrowed in on the warlock and lingered. “Alexandru.” An unnerving smile revealed the sharp ends of his teeth. “You look so . . . unlike yourself.”

“Same to you, Casper,” Death sneered.

A vein in Ahrimad’s forehead bulged. He shifted his face slightly to Malphas, and the raven demigod’s complexion changed. Suddenly, Malphas snatched Death’s corpse by the back of the head, bringing it to stand by his side. Despite the corpse’s imposing size and monstrous strength, Malphas controlled it with ease, like a giant puppet.

Ahrimad’s amber eyes fixed on mine, sharp and intense, predatorial. “Is this fragile little thing the mortal he spared, Malphas?”

“Yes,” Malphas replied.

“What do you want?” Death ground out.

“What do Iwant?” Ahrimad turned away from me to Death, laughing under his breath. “I wantthat which belongs to me. I want to reign once more as the mortals’ greatest fear and turn them into the hogs they are meant to be. I want to be corporeal, and I want a body. I shall never again have the one you took from me, only this illusion of the vessel you destroyed. Nevertheless, this will all be rectified once you hand over theBook of the Dead.”

Death curled his hands into fists. “Looks like you’re barking up the wrong tree. Lucifer doesn’t have the book either.”

Ahrimad’s amber eyes flared to life, frightening and intense. He turned his head to Malphas. “Malphas. Find me the truth in his mind.”

The raven demigod’s complexion shifted to an otherworldly monster. He took a step away from Death’s empty corpse, dark veins spreading outward from his soulless eyes like a disease as he focused on his son. Death kept his head forward; his jaw set as he stared down his father in what appeared to be a silent battle. A small, vicious smirk lifted the corner of Malphas’s mouth, and suddenly, Death dropped to his knees with a scream, clutching at his skull as though to keep it together. It didn’t stop there. Malphas continued to unleash his power on Death’s host in the most casual, unrelenting manner, all while Ahrimad cackled like a madman in the background. It was too much to bear, too much to watch. I clutched at my chest, frozen in a helpless panic, knowing that if I didn’t intervene, Death’s soul would leave Ace’s body.

I fumbled for the hidden dagger in the skirts of my dress and curled my fingers around the hilt.

“Leave him alone!”The words tore out of me, and I lurched into action. I lifted my arm and threw the dagger with all my might. The knife released from my palm toward Malphas with a burst of light. At the last second, he veered out of the way, and my eyes widened as the knife hit Ahrimad instead. The light and the blade slashed into his semi-transparent face. Bile rose in my throat at the missing portion of Ahrimad’s jaw. He glared at me as the blue fire surrounding us transformed to black, consumed by hissing shadow.

“Whatwasthat?” he demanded. Death’s scythe suddenly appeared at Ahrimad’s side, imprisoned in his white-knuckled grasp. The second Ahrimad touched the blade, his wound healed and he solidified, a dark halo outlining his silhouette. “Youdareattack me?”

Scythe in hand, Ahrimad started toward me, and I imagined that massive blade could cut me in half with ease. Having no idea what I was doing and little time to react, I curled my fingers in tight and punched toward Ahrimad. Energy vibrated down my arm and exploded outward like a lightning bolt, nearly knocking me off my feet. Missing by a mile, the light carried into the dark shadow wall behind Ahrimad and burned a hole straight through.

“You missed,” Ahrimad mocked.

But it wasn’t over. The hole I’d formed in the wall broadened, outlined by a vibrant ring of my strange light, which burned like an eternal blaze even as the darkness tried to consume it.

Dark and light, like oil and water.

Ahrimad slowly turned away from the strange phenomenon to look at me, and an eerie feeling of being exposed crawled over my skin. I felt him seek something deeper—seekmy soul—as he peered into me.

A small, serpentine grin lifted his lips. “Interesting.”

A force slammed into the wall of shadows from the other side, exploding like a bomb.

Malphas, who now had Death and his corpse kneeling submissively on the ground before him, barked out, “Forget about the girl! The portal is closing!”

The portal?What portal?

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