The Underworld (Rhyn Eternal) by Lizzy Ford Page A

she’d shared with past-Death.
    Hang in there. I’ll be back.
     

Chapter Seven

     
    They’re leaving without me.
    Past-Death watched the two women race down the hallway towards the stairs. Not that she expected Deidre to come back for her after all they’d been through, but …
    It stung knowing she was being left behind by everyone. She hadn’t been able to find the key to the other door and had stalked a few different death dealers to look for it only to come up empty handed.
    Everything hurts. Past-Death stood frozen in the hallway for a long moment, until they disappeared up the stairs. She blinked away tears that shouldn’t be possible to feel in a dream.
    Trudging down the hallway, she traced their steps, this time stopping in the room with the guards to find the key to the demon’s chains. After grabbing it, she continued into the main palace. Deidre was safe and well, and there was nothing past-Death was able to do if she didn’t escape her cell first.
    The path was so familiar, her feet went where they needed to while she spent time in her thoughts, trying to quell the pain of betrayal and loneliness.
    Only when she stood outside her old bedchamber did she blink back into reality. Opening the door, past-Death paused to take in the destruction with no small amount of horror. This room had been hers for thousands of years. Seeing it in such disarray weighed her heart down even more.
    She made her way around the mess, seeking out the jewelry box where she knew the soul she sought was located. Her gaze strayed to the door in the corner, the one containing secrets only the deity Death was permitted to know. The sight of it made her think of Gabriel, which made her even sadder.
    Pushing away the emotions, she focused instead on doing what little good she was able to. Kneeling beside the jewelry box, she opened it, only to find the soul gone.
    “Shit!”
    The dream began to wobble and fade. If the soul wasn’t here, who had found it? How did she recover it, before Harmony figured out how to fuck over Gabriel for good?
    How did she tell Gabriel she’d failed him yet again? Frustration and sorrow made her eyes water. She was turning out to be the worst human ever.
    Past-Death snatched the content of the box, a tarnished ring, before she was yanked out of the dream once more.
     
    “Hey, cupcake.”
    She groaned, gripping her head hard. The headache was pulsing, her general fatigue adding to the discomfort. She expected to feel the same sense of betrayal she did in the dream and was relieved that she was … numb.
    “You were out for another day,” Jared called. “I’m tired of this fucking place!”
    “If you were more patient, I might’ve brought you a snack,” she retorted.
    “Really?” he asked. “What was it? A head? Goblet of blood?”
    Past-Death rolled her eyes and sat carefully. “Shit. I gotta go back under to get us out of here.”
    “This is taking forever. Why didn’t you just free us last time?”
    “Shut up, demon.” She gripped her temples. “You’re not the only one who’s hungry and sick of this cell.” She slid the ring she’d grabbed onto her finger and placed his keys beside her, unwilling to reveal she had them until they had a way out. It was suicide to be stuck in a cell with a starving demon.
    “Don’t wake me up this time,” she ordered and lay back down again. “Got it?”
    Jared grumbled in response.
    It was easier to fall into the dream state this time, possibly because she was too exhausted to resist it. Standing outside her cell, she drew a deep breath and paused before unlocking the door.
    Was she really going to trust a demon to get her out of here? True, demons were sworn to uphold their deals. But since becoming human, since taking on the frail body of a mortal, she’d found herself hesitating when she never would have as a goddess.
    I’m afraid of almost everything. She hated that about herself. As a deity, the universe had feared her. And now the