Page 54 of Mistress of Bones

Azul didn’t need to tell him no; her shocked expression spoke for her.

His eyes brightened with mischief. “You are a child of the Lord Life. You do not—cannot—control death. You can only create life.”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Enjul said—”

“Virel Enjul was a good emissary, but he allowed his fears to twist his understanding of my wishes.”

“Is… is he really gone?”

“Yes.” The word carried as much finality as death itself.

Azul squeezed her eyes shut.

Ah, what could have been.

“Why did you not revive him as you did in Diel?”

“Death eventually touches all of us.” A crooked smile appeared on his face as he looked her up and down. “Almost. I retain all my emissary’s memories, Azul del Arroyo. You seek your sister’s bones.”

“Yes.” Warily, she scooted closer to the end of the bed until she was sitting across from him. She would eagerly bear all the sacrifices, have all the deaths on her conscience, if it meant she hadn’t failed her search.

“Seek no more. They are gone.”

Azul reeled back, his words, sharp and sure, incomprehensible to her.

He pressed on: “There is no way for you to bring your sister back to life. You may search to the ends of the continents, go through Sergado de Gracia’s collection—or any other cache of bones in existence—and this fact will not change. It is beyond your capacity, for nothing of her remains.”

The room blurred. An unendurable bleakness began to weigh down her limbs, her heart, what was left of her soul.

“But I can,” he said.

Her gaze snapped to his.

“I can pluck her essence from the Void,” Death continued. “For I am the Lord Death and it is within my power to do so.”

A pause. Too long a pause. Surely, Azul would die if he didn’t speak soon.

“If you do as I say.”

She gathered the folds of her nightgown in her hands and waited.

“It would seem,” Death explained, “that my gifts in this form are somehow tied to you. I take from your essence, as I am sure you can tell by now, and I have no wish to leave this body quite yet. There are things I mean to do.”

Unease churned Azul’s stomach.

“You do not like this. You do not trust me,” he continued. “Who would? Worry not, I am not lacking in feeling. Did I not, along with the others, sacrifice my body for the sake of life on these lands? Thus, you shall be rewarded for your help. Is it not worth your sister’s life?”

Azul studied his face. His expression told her nothing, just as Virel Enjul’s hadn’t.

Death retained his emissary’s mannerisms as well as his memories.

She recognized the small tics, the slight tilting of his head while he waited for a response, the stillness of his hands, the way he would not play coy but prey on everything he set his mind to.

The strange pull she had once felt in his presence was still there, mingled with deep wariness and amplified a hundredfold.

“What are your plans?” she finally asked.

“I mean to find my brethren.”

“The other gods?” Azul exclaimed. “They are around?”

“They will follow.” He gifted her with a dazzling smile, which was as shocking as the knowledge he had shared with her.

“Why?”

The smile turned devious. “There is something we want back.” Before she could ask anything else, he stood up and told her pleasantly, “Now, I have ordered for clothes to be brought to you. Another dagger, as well, since you are keen on them. I will not begrudge you your gift, as my emissary did.

“As long as you don’t use it on my land without my permission, I will not step in the way. I have some affairs I must deal with in this city, so you may take a few days to organize your own before we leave.”

Her acceptance was taken for granted, and Azul resented this deeply. Like Enjul, the god wasted no time waiting for answers when he already knew the outcome. The illusion of choice, though, would’ve been welcome. He might be a god—Death embodied, thanks to her—but she did not trust him.

“And my brother?” she asked. “Will you make sure he pays for his crimes?”

“What harm can he do? I can claim any bones he takes from death. Or do you wish me to kill him?”

That gave her pause. “Is there no way to simply restrain him?”

“Ah, Life, always seeking a way. How refreshing. It was his idea, you know, to raise the continents.”

“Well?” she insisted, refusing to delve into theology. “Sergado will be free soon, and he’ll seek to carry on his work elsewhere. He must be stopped or he’ll continue killing.”

“He is of no concern for now.”

Of course the god would show no concern , Azul thought bitterly. What were a few human lives compared with his godly one? If he didn’t need her, he would not have cared about hers either.

“Why not simply force me along?” she asked. “Why tempt me with Isadora when it was your fault her body crumbled on your shores? You are a god—you can do as you please.”

“I am the Lord Death, not the Lord Control of Your Thoughts. Your willingness will save effort and time.” His smile was a dazzling invitation, a dare. Mischief, promise, eagerness. Temptation.

“I shall go with you,” Azul said, because it felt important that she make the choice even though none had been offered to her.

His smile changed, morphed into something that could either send a person down into the Void, or reform them into greatness.

This was where Enjul’s body ended and the god showed himself.

For the first time, Azul saw the power behind this being—that this was a walking god, that the Temples weren’t built in vain, the way Isadora and so many others believed.

That once upon a time, he had cared enough for life to elevate the lands, but life itself held no sway over his whims.

It held no sway over any of the gods who, by his own words, would follow.

What did they want? Why take human form now?

Her blood chilled, Azul had one more thought:

That perhaps, for once, she shouldn’t have fought for life.