ATTENTION ALL CUPCAKES!

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER!!!!! NO SPOILERS, BUT DROP A "FADE FORVER" IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S UP LMFAOOOOOO.

I crept further into the witchy room, a sense of nostalgia rushing over me.

Death was laying down that stone slab table, which made him look like a human sacrifice, or whatever the hell he was. He managed to somehow make the table look comfy with his lazy, sprawled out position on his back. One arm was propped behind his head and a folded towel covered his eyes and forehead, like he was at a spa. His black shirt had was unbuttoned to make it a deep low V neckline and that showed much of his broad chest and the black intricate markings ornamenting his tanned skin.

Contrasting his dark attire, a stark white cat was curled up on his stomach, sleeping peacefully as Death whistled what sounded a lot like a lullaby to it.

I slowly lowered myself behind a barrel, every nerve in my body on high alert, like I was waiting to see any sign that he could sense that I was there. Into the room I carried a buried anger that seemed to surface from the moment I saw him, that sense of betrayal that twisted my gut.

"Aren't you supposed to be deep breathing?" Kalace asked, and my attention switched to the warlock. I hadn't even considered him a threat and had yet to even look in his direction. I could see he was by the fireplace like he had been before when I was in this room, working on something in an iron pot over the flame.

Death scoffed. "Breathing is for the ugly."

"Gods, you've always been so stubborn." Kalace pushed one of the fire logs in the massive fireplace to keep the heat on the pot he was working with. "Even over the simplest of things. One would hope you would grow from that by now, but I digress. Breathing techniques are an important tool for those who wield power."

"Sounds like a bunch of noise to me." Death writhed a little bit on the table like he was suddenly uncomfortable, a droplet of sweat sliding down the side of his face. The cat on his lap lifted its head and stared up at him like it was concerned, its fluffy ears flicking.

Death reached up and ripped off the towel from his eyes and wiped at the slickness along his forehead, before tossing it to the side. Then he made a clicking noise with his tongue. The cat in his lap jumped off the table and scurried a few feet away, slowing to a meandering sway right by barrel. It turned its head in my direction before it left the room and paused, its tail swaying side to side.

My eyes flicked to Death, and I froze. He happened to turn his head toward the feline, his catlike eyes training on her as he seemed to wait to see what she was looking at. I thought for sure I'd been caught, until just then, a small rodent went racing out from behind the storage space and briefly under my dress, before soaring out the door. I bit down on my lip and forced myself not to react. The cat darted out of the room to chase it, and Death lost interest and slowly turned his head away.

"Whatever you injected into my arm is not working, Kalace," Death said, and I released the tiniest breath of relief. "At this rate, I'll never get any sleep. I'm sweating my goddamn pipe off."

"Thank you for that wonderful visual." Kalace warmed his hands by the fire. "The sedative will take time. The breathing will help. Your blood and your body––"

"Absorbs things differently," Death finished in irritation. "Yes, I am fully aware. Takes me five barrels of wine to get drunk."

"That's an extreme amount of alcohol."

"It's called an exaggeration." Death sat up and rub the sides of his neck as if to massage the tension there. He hunched over on the table and let out a low growl, running his knuckles down the sleeves of his arms to scratch them vigorously.

Kalace watched Death writhe on the table. "Describe what you're going through right now."

"I don't want to describe it." He was holding his elbows now, like he was trying to keep something together inside himself. "I want to go to sleep."

"I can't help you if you don't explain everything that you're going through.'

Death released another snarling noise and lay back down on the table. His hands gripping the ledge on either side of himself, and I could see the moment he gave in and decided to tell Kalace truth. 

"Each sin comes and goes in no particular order," Death grated out between his sharp teeth. "Lust is the most unbearable. When dawn breaks in the mortal world above us, I get this...prickling sensation on my skin. I know I won't have any peace because that sensation escalades, until I feel as if insects are crawling underneath my skin. I used to tear into my flesh with my talons when it first occurred."

That sounded horrible. But not as horrible as being dropped from a balcony and killed.

"Does anything naturally satiate this?" Ace inquired, his eyes flicking to the side as he considered the answer. "Maybe a woman?"

Death whipped his head toward Kalace, and he looked disturbed. "You think a woman would lay with me when I look like this?" His hair longish black hair was clinging to his face now, and his eyes were tight in pain. "Or that I'd even risk what that might entail? Of course not. I'd rather not actually rip a female in half during sex, thank you."

