Zachariah

They were going to kill her. Worse than kill her. They were going to send her to the Abyss, where she would be erased. Her soul would be eaten. Gone.

And there was nothing I could do about it except stand and watch it happen.

Rowena was losing her reason more with each passing second. A fox run to ground. Her moves were becoming more desperate as the fight dragged on and on. At first, she tried tricking Lera with surprise attacks, but the angel just kept stopping time to evade them. She made a leap for Lera’s sword from the ground, but Lera sidestepped and slammed the pommel down on the space between Rowena’s shoulder blades. The angel had more than a millennium of training, and it showed.

With another CRACK, Lera disappeared from where Rowena’s shadow bullet nearly hit her and reappeared at her side, laughing manically. She kicked Rowena square in the chest, sending her to the side like a comet of shadows. She then appeared on Rowena’s other side before she hit the ground, and sent her back the other way with an elbow to the space between her ribs and hips.

Rowena managed to land, growling like a beast. Outmatched and outwitted.

Meanwhile, Death watched from her throne. An empress watching her gladiators fight. But this wasn’t a fight. It was a one-sided slaughter.

Rowena screamed. Again. And again. I could see it in her eyes now. She knew she was being toyed with.

Lera had stopped using her sword after removing Rowena’s hand, instead opting for brute force. Rowena wasn’t even summoning her shadows anymore. Not even fighting back. Slowly I saw the defiance leak out of her as she settled in for the beating of a lifetime.

Damn my own weakness.

“It was a fool’s gambit,” Lorian murmured from beside me, making my gaze snap to his. The angel glanced sidelong at me, his throat bobbing.

“Days ago you tried to goad Death into killing you. Thus breaking the Law of Origins,” Lorian said bluntly. I just stared at him until his calm mask slipped with a fractional lift of a single eyebrow.

“Oh? That wasn’t your intent?” Lorian asked, looking back at the fight as Rowena cried out again, “Then you are twice the fool that I thought you were.”

I’ve never been fond of people who talk cryptically, and Lorian was pushing me to the end of my patience. Law of Origins? Why would he choose now to say that? Unless…

Maybe there was something I could do.

Lorian glanced at me one more time, watching my expression before giving the slightest nod of his head.

I looked at Death again, who had steeped her hands on her chest. Her skin gave off a faint glow, every surface seeming to bend and flex with her movements. My Mark I had given back to her was still there.

And then I was limping toward Death, my entire body aching from my own ass-kicking just minutes ago. Only her eyes shifted to me as I approached, turning a deeper crimson.

“You were right,” I called from the bottom step of her throne. Her expression didn’t change, even as Rowena’s body was sent flying again, this time hitting the branches of the great tree mere feet above her head.

CRACK.

Death met my eyes as Lera appeared above Rowena, her body finishing a forward flip as she drove her heel into Rowena’s head. The blow sent her to the ground with a thud, her limbs flopping to the side as blood trailed from her mouth and lip.

CRACK.

Lera appeared on the ground next to Rowena, her leg cocked back for another kick.

And then Lera froze mid-swing.

The angel glanced up at Death, who had lifted a hand to stop. Lera lowered her leg down in a too-controlled motion and knelt before her Goddess.

“Right?” Death asked, her eyes dancing. Rowena moaned, rolling over to her side and cradling her still-bleeding arm. My throat bobbed as I looked back to the throne.

“I have an offer,” I said quietly. Glancing at Lera, I lowered myself painfully into a half-kneel before Death. The corner of her mouth lifted.

“I thought you only wanted one thing from me,” she said conversationally, as Rowena slowly made it to her hands and knees and spat blood.

Doing my best to ignore her, I swallowed again.

“And that is still true. I want you to forgive–”

Death’s eyes narrowed before I finished.

“And you have heard my answer. Do not be foolish enough to ask for her freedom again,” Death said in a lethal quiet, the plants beginning to age around us. The life bled out of the plain as it went from green to deathly gray. Death’s body aged with it until it was a corpse with leathery skin. Those same black and red eyes stared out at me from bony sockets.

My shoulders lifted in a deep breath before I loosed it slowly.

