Page 56 of Truth Revealed

He paled further, if that were possible. Whiter than the full moon behind his head. “So you wouldn’t… see who I called.” He held out his hands farther as Death stepped closer. “Wait! I know that sounds bad, but it’s only because they didn’t want you to know they were talking to me.”

“Me specifically?” Death asked with an arched brow.

“No. No, just… you guys in general. Your group, or whatever. Please don’t hurt me!” he squeaked, as Death stepped into the middle of the room. “I can prove it!”

It wasn’t… the most outrageous thing Death had heard. They didn’t keep constant tabs on everyone in the house—Persy and Pain, for example, fucked around doing who knew what all the time. Maybe it was one of them?

“Prove what?”

“Prove that I’m not with them.”

“How?” The kid took a step forward and Death raised his voice. “Tell me, before you do it, what is it?”

“It’s… it’s a word that they use, Pandora’s demons. It means get out, basically. ‘Abort the mission,’ and all that. ‘Apovállo.’ If they hear it, they’ll leave.”

Death recognized the old Greek word and eyed the kid one more time.

“If you’re lying, and you guys use this word for anything else—anything that can hurt my friends—I will kill you. I’m not fooled by the model you’ve chosen.”

Though, as far as Death could remember, Youth was pretty much the embodiment of his namesake.

He gulped and Death smirked. “Yeah, I know who you are.”

Death motioned him forward with the knife. “Come on then, I don’t have all night.”

He glanced out the window one last time, his brow furrowing for a moment before he swallowed and made his way across the room. He slid against the wall to avoid the knife, and then Death followed him down the hallway.

They reached the top of the stairs, he took a deep breath, and then bellowed, “Apovállo!”

Shouts of alarm and scuffles sounded from the living room, and Death grabbed the kid by the back of the neck and forced them down the stairs.

“I swear, kid, if you lied—”

Death’s threat fell silent as he glanced around the living room. Pain, Betrayal, and Wrath stood in the center of the room… alone.

“Where did they go?” he asked.

“I dunno—they all just poofed.”

“Poofed?” Death repeated.

“Well, not like… Chaos’ type of poof, but they ran for the nearest exit, and between the three of us, we couldn’t catch them all. Who you got there?” Betrayal asked without taking a breath.

“This is Youth. I found him upstairs. He claims not to work for Pandora.”

“Uhm…” Pain started, a skeptical look twisting his features. “Pretty sure he does. He rushed into the living room from outside as soon as I came in here to distract them.”

“I only did that for appearances! I never touched you!” he retorted.

Pain’s brow furrowed before he crossed his arms, and then winced, placing a palm over a red slice over his abdomen. “Actually, yeah. That’s true. He never touched me.”

Death watched the exchange with narrowed eyes. Okay, maybe it wasn’t Pain the kid had been talking to. That left Persy. But why would she be hiding it? They could have really used someone on the inside. Though it seemed the cat was out of the bag at the moment.

“We can deal with him later. Where are Hope and Mis—”

The demons themselves answered his question as they burst in the front door, dejected.

“Right here. We ran after Pandora, but she hopped in a car and got away,” Hope explained with a sigh, palming his knees and sucking in air.