Page 112 of Death is My Ride or Die

At the thought of the whole astral projection thing and Malphas, I snapped out of what felt like a nightmare hangover as sobriety slammed into me. My heart started to pound a million miles a minute.

“Where’s Ace?” I asked.

A muscle pulsed in Death’s jaw. “He had to talk to one of his employees.” He re-tucked his cloak around my side. We made eye contact. He stopped tucking and stabbed his glare elsewhere. “Tell me what happened. Now.”

“I went . . . somewhere else.” I felt my breath choke as a sob lodged in my throat. Suddenly, I couldn’t stop the fearful words on the tip of my tongue from tumbling out. “Oh God, Death. Your life is in danger.”

He laughed derisively. “My life?”

“Listen to me: you’re going to die,” I said, sitting upright with his cloak clutched to my chest. The room swam a little, and his arm curled around my waist. “You’re going to die. You’re going to die, unless . . . ”I jump.Whatever that means. I shook myself, confused as to why I was believing all of this in the first place. It sounded so ridiculous when I said it out loud. “Ace. I think he’s playing us. He knew something was going to happen to you, but he kept it to himself.”

Death focused on the bookshelves ahead of us.

“I don’t know if we can trust Ace,” I whispered.

“Ma chérie,”announced a chirpy French voice, and I jumped a little. “I’m so pleased to see you are awake. How are you feeling?

Death dumped me to the side and pushed off the couch to storm toward Ace.“You told her?”he boomed.

The warlock glided a few nonchalant steps back and lifted his chin. Turquoise swirls of electricity formed a wall between the pair. “Do calm yourself in my library, or I’ll have to contain you.”

“You swore an oath you wouldn’t tell her.” Death’s broad shoulders tensed, and his fists clenched until leather creaked. “Now she knows, and she’s stoned out of her mind from whatever the hell you slipped in our tea!”

“What do you mean he swore an oath?” I demanded. “You kept this from me on purpose?”

“Silence, woman,” Death hissed. Under his cloak, my right hand sparked a little with light.Silence, woman?What was this, the medieval era? His cloak smoked a little in my lap, and I swatted it with my hand.

“Just because you don’t have your scythe,” I said once the small fire was discreetly out, “and you’re more ‘pantherine’ than usual, or whatever the hell your otherworldly ass is, it doesn’t give you the right to act like an animal.” I frowned. “That sounded much more coherent in my head, but you get my point!”

Death narrowed his eyes into slits and faced Ace again. “How do we put her back to sleep?”

“I’m a part of this conversation whether you like it or not,” I said, throwing his cloak off as I stood.

Death glanced at his cloak on the ground, then glared unblinkingly at me. That look could have literally wilted every single plant in Ace’s greenhouse. I picked up the stupid fancy garment, folded it haphazardly, and tossed it back onto the couch. “There. Happy?”

“Neither of you are stoned,” Ace said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Your teas had cream and sugar and a slight dash of magic, perhaps.” When he saw our faces, he quickly added, “I kept to our blood oath. I didn’t tell her anything of your foreseen death.”

I felt my heart fall into my stomach as my eyes met Death’s. “You knew?”

Death became unnaturally still. “Yes, I knew.”

“For how long?”

Death’s gaze dropped to the ground, yet another betrayal wrenching me apart. “When we first met with Ace in his club, I could tell he was withholding information. I had a hunch. When I met him earlier today, he implored me to see the vision of you and me through. Said I was risking too much by going against the glimpse of the future he’d shared with us.” A grim smile lifted the one side of his mouth. “And I knew my hunch was correct.”

I felt like crying. Instead, I retreated inward, slipping into some dark place. When I spoke, my voice didn’t sound like my own. It was hollow and empty.

“You weren’t going to tell me, were you?”

“He couldn’t,” Ace said. “Wecouldn’t, and for that, I must defend him. Death understands the cost of overriding fate more than anybody. It could be destructive to the balance between good and evil—”

“Screwthe balance between good and evil!” I shouted. After everything we’d been through, he was going to let fate have its way with him? “I was supposed to die, and here I am!”

“That’s not the same, Faith,” Death said. “Your soul, your gift, it never weighed on the balance between good and evil because I was meant to save you. I’m meant to be destroyed, and the consequences of stopping that would be drastic.”

Ace nodded. “He’s right,mon ange. You were destined to live, through the Kiss of Death. It was not a direct act against fate. Telling Death his fate has a much smaller impact on the balance than physically changing what the Fates have woven for him. Hemustdie.” He looked to Death. “And shemustgo with you to the battle.” Then he spoke to us both. “Or else I fear what I have seen will be gravely worse—”

“You don’t get to decide anything about his fate!”I exploded, jabbing a finger in the air toward Ace. “I trusted you. This whole time, you’ve done everything in your power to make sure his death went according to plan! What kind of friend does that?”

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