River of Shadows (Underworld Gods 1)

I’m finally on my floor, creeping as silently as possible down the hall, almost to my room when suddenly a dark figure steps away from the wall.

I can’t help the cry that falls from my lips.

It’s Surma, covered in his flowing black robe, his tattered skull visible.

“What are you doing?” he asks in a sinister voice, his teeth clacking together in that horrible way.

I open my mouth to talk, to lie, but he’s fast. He suddenly reaches out and grabs me, his bone hands crushing my wrist before pushing me back against the stone wall, holding me there, pressing against my shoulder.

“I-I thought I heard a noise,” I manage to say, fear crippling me.

Oh god, he smells awful. He’s what I always imagined Death would smell like, rotting flesh and meat left out in the sun. The horridness only adds to the terror.

“Lies,” he hisses. “You were doing something. I told Death you had no place being in this house.”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” I protest.

“Why are you holding a boot?”

Fuck.

“A weapon,” I tell him, raising my chin in false confidence.

“More lies,” he seethes. “You are no different than your father, always trying to get your hands on our secrets, and Tuoni is too trusting of you, too soft. He’s made too many mistakes, granting life to those who should have died, people like your father, messing up the natural order of things. Tuoni brought this reckoning upon himself. If I had his power still, the things I would have done to you would be too horrific to describe. And while I can’t rule over the land anymore, it doesn’t mean I can’t do what I do best.” He hisses out the last word, making my blood run cold.

“It’s time for Tuoni’s reign to come to an end. The Old Gods will see to it. There are so many of us who will do whatever it takes to make sure that the City of Death falls. They will place me back in the role that was always mine. But you will be long dead before then.”

I open my mouth to scream but then he’s covering it with his boney hand, smelling of rot, and I’m nearly choking on it. I try to summon all my strength and power to fight back, but it’s like he has me completely drained.

“Do you know who I am?” Surma rasps on. “I was the one who killed. I was the Killerling. All feared me. The mold from my decaying body would make people go insane before they died. I should do the same to you, or I could make your death even more painful than you can imagine. You don’t belong in this world, girl. You belong in Oblivion. Let’s see if Death misses you if you’re gone.”

Suddenly my nose fills with the warming scent of sea salt and smoke.

“You belong in Oblivion,” Death’s voice growls from the darkness. “Let go of her, Surma.”

Oh thank god. That God, in particular.

“Do you know what she was doing? Sneaking around in the night?”

“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.