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***

Neriah. Neriah. Neriah.

He'd called me Neriah.

The old bookkeeper in that golden library. The one that made the Devil sleep.

"They said you took down Lucifer," Alexandru had told Neriah in the memory of that golden library. "That he was the most powerful arch angel, and when he challenged this realm, when all of Heaven was at his mercy, and he raged his flames upon the Elders to destroy them all, you were the one who stopped him. You are the one who brought the devil down to his knees."

Victorian Death had called me Neriah.

None of it made sense.

And yet, somehow...

Maybe this Neriah woman was the key to getting Ace and I closer to Death's physical body and away from Victorian Death. What had happened to Neriah in the realm of Heaven with Alexandru? How was she connected to all of this and possibly to me? Victorian Death had taunted me, continuing to play me like a fiddle, and now I was questioning just how far apart this villain's intentions were to my Death's.

What if their intentions were the same? That was the most frightening question of them all.

I'd held Death's body in my arms. The real Death. And I'd thought everything was going to be okay. I thought we'd be okay. But now I was back in this dreary cell in his cursed memory, and his corpse remained in that haunted library in the in-between. And I was so much more uncertain about the ending of this journey than ever before.

This adventure had pushed me past every threshold of strength I thought I had, propelling me into an even deeper void of confusion as to what was a lie and what was the truth.

If there was one thing I knew for certain, it was that I had been too naïve again. I'd let my heart take precedence over common sense. Death had two-thousand years' worth of secrets and bad intentions. Hell, he was double-cursed, for crying-out loud. The man was practically a paranormal convict with two permanent ankle monitors around his soul.

There was so much I didn't know about Death, and maybe those things could tear us apart. Maybe he'd known that all along.

Maybe that was why he'd told me to leave him. He'd told me to leave him to die. He told me to choose me over him. What I'd thought had been self-sacrifices in his words replayed in a crazed loop of deceit under the scrutiny of my mind's eye.

I need you to choose you over me, became suddenly became sentence broken apart without the closing. A half-truth, stunted in a moment of guilt, fear, or...worse.

I need you to choose you over me, he'd said, maybe with the unspoken: because if you give me the choice, I won't choose you.

"Faith?" Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Ace's voice. He stood in my peripheral through the bars of the adjacent cell. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face, and he had his shirt rolled up at the forearms. "Say something. You're freaking me out."

"I'm okay."

"Was the astral projection successful?"

My head slowly turned to look at the warlock through the bars. "He's alive."

Ace's expression relaxed. "You saw Death?"

I nodded tightly. "He was pulled into the portal and dumped into that eerie parallel universe to the library here. He's been trapped there ever since, feeding off of Forsaken to survive."

"Was he...?" Ace cleared his throat like he was pushing back emotion. "What was his condition?"

"Not good," I answered bluntly. "The shadow of the blade is still in his heart."
"Was he conscious?"

"Yes, he was coherent enough to speak to me."

To touch me.

To kiss me.

To leave me with more uncertainties between us.

"What did he say?" Ace's was sounding increasingly worried with each follow-up question. "Faith?"

My throat burned. Could I trust Ace?

In my mind, I kept replaying Death peeling the Forsaken skin off of Death's sickly face. The prominent bones in his malnourished face. His lips against mine, dry, gentle. Fragile. How his eyes were too large, too dark with hunger. How they'd rolled back into his head and Victorian Death had appeared like his summoned puppet.

They were connected. Subconsciously or not, Death was Victorian Death.

I stood up, pacing the width of the cell.

"Talk to me," Ace said, his voice sharpening. "What will you do next?"

"Please don't cry," Ace said, pushing my sweaty hair from my face. "Don't cry."

"I can't do this. I need to go home. Take me home, Ace."

"We can't go home. We must bring him back. You were able to anchor to his soul––"

"We'll be dead by the time I get to do that again!" I shouted. "I'm done with these riddles and these games and this supernatural bullshit. I want to go home."

Ace leaned his forehead against the bars, looking as defeated and tired as I felt. "There is no home, ma cherie. Not if Death doesn't return with you."

I felt my heart drop to my stomach. "What?"

"Death is a prevailing force amongst the mortal realm. His disappearance..."

He trailed off, leaving me to my own devices.

"Has shifted the balance between good and evil," I concluded quietly. "Wouldn't that tilt it toward good, then?"

"No, ma cherie," Ace said, softer this time.

"You need to give me more than that."

"You are my friend. But I cannot stand in the way of destiny."

"But you'll stand in my way?" I demanded. "When you love someone, you don't stand in their way. You stand beside them."

"My dearest friend, I do love you. Otherwise, I would have not looked for you relentlessly for a year."