“Give her debt to me. Make me your Chosen,” I said, my voice surprisingly strong. I clenched my hands into fists to keep them from shaking. This was an insane plan. A horrible, brilliant, and insane plan.

The seconds crawled by as I felt our fates rest on a knife’s edge. I didn’t dare look at Lorian. Didn’t dare look at Rowena. I just kept my gaze locked on the ruler of Soul Sea. The captain of all ships to the Far Shore.

Death’s brows lifted, her head canting slightly to the side. Reclining in her seat, she stared down her nose at me.

“No.”

Her voice was soft, but it made the air bend and shift around it. My stomach dropped as I heard it, my entire soul going cold.

But then I was turning, realizing that Death was not the one who had spoken.

That’s when I saw the pants around me. They were coming alive again, growing greener and blooming once more.

Looking at Death again, I saw the Goddess rise to her feet, but she was still a corpse. She still looked dead even as the landscape came alive again.

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She wasn’t doing this.

Something had changed about her eyes, however. Fear. There was fear in them now.

“Kinuari,” Death said, her voice little more than a whisper. I looked behind me then, tracking her gaze.

Rowena was back on her feet. A faint glow emanated from her hands, both dark and light. The silvery glow from the landscape was now pulling toward her. Her face was blank though. Gone was the black armor. Gone was the crimson in her eyes, though they were violet and black now.

Lera was on her feet in an instant, her eyes going from her mistress to Rowena. She didn’t notice the pool of black forming at her feet, silent as shadows.

“Attack,” Death growled, answering the silent question. Lera looked back at Rowena then, drawing her swords.

CRACK.

I closed my eyes, waiting for Rowena’s howl of pain. It didn’t come. Instead, I heard Lera’s.

I opened my eyes in time to see the angel’s leg trapped in a coil of shadows like a bear trap. Then I understood what Rowena had done. While Lera was distracted, she had closed her shadows around the angel’s leg. It didn’t matter if she stopped time if she couldn’t move.

Lera’s blades were a blur as she slashed at the trap, but then there was another around her arm.

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK. Lera seemed to vanish and reappear in several different positions, but it did no good.

Lera kept trying to attack, but Rowena had found her key to victory now. And it was working. It took several seconds but, eventually, Rowena managed to lock all four of the angel’s limbs in darkness.

Rowena’s face still held no expression as more and more of the silvery light gathered in her palms. She began to stride toward Lera, who slashed and slashed at the shadows.

And then Rowena stopped, lightning cracking across the black sky as she did. She gasped, hands flying to her temples as she staggered back. She blinked, and her eyes were only violet now, her aura returning to normal.

“What happened?” Rowena asked, looking at me. I didn’t have time to respond before Lera dove on top of Rowena, forcing her to her knees. Lorian appeared at Rowena’s other side, avoiding my eyes. He put his large hand on Rowena’s shoulder in a firm hold. He wasn’t nearly as rough as Lera, who twisted Rowena’s arms behind her back until she grunted in pain. And then she was holding her sword aloft, the blade glinting wickedly as she aimed for Rowena’s neck.

“Hold,” Death said, stopping Lera for a second time. The angel kept her stance this time though, both she and her brother keeping Rowena subdued. Death smiled cruelly at Rowena as she barked in pain again, Lera crushing her arm in an unforgiving grip. Finally, she looked back at me.

“Why should I allow you to take on her debt?” Death asked calmly.

One last chance, Zachariah.

“You gain nothing by killing her now. But if you give her debt to me and allow her to go, I will serve you and pay it,” I said, dropping my gaze momentarily to the ground, “Faithfully.”

A long and slow blink.

“Only certain souls can become Chosen. You must know this. This may cause you a horrid end,” Death said calmly, and I nodded.

She considered me for agonizing moments before she lifted her hand, and a branch of her throne bent down. An odd sort of black fruit hung from it. She grasped it and pulled it free.

And then, slowly, she smiled.

“Your need has been heard. Your request has been made,” she said, reaching to the Mark on her forearm I had given back to her and gathering its energy into her palm. She turned to me fully with unnatural grace, descending the steps of her throne in leisurely strides.

“And our bond,” she continued as she reached me, holding the Mark out to my neck, “has been struck.”

