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Without hesitation, he placed his ars Iood to know

I’d failed to defeat theainst ether, as Death ht he’d shed his helmet and breastplate As I watched, he used his sword blade to carve a line of metal from the side of the latter He handed that ed it into the flames with his bare hands The Devil blew on the fire till it clien kill me? What plans did he have for me? Obviously not the same ones as he’d had in a past life

Lark reappeared, briefly parting the curtain of water running off the sides of the bridge Her arms were full of wet firewood, and her other tolves each carried a log in their jaws, dropping theen’s feet She told Death, "The falcon can scout for another couple of hours, but then she’s got to sleep"

A weakness Her ani Yet another Arcana who needed to conserve

"Very well" Death couldn’t have sounded less interested

Lark tugged down her poncho hood as the wolves shook out their sodden fur "You almost done?" she asked him

Ignoring her, he began tinkering with his breastplate, tightening screws on the sides of it Had I so it

When that strip ofit on a nearby boulder, he haen to his work, Death put his breastplate back on, then leaned against the embankment His helmet was close at hand I watched as he sharpened one of his swords, running a stone over the edge again and again He seeht her gaze, she flashed me a wounded look--as if I had betrayed her--then turned away in a huff

I workedmy head to study Death How different he was now from the boy I’d dreamed of He looked about six or seven years older and much harder, even e in the firelight "What are you looking at, creature?"

"A stone-cold killer"

"Shouldn’t be such a new sight" He lifted his other sword to sharpen "I’ain"

"Where are you taking hold If you survive the next week"

"Where is it?"

He didn’t deign to answer

Okay, so if his lair was a week’s journey away froinia, Kentucky, either of the Carolinas

"What are you planning to do withto do with me? If I could escape, I supposed I’d start for the Outer Banks once rieve all I’d lost, and fulfill randmother, find out why the earth had failed, find out if I could help it

For all I knew, Death ht direction

To carry on uish ripping through me, worse than any physical pain I’d ever known

The Reaper finally facedhis weapon across his lap "I plan to make you suffer, up until the moment I decide to cut off your head"

His confidence was disturbing I decided then that I would do anything to deprive him of that pleasure--and of my icons I’d rather Joules have the when I wake, I’ll ask myself, ‘Is this the day I decapitate the creature?’ If you retain your worthless life by that night, then you’ll know ritty eyes "Why do you hatelike she was absorbed with rearranging her pack

"Because I knohat you are" He clasped the hilt of his sword as if he could barely refrain fro me "You have others fooled, but I know you better than you know yourself"

"Then tell me what I’m really like"

"You’re selfish, weak, cowardly, and disloyal You blame Fauna for her duplicity when you are no better, a seductress who luresI had power left "Was I henyou down to a hellish end? Was I cowardly and disloyal when I fought to avenge my friends?"

"Your friends--or the mortal you professed to love?"

"Both"

Death’s lips curled "Deveaux wouldn’t have wanted you if he’d knohat you were truly like He wouldn’t have bedded you, and he certainly wouldn’t have given his life for you Yet another you doo what I wantJack’s voice, his grin as he said it

Lihts later

All my fault I should have sent hione

Death was right I eak and selfish

I turned away, lying withmy mind back to the last moments I’d seen Jack As if I were in thatthe water, punches to en intensified his attack

Flattened like a sandcastle

Had Jack even made it to shore with Matthew? My bottom lip treh watering eyes, I stared out at the veil of water, like the one at the cave entrance where Jack and I had been together

That perfect an to spill, and I couldn’t stop the, I tried to muffle the sound As