Page 147 of Death is My Ride or Die

Death tilted his head all the way down until his head flopped, blatantly staring down at my chest. “Yummy.”

I grabbed his chin with my gloved hand and lifted his head up. “Death,” I said extra sweetly as his tongue darted out to try to lick my thumb. “I know you’re riding an empath demon fever, but I need you to focus and tell me how to get you free. Because that shock I got earlier? Yeah, that sucked.”

“Yes,” Death said.

“Yes?”

“Suck.”

“That’s it. You’re freaking me the hell out.” I pointed a finger gun at him like I had with Romeo and the empath twins and shut my eyes.“Lo siento!”I managed a tiny zap of light, which exploded on Death’s pectoral.

Death snarled at the impact, his bare skin sizzling as his whole body spasmed. Plumes of red evaporated, swirling away from his eyes as his familiar mismatched green returned.

“Fuck!”His roar thundered around the room, and the lights flickered. He groaned in discomfort, catlike pupils tightening under the light above. “Faith?Ow!” He spasmed a little and tilted his head down to his chest. “You fried my nipple—” Realizing his hands were shackled, his features turned livid. He writhed in the restraints and yanked hard, his muscles bulging as he ground his fangs together.

“Death, stop. You have to calm down.”

“Calm down? I’m chained to aceiling!” He heaved himself up the chains with his upper body strength and yanked as hard as possible before dropping back down. Pure fright crossed his face, something I’d never seen in him. “I have to get out. I have to get out right now—”

“Death, you’re okay. Everything is going to be okay. Focus on me.”

His nostrils flared. He blinked hard, his chest pumping fast.

“How did I get here?” he demanded. “We were in the sigil room. We were in the sigil room, and now I’m here.”

“You were enchanted by empath demons.”

“Empath demons.” His breathing eventually slowed until I could barely see his chest moving. “I remember that. Malphas was there. . . ” He analyzed my face as he spoke, reading me. “What happened? Tell me what happened.”

“Malphas stole theBook of the Dead,” I said in a hollow voice. “I thought there was a chance—like an idiot, I thought there was a chance he was . . . on our side somehow. But I was so wrong, and now he’s in the other room with the reapers doing God knows what to them, and you’re tied up, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do, Death! Everything is going wrong, and the universe is against us! Just please,pleasetell me what to do! Youalwaysknow what to do!”

I expected some sort of explosive response. Death didn’t seem at all surprised. He looked . . . cold, so cold.

“Death?” I whispered.

“I should never have brought you into this. Now I’m running out of time, and when I leave, you’ll be stuck in this mess.”

“You’re not going to run out of time. I’m going to figure this out—”

“It’s over,” he said in a rough voice. “All my life. All my life, he’s had it out for me. I was never good enough. No matter how hard I tried, I knew I wasn’t the son he wanted.” The deeply pained look in his eyes made me want to hold him close and never let go. “But I didn’t think he’d actually . . . honestly . . . ”

“Want you dead,” I finished, feeling like my heart was breaking. “Death, you have to know, none of this is your fault.”

“But it is. All the wrong choices I’ve made have led me to this.”

“But they also led you to me,” I said, and his eyes flicked to mine and held on for a significant moment. “I’m getting you out of here. One way or another.”

“Look at me, Faith,” Death said. He looked exhausted. Defeated. It hurt. It hurt too much to see the truth, and I fought back tears. “I’m strung up like an animal to be butchered. This isn’t easy for me either.”

“You’re not going to be butchered. You’re giving up. You said you wouldn’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up.” It sounded like he didn’t even believe himself. “I’m being realistic—what are you doing?Wait!”

I closed one eye as I aimed, tongue poking out as I fired a finger gun. A small beam of light bulleted forward and struck the manacle around Death’s wrist. The light bounced off the metal and fired down at my foot. I jumped out of the way at the last second, nearly falling over in the process.

“Damn it!” I stomped my foot in frustration.

“Is this your new approach?Finger gunningyour power?” His mouth lifted in a small grin. “And stomping your foot like a child?”

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