“She is free to go where she wishes,” Death says and though I can’t see him, I feel his presence get closer, my skin wanting to be close to his.
“I’m just doing what you should have done to start with,” Surma says to him without taking his empty sockets off me. “You never should have made the trade. You should have killed them both. That’s what the real God of Death does. You’re an insult to the job, Tuoni. And you know it.”
“Let go of her,” Death says in a menacingly calm voice. “I won’t tell you again.”
“Or you’ll what?” Surma says, pressing his hand harder against my mouth. I cry out, trying to squirm. “You hate it when things go to Oblivion. It makes you feel weak. You are weak. You’re soft and spineless.”
“Is that so?” Death says, and in a flash he’s taken off his glove, his hand bare, silver lines glowing in the moonlight. “You can call me soft and spineless, but I always keep my word. And my word is that Hanna belongs to me. Not you, never you. And it will stay that way.”
Before Surma can say anything to that, Death reaches out and grabs Surma by the throat. He crushes the bones of his neck into white dust and Surma’s awful scream fills the air and his body collapses into a horror show. Every bone is pulverized, leaking black fluid, pus, and dust, and the pain of his death is so great that I can feel it in my fillings.
It feels like I’m dying myself.
Fear floods my body, the adrenaline kicking in, telling me to run from the one that just killed someone in front of me. It doesn’t matter that I know Death, it’s that I just saw Death do what he does best, and that’s too much for any mortal soul to handle.
So I turn and I run to my room, throwing open the door, trying to find peace, an escape from the madness.
I don’t get far.
“What were you doing out so late?” Death growls, coming after me, putting his glove back on. I get halfway across my room before he’s grabbing me by the arm and pulling me to him. “You know you can’t trust anyone here. Why would you put yourself in that position? What if I hadn’t shown up to protect you?”
I shake my head, near tears. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
I want to run from him and run to him all at once.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he says, practically barking. “I told you that you’re mine—I don’t want to send everyone that tries something with you to Oblivion, even if they deserve it.”
“Stop saying that I’m yours, I’m not!” I yell, the adrenaline turning my fear into anger, tired of feeling like a possession, like I don’t have a soul and feelings, like I’m not a person with my own agenda.
“You are mine!” he roars, his grip growing tighter. “That was what you agreed to! That was part of the deal. You’re mine, Hanna, and you will stay mine for the rest of eternity, whether you like it or not!”
“Then I don’t like it and I never will,” I sneer at him, trying to get free of his hold. It’s fruitless.
“You lie,” he growls, yanking me even closer to him until I’m flattened against his chest, his other hand going to my back and holding me there. “You like it when I’m deep inside you, you love it when I’m making you come. You can’t get enough of me, and you know it, and that’s what makes you so angry, because you want me just as much as I want you.”
“You barely want me,” I tell him, feeling far more vulnerable than I should be. “You won’t even show me your face. You fuck me in the dark, from behind, you have a mask on the rest of the time. You keep as much distance between us as possible. I think…” I breathe in deeply through my nose, “I think I deserve a little better than that now.”
He stares at me through his skull mask, this one red with devil horns, made of some kind of stone I’m sure can only be found here.
“Is that what you want?” he says, his rough voice lowering to a hush. “To see me? Will that make you happy?”
My brow goes up. “Do you even want to make me happy?”
I hear him swallow, lick his lips. “Yes,” he eventually says. Even though there was one hell of a pause there, I believe him when he says it.
“I think I’m owed that much,” I add quietly.
“Fine.” To my surprise he lets go of me and steps back, putting his hands on either side of the skull. “You’re right. I don’t like to compromise, but you’re right. You give yourself to me, I give nothing back to you. I wear the mask to intimidate, to create mystery, but with you…well, I’ll have to take my chances that you’ll still show me some respect.”