Tears fell freely from my eyes, and he wiped them away with his thumbs."

" I understand your frustration. I only wish you would understand mine."

I pushed his touch away. "Look around," I said, my voice wobbling with emotion. "We're locked in a dungeon to be executed. So stop. Stop being afraid of the consequences. We both have to stop walking on eggshells in this godforsaken realm, or we won't make it out alive. Tell me what's happened in our world. Remind me what I'm fighting for."

Ace inhaled a slow, uneven breath. "Without Death, the Seven have lost all control. Sin has amplified amongst the mortals and the creatures of the night. Hunters like the Guild were quickly outnumbered and forced into hiding. Evil once hid amongst the living. Now they walk in plain sight. Wreaking havoc, feeding, killing...."

I was sick to my stomach, imagining the vast differences in the mortal realm. "What about my family?"

"They've all survived. Your parents are protected by the Guild. So is Marcy, who was recruited."

My head snapped up. "Recruited? Marcy was recruited by Guild? How could you let this happen?"

Ace scratched the back of his head. "Actually, it was my idea..."

"What?"

"Your friend is tough as nails, Faith. She is holding her own, and she's a quick learner. When I would take breaks from traveling through the Unknown, I would often visit the Guild. She's taken a true liking to magic."

I felt like I was hearing a story from another lifetime. Another reality. A universe where I had been robbed of time. "Marcy knows everything, then? About me and Death, and all of of this complicated mess?"
Ace nodded once. "There's, uh, probably something else you should know..."

I braced myself for the worst of it. "Oh, God. Just tell me."

"We've hooked up."

I blinked. Blinked again. "Heh?"

"Oh, nothing. Nevermind..." Ace laughed uneasily and threw up his hands. "Anyway! Back to the dungeon situation––"

I grabbed him by the collar. "You slept with my best friend?"

"It only happened once," Ace stuttered. "Twice. Alright, fine, every time I came back to the mortal realm but––"

"What!"

"––it's super, super casual––"

"You're using my best friend for sex?"

"Whoa, what? If anything, she uses me." His eyes widened. "God, I'm so sorry. I'm very sleep deprived, and this has been weighing on me."

I've brought it up at a terrible time, haven't I?"

"Anyway," I deadpanned. "Back to the time sensitive issue at hand."

"Agreed. Please."

"His soul is lingering in this memory," I continued. "Why this one? Why now? Why do we keep going back to that golden library with Neriah? With the stones that his reapers wear to aid in his Seven Deadly Sins curse? Because it's all connected. First, his life was flashing before his eyes, but now it's his truths. Victorian Death is not just a memory. He's Death. He's a part of him. So he's not just fighting for his life. He's fighting against that monstrous part of himself. He's fighting against me, too."

I turned toward the warlock.

"I thought Death was fighting against me to protect himself," I said. "A defense mechanism. That's not what this is at all, is it? His subconscious, or whatever the hell Victorian Death is, sees me as the enemy. An actual enemy."

Ace went eerily silent, watching me piece this all together.

"He said that our souls would always find each other's," I said so softly it was barely audible. I slowly wrapped my fingers around the bars between us. "He called me... Neriah."

The warlock slowly lifted his face to mine. Candlelight flickered eerily over his violet eyes from the three candles dividing our cells. Wise. Windows into his soul.

My head slowly turned to the side, catching the reflection of own eyes in a filthy slate of metal on the prison wall.

I pictured the stones around Neriah's neck in Death's memory. The blue one, which Victorian Death had held in his palm before me. It matches your eyes.

"Where did you find these?" I had asked.

That wicked curve to his smile. "I stole them. From the realm of Heaven."

His next words were engraved in my mind. "Seven stones. Seven conduits that can withstand powerful magic. Seven sins."

Neriah had put the Devil to sleep. She'd cursed Lucifer and somehow kept him at bay. And yet, Death had her stones. And yet, in my world, Lucifer could walk the mortal realm. He'd been freed from Heaven's confines. Which meant that Neriah...

That blue gem. It had looked so deceivingly small in Death's hand. Precious. Delicate. Breakable. You remind me of this one, his deep voice had purred. Like a threat. Like a promise. Like the secret concealed behind the taunt of a devil.

But the truth revealed itself first in my eyes. Strong. Fierce. Unyielding. Wise. Wise beyond their years.

Thee truth had once felt too painful too bear, but now I was ready.

My fingers curled into my palms as the blue of my irises ignited to a blinding white.

"Show me," I commanded.

My head snapped back.

The final pieces of the puzzle flashed before me like bolts of lightning striking my soul.

And when returned, I dropped to my knees.

