Page 143 of Death is My Ride or Die

I remembered Ahrimad’s surprised reaction when I’d mentioned Malphas was in the mausoleum. Ahrimad’s slight smile when he’d glanced down at my waist, where my broken belt remained.

Was it still possible Malphas was working against Ahrimad? Would he use theBook of the Deadfor his own gain?

I’d asked Malphas point-blank if he’d killed Death’s family, and he’d gotten that weird, dead look in his eyes. It had been like he was incapable of answering. I’d thought it was possible he was bound to some sort of deal or spell.

Now I knew the truth. Malphas was evil to the core.

“My main concern lies with the Fates and the consequences of how I’ve interfered already,” Ace said. “This was not supposed to happen to me, Faith. Or to Trixie.”

“We can’t sit here in this shitty cage and wait to be used again. Then Trixie’s death will have been for nothing.”

Ace ran his hand over his short hair. “I’m too depleted of energy from Ahrimad to get us out of here. I’ll need my staff to channel anything significant. You, on the other hand, might be able to quietly—”

I gripped two of the cage bars in front of me, and some sort of magic electrified my hand. It twisted around my fingers like thorns, but I only gripped the bars harder.

Break!I punched my hands forward, my fingers igniting the entire metal frame as the bars of my cage blew off. The frame clattered against the wall and floor in fragments. Heaving in air, I crawled out of the small space.

I held out my hand toward Ace’s bars. “Back up.”

Ace pressed against the corner of his cell. Light blasted from my hand, destroying a portion of the cell.

The warlock exited his cell with a proud smile. “Incredible,ma chérie. But perhaps it would be best to practice subtlety next time?”

“I can’t help it,” I said, my fingertips still sparking at my sides. “I’m furious. And I’m done running from destiny. It’s time to face it head-on.”

Ace and I edged down another long, dim passageway and reached a crossroad where we had to decide left or right. Ace leaned against the wall to give his leg a break.

“I’m so sick of this leg,” Ace grumbled. The sweat on his brow and his pale complexion concerned me.

“Maybe you find a place to hide and rest,” I suggested, even though the thought of being left alone in this place was the most frightening thing I could imagine at the moment. “Let me go ahead.”

The air visibly rippled around us.

“Did you see that?” Ace asked, turning to face me.

“Yes. The same thing happened earlier when we first entered the mausoleum.”

“Ahrimad must have opened a portal. A large one.”

“Big enough for an army,” I whispered.

The trepidation of arriving at that portal without Death made me sick to my stomach. Where was he?

As if reading my thoughts, Ace smoothed down the back of my braid with his hand. “You’ve made it this far. You must stay strong. For all of us.”

We were walking together down another hallway when a trapdoor beneath us blew open, and we fell into a chamber, hitting a slope that slid us down into the dusty depths of an even lower level. We sprawled across the floor. Ace processed what was happening faster and grabbed my bicep. He rose with me quickly as a group of monstrous creatures encircled us. Faceless creatures with reflective skin like mirrors and wiry, distorted frames.

My mind harkened back to the projection with Malphas and the creature that had almost killed me, fear overtaking my senses. “What the hell are these things? Demons?”

“Worse,” Ace whispered with dread. “They’re Forsaken.”

One of the creatures leaned into me with a low noise rattling its throat. I trembled violently as its frightening, reflective face hovered beside mine.

“What do we do?”

“You give up,” said a female voice.

Layla. The empath demon from the sigil room.

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