Rowena started to say something, but she was cut off with a grunt as I heard fist meet flesh and Lera’s low laugh return.

Death placed the Mark on my neck, and I felt like someone walked over my grave. Its touch was ice and fire, burning my skin with cold.

“Eat of my garden willingly,” Death said, splitting the fruit, which began to bleed crimson juice on her hand, “And become more than mortal. Bound to me. And me alone.”

Rowena was screaming now, but I ignored it. Ignored everything. This was the only thing I could do, and she wouldn’t stop me.

I accepted the section of fruit Death offered, taking a single bite before I lost my nerve. It tasted like pure power.

And then my neck was burning. Scorching. But I refused to scream. Refused to blink. I stood and endured the agony as Rowena’s Marks appeared on my skin one by one. I managed to look at Rowena as the last one left her neck. But then I saw streaks of light flying from her back, temporarily illuminating the garden. Ten. Twenty. A hundred. Two. They all gathered above her like fireflies until nearly a thousand were there. And then they swarmed toward me all at once, merging with my back in a pain so blinding that I collapsed to the fragrant ground.

Gods. I felt them. The marks of the souls Rowena had already killed. Bile rose up in my throat as I stood on shaking legs when it was done and met Death’s gaze once more.

She now stood before Rowena, who Lera and Lorian still held in a kneeling position. Her face was pale, and she was breathing too hard, but then I saw it.

Rowena still had a Mark on her neck.

My brows knit together as I stared at her. What treachery was this? Now was the part where Death sent Rowena back to the material plane. Or was she going to order me to do that? Rowena told me that Gods didn’t outwardly lie to mortals by their own code. So why wasn’t she setting Rowena free yet?

Dread spread through my veins like poison as I looked back to Death, and saw her fingers elongating into black knives.

“I am glad you survived the transformation, my new Chosen. I look forward to seeing how your Chosen abilities take shape. It varies from soul to soul,” Death said with a smile, angling her hand toward Rowena’s chest, “But here is some incentive for your service.”

She drove her hand forward, piercing Rowena all the way through to the other side. My eyes widened as Rowena gasped in pain, coughing up blood.

“These are your terms, Chosen,” Death said, pulling her hand out with a sickening crunch. Rowena slumped forward, but the angels held her in place as red spread down her front. On the other side of the small clearing, a bush of white roses began to wilt, white petals dropping one by one.

“Pay her debt, and serve me faithfully. If you do so before her soul is destroyed, then I will reform it and allow her to move on.”

She bared her teeth in a primordial smile, resting her head on the hand she had just put through Rowena’s chest.

“However, I suggest you hurry. Souls tend not to last terribly long in the Abyss.”

I barely heard her as I watched Rowena’s blood run down her arm and drip onto the grass.

No. No! This was all wrong! My mind whirled with something to say to Rowena. Anything, but I couldn’t think over the pain beating through my soul. They burning on my back and neck. The painful sparks of light as Rowena’s soul started to dissolve.

I tried to go to her, but Death’s hand rose and my Marks started to burn until my legs buckled.

“Bitch!” Rowena uttered, coughing up more blood. Death glanced back at her, her grin turning feline.

“I feel it only fair to tell you one last thing,” Death said to her, bending down until she was eye to eye with Rowena’s fading soul, “You played a losing game from the beginning.”

She reached out, brushing a strand of Rowena’s hair behind her ear almost lovingly.

“You were never going to see your precious Fayra again.”

Rowena narrowed her eyes at Death, most of her lower torso gone now.

“What?” she growled, and Death stood again with a low laugh.

“Did you really think with all that blood on your soul that you were going to Heaven?” Death answered.

And then, before she could respond, Rowena McAlister’s soul shattered.

“No,” I whispered, but it was too late.

Gone. She was simply gone. Lorian vanished in the same moment, and I saw the white rose bush had vanished with him. The only sound was my pants of rage as Death turned to me once more.

“Well then,” Death said, approaching me as I regained my feet, “I think that concludes our business for now, Chosen.”

I restrained my flinch at the title as Death reached out, trailing her hands along the Marks on my neck.

“Now where were we?” Death asked, meeting my eyes, “Oh, that’s right. You have a party to return to.”

With no warning, I was sent back to the material plane.

Alone.