Ace didn't say anything for a long moment. I could tell he still felt empathetic toward him despite everything, but he quickly turned away from Death and went back to work.

"Has it ever occurred to you that any suppressed emotions or mental hindrances are directly correlated with these episodes?" Kalace asked, taking the pot from the fireplace, and setting it on a stone counter to pour into a bowl. "No matter how powerful or deep we drown in wealth, the burdens we bear will haunt us into immortality."

Death grumbled something that sounded a lot like "I didn't ask for guidance" and stood up from the stone table. But his hand gripping the stone like he was a little unsteady, and his dark brows pinched together in puzzlement. He pulled his shirt up over his head, and I could see how his torso was gleaming with sweat.

"Kalace, what the hell did you give me? The fever is rising. I'm making goddamn puddles over here."

"I gave you a special tonic. A sedative."

"Thank you for being specific, Doctor," Death said sarcastically. He started to head toward the counter where Kalace had all his jars of herbs lined up and seemed to be trying to figure out what the warlock had given him.

Kalace noticed and quickly walked over and clasped Death on the forearm, guiding him back to the table. "You should lie down."

Death wrenched free from Kalace's hand. "You said this wouldn't play any tricks. I have a meeting tomorrow night, I need to be..." His head dipped forward, his words falling away as his eyes moved around the room and then up toward the ceiling as his head lolled, his body tipping to one side. Kalace clutched him around the waist, and even though Death was considerably larger than him, he didn't seem to be straining too much with the weight.

The warlock practically dragged Death to the table, setting him down on the stone table.

"Damnit, Kalace," Death moaned, his eyes swaying side to side. "Everything is spinning. And I feel numbness in my legs..."

"I know. I'm afraid you're not going to like this part." Kalace held out his hands and spread them out with a burst of purple magic. Chains from a pile in the room unraveled, crawling like snakes onto the table. They wrapped around Death's limbs and hauled him onto the table, catching him completely off guard. He fell back onto the table, his arms briefly resisting the pull of the chains.

"You...bastard!" Death snarled, his voice deepening into something monstrous. His head thrashed to the side, darkness consuming the whites of his eyes and spreading out over his skin like it was peeling away to the monster beneath. "You said you wouldn't restrain me!"

"It's for your own good and others," Kalace said. He moved his hand through the air again over the length of Death's body. "Slacken."

Death's body gave out and the chains lifted him up the table to fit his long legs, securing tightly over his limbs. Despite being completely debilitated, I could tell Death was still fighting, as the chords of muscle in his neck still strained.

"I gave you something to make you a little more...compliant," Kalace explained calmly. "I see it may have triggered an episode from your soul."

Death cackled to himself. "I'm going to scalp you and make your hair into brooms to clean Cruentas' stall, you fuckhead."

"That's nice, now do your breathing work," Kalace said in an unbothered way, returning to his table of jars of items. "In and out through your nose."

Death inhaled and exhaled hard and furiously, his nostrils flaring like a dragon. Clearly, he was imagining killing Kalace thirty different ways in his head.

But despite his resisting, which each breath, that crazed look in Death's eyes started to slowly roll away. The blackness from Death's eyes washed away and his head fell back against the table in complete exhaustion.

"Excellent." Kalace reached over and removed the rope from his mouth. "Look at that, the breathing does work."

"This is precisely why I wear so many layers," Death mumbled. "As soon as I take my clothes off, someone always tries to tie me down."

Kalace rolled his eyes. "It's for my own safety."

"Ah, the illusion safety. I am sure if things go sour, these chains will keep me far from the nearest meaty arm."

I looked down at my own arm and poked at the soft flesh underneath my bicep. Shoot.

"Don't you worry, I believe that sedative will have you out cold very soon," Kalace said. "I injected you with enough soporific herbs to knock out this entire castle."

Death lifted his head off the table, his eyes widening. "Are you out of your fucking mind? I asked for a mild sedative, not a hibernation injection. I have over two-hundred Fallen arriving to our castle tomorrow."