All sound funneled to a fatal hush.

My hand trembled as I absently touched my heart.

Gravity pushed against the cracks in it, and I imagined it wavered with vitality. A star fighting to not collapse in on itself. It could die in seconds, like my innocence. Blink, and it would vanish.

I sobbed. In the distance, Ace was calling my name. He was lowered to my level, to the ground, and I watched his lips move across the words.

Be strong.

I felt so small. So broken. Betrayed. Splintered into a million pieces. How could I forget?

Metal sliding apart with a bang. My prison door opening. Ace's troubled gaze still on mine as he was dragged out of his cell. Guards flooding into my vision, their shadowed faces like empty, unrecognizable tombs replacing the life that was once there. Like the Forsaken. Like me.

Who am I?

A shift inside of me.

Who am I?

There was no need to ask anymore.

I knew now.

Dragged by the shadow's arms, I did not fight. My legs were limp, my head lulled back as I laughed. And laughed. And laughed. I was somewhere else. Fragmented. Pieces of my me were too far away, floating into the abyss.

Deep down, I'd always known.

Thrown to the ground, I landed on my knees again. The cold rock of the floor felt like ice through the skirts of my dress and awakened my senses to the present. Well, to the ghost of the past.

Ahead, there were stairs, after stairs, after stairs. To a throne high above, made of skulls. The ghost of my enemy stared down from the throne like a god struck down from the heavens, so beautiful, so cruel.

When he grinned, it was slow. My tears dried instantly. My heart turned to stone. Had Death always looked at me like that? Like he knew? Of course, he did. He'd known all along. It was me who had forgotten. It was me who had been played by the seductive villain.

Beside him, stood four men. Four Deadly Sins. Each with a different colored stone around their throats. Each with faces that I once considered friends. They were not my frinds.

Three stones still hung around Death's throat.

"My treasured guests," Victorian Death announced to the room, his deep, commanding voice carrying easily. "Tonight is a special night indeed. Tonight, I will choose three brave souls to give a great power..."

I scoffed.

In my peripheral, stood Ace, bound by chains. I felt his eyes on me. Sensed his emotions, steady, concerned... disturbed. Maybe a little frightened, too. He should be.

My head lifted up toward a dim, gothic chandelier above, where tendrils of shadows cast along the ceiling from flickers of lively flames.

There is no shadow without light.

A small, wry smile lifted my lips.

There is no Death without Life.

***

This concludes book 3 of the rewritten version of Death is My Frenemy (I THINK???)

THOUGHTS???? FEELINGS!!!!!!???

Cupcakes and Reapers! 

ALAS, I am taking thee weekend to contemplate whether or not I am concluding this book, since I feel like my brain is BATTLING with me as to whether or not I should put the last few remaining chapters into book 4. Then, today, I got completely ENRAPTURED in this chapter and ended up writing basically this whole thing.

 For some reason, the idea of starting fresh with another book on Wattpad is creatively THRILLING to me and I feel I will be more productive. Don't ask me why!! I CANNOT wait for Faith to get back to the present, but I MUST follow my creative vision. And I just know this whole book will look different when I publish it.... LOL.

I am so sorry it has been this long to update. Between grad school and publishing TWO books (AHHHHH WTF HAVE YOU READ THE PUBLISHED VERSION OF DEATH IS MY BFF????), this chapter took me SO long to write and the part where Faith has a "vision" in the cell was a full fleshed out memory that I wrote. I kept writing parts later on in the series and not what was coming next, but I kept writing where the creativity too me! (WE LOVE A CHAOTIC CREATIVE PROCESS!!!!)

Finally, I just decided to just post what I had and took out what I was writing all-together to bring it back later. 

NOW FOR SOME BOOK NEWS!!!!! 

BOOK 2 OF THE PUBLISHED DEATH CHRONICLES "DEATH IS MY RIDE OR DIE" IS RELEASING SEPTEMBER 17th 2024! You might be wondering, what's DIFFERENT!????!?!?!

1. EVERYTHING. Lmfao. But really, it's really very different as I've rewritten it so many times off of Wattpad, and yet it's same, in the BEST way!!!! (I'm biased because it is my child. Lol.)

2. It's HOTTER. More romance and delicious chemistry between Death & Faith than ever before! 

2. NEW SCENES! (Just like published book 1!)

3. NEW-ONE LINERS! The book has been rewritten in many places, so you can expect some CRAZY lines in this one.

4. ALL THE ENEMIES TO LOVERS VIBES x 8000000!!!

Links are on my Wattpad bio to pre-order DEATH IS MY RIDE OR DIE, or you can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more today!!

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!i