Page 64 of Shadow of Death

“No,” I said firmly. “I won’t choose. Do whatever you must.”

The shocks came faster. I could feel urine soaking my pants as I retched from the pain that made me lose control of my body.

“Choose, Piper,” Charon urged. “End this.”

Tears streamed down my face, mingling with sweat and remnants of vomit on my lips, but my wolf was beside me.

“I won’t do it,” I said, my voice weak but still firm.

The shocks began again, and I couldn’t fathom how I was still alive. My vision blurred, black spots filling my eyes. I could barely move, my cheek pressed to the dirt. I lay there, waiting for the final shock that would finish me. All the mistakes passing through my mind, the missteps, what I could’ve done to avoid ending up here. But I was here and nothing was going to change that.

There was a pause in the pain as I lay there. The murmurs seemed to grow, but I couldn’t understand a word of what was said and was beyond caring.

Suddenly the dirt changed to the feeling of stone.

“Pips?”

Kicks wrapped his arms around me as I passed out.

I woke wrapped in a thick robe, my hair still wet, cradled in Kicks’ arms. I fisted the front of his shirt in my hand. His arms tightened around me. I’d never been one to cling until tonight. I was holding on to him for dear life, as if he could stop Charon from getting to me

“Charon?” he asked.

I nodded. My teeth were rattling so badly I couldn’t get words out.

“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re safe. You’re here.”

But I wasn’t safe.

He rubbed my back and arms. It took me a while longer to be able to speak and tell him what happened.

“Do you think he was bluffing when he said he’d kill you?” Kicks said, his voice getting rough the way it tended when he wanted to shift. Unfortunately, it was hard to kill something he couldn’t even see.

I replayed the events in my head. They didn’t make sense. Charon had said he was going to kill me. It felt as if he weretryingto kill me. And yet I was here. What would be the point of bluffing like that and then undermining himself by not killing me?

“I don’t think they’re going to kill me. I just don’t know if it’s that they don’t want to or if they can’t,” I said.

“Next time they come for you, tell them to come find me instead.”

I tightened my arms around him, knowing I’d never do that, even if it was an option.

“Even if I could, this might be my only way to get rid of Death. They can unblock what she did and then we can get out of here.”

“We’ll find another way.”

I wish I believed that.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Samson,Varic’s man, walked through the kitchen toward me, no partner, and with no gun ready to be drawn or poked. He still drew every set of eyes, as if they all sensed some drama coming. I wished they’d get that lax by the exits, but no. Those they still guarded like the Hope Diamond was at stake.

He stopped in front of me, briefly glancing at the dusting props I’d just gathered, before he said, “Varic wants to see you upstairs in his quarters—alone.” He spoke so loudly that it had to carry into the other room.

Really? He had to say it like that, in front of everyone in the kitchen? Athena? I didn’t even have to look at her to know her eyes had just gotten squinty. Did these people have no concept of discretion or how things might appear?

“I know the way. I’ll see myself there.”

Athena might’ve just growled.Oops.That goof was solely on me.

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