Kisses From Death | Book 1

T W E N T Y - S E V E N

T W E N T Y - S E V E N
Every Single String

"SO, I WAS thinking that maybe we could solve the next clue at the same time. While, you know, searching for Minnie?" Somehow through this crazy journey, I had started to depend on Cassiel a little too much than I was supposed to. The guy saved me twice, and Bella once. I might not really know who he was or what he was up to, but I could definitely rely on the fact that he was here to help us.

"Read it, then," he said with a shrug.

I dug around my pockets, searching for the square piece of paper before clearing my throat, shining the light of my cell phone on the words. The little 'no signal' sign at the top left corner of my smartphone made my heart drop, but I kept on a straight face and began to read the words out loud.

I have every single string attached.

It was a simple six worded sentence, but I could feel little goosebumps riding on my skin when I recited the words out loud. More so than the others, this riddle seemed more like a statement than an actual puzzle that needed to be solved. It was as though Death was directly speaking to me and this made me tremble with fright.

"How very pleasant. Death has strings attached to me. Such a one-way relationship, this is."

Cassiel let out a low chuckle, a soft laugh that made me carve my own smile when I turned to face him. "I guess you can't really blame the guy. To be fair, he seemed rather insanely infatuated with you since the very beginning. He did go through all this trouble just to kiss you."

"What can I say? I guess I really am as wonderful as everyone told me I was." With a playful wink, I tossed my long hair over my shoulders dramatically as if to prove a point.

Cassiel let out a belting laughter, chuckling so hard that dimples were already starting to carve into his cheeks. He smiled down at me, one that was bright and filled with childish amusement before he shrugged, placing an arm over my shoulder. Cassiel pulled me into his hold, our steps casual even though we were in the world of chaos at the moment. It felt blissful to finally relax, even with the creak of the old wood or the sudden gusts of cold winds that seemed to come from nowhere.

At the moment, I felt normal. I felt like a girl that was finally out with a guy that respected her as a human being, as someone with her own right. For so long, I had thought that maybe Lucius was the one. That maybe he would be the one that marches me down the altar while saying 'I do's in front of our family. That maybe he would at least love me as I did him. But then again, maybe I didn't really love him as much as I thought I did.

You see, the word 'love' had been thrown around so much through this generation that it had lost its meaning. Love used to be a sacred word, something only said when you truly mean it. It comes in many forms; family love, love for a friend, and romance. The more it was used for simple modern day slangs, the more it lost its meaning.

So maybe I hadn't really loved Lucius after all. I didn't cry and weep about it as much as I probably would have if it was someone in which I had my entire heart dedicated to. I hadn't fought for him when he went running off into the sunset with Porsha. Be it self-pride of not stooping down to a low level and attempting to grovel at his feet, or if it was just not that strong enough of an attachment, I simply had not fought for our future because I, perhaps, hadn't really wanted it.

I had let him go strutting towards Porsha, and right now, boy am I glad I did. If I hadn't, who knew if he would've killed me in my sleep? Cassiel mentioned that he was supposed to protect me. That Lucius was my 'guardian angel' of sorts, and that resulted in Cassiel knowing me along the way. And yet, killing off all those I knew wasn't exactly too far away from Death himself. Lucius might have in fact just one-upped the cynical and sadistic spirit of death.