Page 158 of Death is My Ride or Die

“We did it. We really did it.” I rubbed my hand over my forehead, a rush of emotions flooding over me. “We have to help the others. We have to—”

Death’s scythe fell to the ground, the clatter snapping me into reality.

It wasn’t over.

Death swayed on his feet, his body tipping. Adrenaline took over, and I hurried forward, wrapping my arms around his torso. But he was too heavy. He was a deadweight, and we both went down to the floor.

“Death? Death!”

Everything felt muted, frozen, pained, my palms resting on his chest as I hovered over him. The phantom of Ahrimad’s dagger remained protruding from Death’s heart. Shadows pulsed from the handle, the surrounding skin rapidly losing heat, leaving behind a growing coldness beneath my palms that I’d never known.

“No . . .no.”

When I reached to pull the dagger out, my fingers went right through the handle. I tried again and again until a hand weakly clutched mine. A hand I didn’t recognize. A man’s hand. A normal hand, one without any markings.

Everything in me trembled as my eyes finally rose to his face. His face. I felt gutted. Death’s features were thinning, sickly, just like Ahrimad’s. I hardly recognized him, except for his mismatched green eyes. They were too large, too dim against his colorless complexion.

“You’re going to be okay,” I said, because it was all I could say. “I’m going to get you help. We’re going to figure this out—”

But when I tried to get up, Death’s hand tightened around mine. “Stay,” he said weakly. “Just stay.”

“I don’t understand.” Even when I knew the truth, even when I stared him right in the face, my mind didn’t want to believe it. “I don’t understand. We won. Wewon, and I was supposed to save you.”

“It’s not your job to save me.”

“No,” I choked out, tears welling in my eyes. “No, this isn’t happening. How can this happen? You’reDeath. You’re not allowed to die. I don’t give you permission.” I held on to his hand for dear life. “What will I do without you?”

Death’s eyes were half open now, his smile sad. “You can write a book about how sexy I am.”

I laughed, even as I cried.

“All this time,” Death began, “I thought I wanted to die. You showed me I wanted to live.” His eyes gleamed with tears. “I want to live.”

In front of us, the portal sputtered to life, electric currents flying and charging the air. Death’s whole body quaked beneath my hands, his throat convulsing. I gripped his head and tried to keep him still, but I felt so helpless. The seizing eventually stopped, his eyes opening tiredly.

“Eternal return,” he said faintly. “I was afraid to let you in and then lose you. If you only knew . . . ”

I held his limp hand tighter. “I’m here. You’ve always had me.”

Black dripped from the corners of his mouth, pooling onto the marble floor. I watched, horrified, as the roots of Death’s hair slowly began to turn blond beneath my fingertips.

“Forgive me. I love you, Faith.”

A sudden blast detonated from the portal. It crashed into my body, and I rolled back onto the floor, my side slamming into a fallen mass of marble. The sensation of being pushed turned into a pull as my fingers clung to the marble beside me, and I held on for dear life. I turned to look back toward Death, but he was gone again. My mind scrambled to understand. A piece of fallen marble skidded across the floor, tossed into the deep void, and I knew what had happened. His body had been pulled into the threshold, into the Unknown. By the time I figured it out, the portal’s energy had waned until it was a mere sliver of rippling life in a normal mirror.

Everything pulsed around the edges, the world muting to nothing as I stood before the dying portal. Broken, enraged, robbed.

This couldn’t be the end.

In the shattered reflective surface, my eyes flamed white as I slowly raised my hands on either side of me. I called upon every ounce of power I had left. It answered, releasing from my hands in the form of a chaos I’d yet to master. A chaos that nearly exhausted me, until I thought of him. Until I remembered what we’d senselessly lost. I willed the light to grip the thinning remains of the portal, anchoring the sides of the narrow gateway. The weight of the portal grew heavier, threatening to collapse and crush me alive.

“I need you to choose you over me,”Death’s voice replayed in my head.

I couldn’t keep that promise.

Tears poured down my face, and a roar unleashed from my throat as white light exploded all around me. I pulled my hands wider apart, and the portal broadened, reopening halfway.

My arms fell.

I took off in a hard sprint, casting all fear aside as the rippling void narrowed fast.

I jumped through to the other side with the fading thought thatthiswas my destiny.

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