Kalace grinned, like he knew exactly what he'd done. "Ah, yes, that important gathering this week that you mentioned. It truly is unfortunate when something spiteful completely derails your plans or annihilates your entire neighbor village." Kalace gave Death an accusatory look and tapped his finger on his chin. "Yes, let us hope I don't hold that same malice and keep injecting you with those soporific herbs. I really grabbed quite a bunch on my way here. Enough for you be incapacitated the entire week..."

Death grated his teeth so hard that I swear I could hear it. "You son of a bitch."

Kalace leaned against the table of herbs behind him and crossed his arms. "So sorry."

"Evidently, you detest me now," Death said. "But if what you are seeking is blame on my behavior, perhaps you should be looking up instead of down at me. They are the ones that cast me back down to earth as this... thing."

Kalace feigned a yawn. "Aren't you getting quite sleepy yet?"

Death's dark slash of an eyebrow arched. "Do you think they are ignorant to what I am and what I do? Those good, sweet angels you defend. They're watching us right now, you. Every decision I make, maddened or clearheaded, is ignored by the very people you defend."

"I know what happened up there," Kalace said. "Rumors spread fast in the mortal realm. Heaven pardoned your curse. They gave you a second chance to do some real good, and you threw it all away."

Death burst into borderline psychotic laughter. "That's a fucking riot, Kalace. You have no idea what happened!"

"I know they tried to help you."

"Help me? They gave me an illusion freedom and snatched it out from underneath my feet the second they could. I was an outcast from the moment I went up there."

"You broke the Seven Deadly Sins."

"I broke a few of their supercilious rules of what they think good is supposed to be," Death corrected, a droplet of sweat sliding down his jaw as he turned away from Kalace to look up at the ceiling. "You act like they honestly wanted to see me prosper. Do you think I don't know, Kalace, what it looks like when someone is just waiting for you to mess up? Behind those pretty promises and grandeur, deep down, those angels were no different than the mortals laughing and cheering in stands when I fought all those gruesome Roman games. And where are they now, Kalace? Where is your good now? If they truly cared about their precious mortals, they would have destroyed me by now, but it's been almost thirteen hundred years, my friend. I'm still here, and oh, does the truth ring loud in their gifted silence."

"Helping you right now, I suddenly find at odds with every single one of my morals." Kalace seemed to reel his own words over. "You are wildly out of control, that much is clear. But the scariest part is, I never know when you are lying or telling the truth. I don't think you know the damn difference anymore, either."

Death seemed to concede to this as he silently looked up at the ceiling.

"You cannot run from yourself, Alex," Kalace said. "The difficult pasts we so desperately try to bury always find a way to rise again, and you will not be prepared to face them if you keep yourself buried in your own dark grave."

For once, Death didn't have anything snarky to say. He actually looked a little disturbed by Kalace's words, before throwing that cold slate back over his features. "I don't want to hear your riddles. I want you to do the job I summoned you here for."

"Oh, that was not a riddle," Kalace said. "That was a warning. One you so did not deserve." Kalace dumped whatever tool he was using on the table and strode toward Death with the bowl in hand. "Drink this."

Death took a sniff at the contents pulled back with a gag. "Devil's horns, that smell. You nearly burned my fucking eyelashes off."

"Just drink it, you big baby. It is tea."

"And a chorus of angels hymns every time I flatulate," Death said sarcastically. "By any chance, did you find the ingredients' of this "tea" from Cruentas' horse stall?"

"Do you want me to ease your suffering or not? You're exhausting me."

Death glanced into the bowl before him. "On second thought, life would be quite boring without suffering––'

Kalace plugged Death's nose and all but forced the tea down his throat.

"Argh!" Death yanked his face in the bowl, looking like he might throw up.

"Try to keep it down," Kalace instructed. "It should bind to the sedative and let you rest."

Death shook himself with a grunt of disgust. "I'll believe it when I see..." His eyelids fluttering halfway closed, his expression softening. "By Gods, it's actually working..."

Kalace straightened his sleeve, appearing somewhat proud of himself. "You know, you don't have to keep teasing me about my morals. If I was as good as you claim I am, I wouldn't be able to enter hell. And if I was smart, I would have found a way to stay away. I guess that makes me a fool above all else."

"Not a fool, Kalace." Death's eyes were closed now, his words a whispered breath as he lulled into sleep. "A brother."

Kalace's expression discernibly softened after the word. Sighing, he hovered his hand over Death's features and seemed to confirm the tonic had worked before he let his hand lower to his side.

