Page 147 of Ballad of Nightmares

“Sam!”

But through all the chaos, Sam didn’t hear her.

He couldn’thearher.

Jay dragged Ana up to her knees, his hand at the roots of her scalp, the threat of a knife at her throat. Ana struggled, her skin shifting against the blade, and even though Jay may not have meant to, the blade cut through her.

Blood seeped from her throat, a dripping tap that couldn’t be turned off. She coughed, lurching forward, but Jay hadn’t realized what he’d done. Her eyes fluttered, heart beginning to pound in her ears. And just as Jay threw her on the ground and saw the blood, Ana began to plea.

Sam…

Calling to Death as she’d done before.

Samarius… Death… I’m here. Look for me. Find me.

She managed to sit up on her knees, and when she did, she found Sam’s raging red eyes staring at her from across the field.

Jay grabbed her hair again and pulled her backward. She choked again, kicking and wishing she could scream.

Shadows swarmed the ground, diving in and out of the tree roots and leaving dead grasses in their wake. They whipped up Jay’s feet, his legs, his hands, and his neck. He dropped Ana, making her slam into a great root, but those shadows swirled her like they meant to heal her.

Sunlight died behind grand wings.

And Death stood over her dying body.

Sam didn’t speak to her at first. He was staring at Jay’s now bound figure, his hands in his pockets. “Jay…” His head tilted as he finally looked down to Ana and gave her a wink. “Should have smelled the Ironmyer stench on you.”

Millie dove to the ground at Ana’s side when Sam moved past her. The demon pressed her hands to Ana’s cheek, to her neck, and the blood pouring out of Ana stopped. Millie began to work Ana’s shackles as Sam honed in on Jay.

“This place isn’t yours,” Jay said, struggling against the shadows. “It never was. It never will be.”

“And who’s going to stop me?” Sam asked. “The obsidian legions of Ironmyer? The fire legions? That fucking…” Sam shuddered, his fingers cringing close and opening at the next name he spoke through clenched teeth, “General Prei.”

Ana had never heard him say any name with such poison. Like speaking it hurt him, damaged something within. Even Millie stilled at the sound of how he said it.

Sunlight flared at Sam’s back, black clouds enclosing in, thunder rumbling the ground beneath. Every demon had stopped fighting, every mortal now dead on the ground, and they all watched their king.

“Death doesn’t get to win,” Jay said. “And neither does your precious girl.”

A heinous smile wrapped itself on Sam’s lips. “Death always wins,” he hissed. “And as for my Queen…” he looked back over his shoulder to Ana on the ground. Those eyes struck her, held her still. To truly look at Death in his demonic form, without the restraints of power he usually placed upon himself. Beautiful and horrifying all at once.

A talon tickled over her cheek and under her chin, a loving gesture that skidded her heart.

“She gets everything she wants,” Sam swore softly. He took one step back, revealing Ana heaving as Millie finally released her wrists. “Tell me what you want for this traitor,” he asked of her.

Ana considered Jay. Considered everything he’d told her, and she gripped the dirt beneath her nails.

“I want him suffering longer than his father did,” she hissed. “And I want to watch him beg just like his pathetic daddy.”

Lust and greed flickered in Sam’s eyes. Jay lifted further off the ground, his body struggling against the umbra. He took out his phone, opened the camera, and Millie stood as she took it from his hands.

“Are you sure—“

“It’s time,” Sam cut her off.

And little by little, those shadows squeezed.

They squeezed, and they squeezed, and the sound of Jay’s whimpering and pleading became music to Ana’s ears. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and breaking bones. She began to shake as she didn’t dare turn away. Didn’t dare look from the sight of his bulging eyes, his gasping mouth. Sam eased that tension and heightened it every couple of seconds, toying with the man who had taken his woman away from him.