The assholes continued to quite simply stare at her, as if struggling to process the situation. Annette’s hands soon began to tremble, and the color started to leave Bowen’s face. Understandable, really. Even in the world of preternaturals, beings that didn’tstay deadwere considered fucking weird. Unnatural. Generally unwelcome.
Swallowing hard, Bowen backed toward the door.
A wind thick with rage swept around the room, slamming the shed door shut.
Wynter smiled at him. “I wouldn’t bother trying to run. She won’t let you leave.”
Annette raised her sword and prepared herself to lunge. Wynter didn’t get a chance to intervene. The hilt glowed red, and a sizzling sound filled the room. Annette dropped the weapon to the floor with a loud cry, shaking her blistering hand. A low, dark, otherworldly laugh bounced off the walls.
Bowen’s fearful gaze darted around the shed. “What was … who … ” He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his fists. “What the fuck is happening here?”
Annette licked her lips, plastering herself against the wall behind her. “You need to let us go.”
Wynter pursed her lips. “No, I really don’t.”
“You can’t kill us,” Bowen insisted. “If you do, you’ll die—the Ancients who own the rights to our souls will see to that.”
“Oh, I’m not planning to kill you,” said Wynter. “But I need you both gone from here. I mean, I can’t have you telling people that I came back to life. It’s not the sort of thing people are comfortable hearing.”
“We won’t tell anybody, we swear,” Bowen vowed, and his niece nodded frantically.
Wynter grimaced. “The thing is … you’re not exactly people whose word will mean shit to me. One of you killed me, and the other had no issues with abetting my killer. Plus, well, I’m feeling a little vengeful right now. The cool thing is I don’t need tokillyou to send you to the netherworld. I can open a path to that dimension and trap you both there for as long as I like. You’ll be wandering through it with no chance of rebirth because you won’t be truly dead.”
Bowen blanched but shook his head. “You’re lying.”
“Nope.” Wynter smiled. “An interesting thing about the netherworld … is that its timeline isn’t parallel or even in sync with that of this dimension. A minute here can be like amonththere, or even a year, or maybe a millisecond. Fascinating, right?”
Annette began to shake, scratching at the wall behind her.
“It ain’t a nice place. All cold air and dark mists. It’s almost impossible to see anything, but you canheareverything.Screams. Snarls. Growls. Roars. There’s so much fear and pain. It’s all about beating souls down as part of the purification process; breaking them and then building them back up to cleanse the soul of sin, making them fit to be reborn.
“Now, as you both won’tactuallybe dead, you might be spared the pain—I really can’t be sure. Icanbe sure that, in any event, the experience will be worse than whatever the Ancients might have put you through. That makes me feel better about what you two fucks just did.”
Bowen’s breaths began coming hard and fast. “You’re lying, you can’t really do that, you can’t—”
The floor beneath them darkened and began to ripple like black water.
Annette whimpered. “No.”
“Uh,yeah,” said Wynter. “I’d tell you to just be glad I’m not going to kill you. But, as I think you’ve figured out, there really are worse things than death.”
They sank into the water like hands had yanked them down, along with Annette’s sword. Then the floor returned to normal.
Wynter exhaled heavily. Well, that had been unpleasant. And now it was time for damage control.
She left the shed and walked through the back door of the cottage. Anabel looked up from her cauldron and muttered a quick hey. Slicing vegetables, Hattie tossed Wynter an absent smile. At the table, both Delilah and Xavier offered her a brief nod.
Seconds later, they all froze. And then everyone’s eyes snapped to her bloodstained tee.
“I need a rejuvenating potion, and one of your special bleach brews,” Wynter said to a gaping Anabel.
“What in the worldhappened?” demanded Delilah.
Wynter lifted her shoulders. “I died. Again. Now, about those potions …”
Everyone started talking at once, firing questions at Wynter. She told them how Annette had attacked her from behind and stabbed right through her heart … at which point Hattie snatched the largest knife from the block and demanded, “Where’s the little bitch?”
Wynter cleared her throat. “Um, the netherworld.” Silence fell. “Well, I couldn’t let them go blabbing, but I also couldn’t kill them—”