Kalace stepped away from the table and ran his hand through his hair. He slung his leather satchel over his shoulder. I held my breath as he strode past me out of the room, leaving me alone with a sleeping monster.

My mind harked back to Victorian Death levitating me off that balcony, the betrayal of seeing Death's corpse standing behind him. How Death's hand had been resting on his past's shoulder, like he was in full control of him this entire time.

You're right, you're not an angel. Angels can fly.

I stood in front of Death's head and loomed over him upside down, feeling like I was hovering over a sleeping monster. My fingers shook as I touched Death's temples. The pads of my fingers felt the feverish temperature of his skin. I slid my hands slowly down and cradled either side of his face.

Closing my eyes, I imagined seeing Death's corpse again. I felt this odd electrical current between him and me, and suddenly the temperature of the whole room plunged and with it any light.

Fear felt like a blade scraping down each vertebra of my back. Shadows started to pour from Victorian's Death's frame like rippling black water, crawling all over the floor with hisses. I tried not to scream as they brushed against my dress.

"You don't belong here."

My head snapped up, and I stilled. Death's corpse stood on the opposite end of the stone table, the shadows curling around him and weaving through him like he was a ghost.

My lips felt chapped and cold as I pried a response out. "Where are you?" I demanded.

"Everything is wrong..."
Seeing him, standing just a table away, I was so terrified. "Tell me where you are," I repeated firmly.

Death just shook his head in a slow, scornful way, like I'd asked the wrong question. The small, patronizing mannerism reminded me of Death. It made me angry, frustrated that I couldn't get an answer out of even him.

"Why did you do it?" I felt so cold, betrayed. I needed to know why he'd killed me.

"You aren't listening to me." His angry words caught me off guard, the first direct words that didn't feel like a stream of conscious thoughts. "You need to go back. Go home, before it's too late."

"Home? You're trying to bring me home?" I started to laugh in an unstable way, and suddenly I didn't care about the consequences of screwing with this bizzare world. "You killed me. I came here to save you, and I died. Because of you!"

Death seemed to flinch as I said the words, the first indication of any emotion on his expression. But then his head cocked a little, and he seemed to reset back to that hollow, dead face. "I guess that makes two of us, cupcake."

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded a voice.

I gasped. Kalace was standing in the doorway to the witchy room, furious. And Death's corpse had vanished as if it were never there in the first place.

***

DEATH IS MY BFF IS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED!!!!!!!!!! *cue FADE and CUPCAKE screams*

YOU READ THAT RIGHT, CUPCAKES! Excited to finally announce Wattpad Books is publishing my Death Chronicles!!!!! 

Death is My BFF, Death is My BFFLAD, and Death is My Frenemy are slated to be published, started with book 1 in Fall 2023! (AHHHHHH!!!!) 

It might seem like a long wait, but I have to go through another professional editing process with them and a lot goes into getting a book out on the shelves, so please understand I need that time. LMFAO.

For those of you who don't know, I've been working with the series for over 12 years. These characters have grown with me and this series has changed my life. I could not think of a better home for these books to finally traditionally publish than with the place where it all began.

I am OVER THE MOON excited that you guys will finally see what I've been working on with them off of Wattpad.

I've had this new Death is My BFF manuscript under my belt for a few in years now. It's completely rewritten with a similar skeleton to Death is My BFF Rewritten. I'm so excited to be editing with Wattpad's awesome team even further and get this manuscript in the best shape possible. Only the best for man, the myth the legend, King D. (His name is in the title, so as per usual, I was forced to include an ego boost.)

Now what are you in for as an OG fan you ask?????? As it is right now, there are dozens of new scenes, SO many feelzzz, and all the right odes to the originals. Faith is still a badass, clever, snarky MOOD. And Death's deliciously evil charm and deadly, morally grey nature will have you wishing manuscript Death purred a bedtime story into your ear every night before bed. (Lmfao caught in 5k that's just me.)

And in case you ever doubted it, YES, the #FADE chemistry will be hotter and better than ever.

To all of my readers the readers who never miss a Death chapter, who always share my work with your friends, have created art for my characters, send me messages encouraging me to keep writing, or even the quiet reader who is reading this right now... THANK YOU!!!! Our book is coming... ;)

Come join me on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter to chat and for updates on the PUBLISHED Death is My BFF!! AHHHHH.