“Shit,” Kelly breathes next to me. She then slumps back against the wall, dropping her bow. “We did it.”
“We did,” I say softly, still staring at Death’s still form. All sorts of conflicted emotions churn within me.
We took down an angel.
I’m the first to get to the body. Partially because everyone seems reasonably spooked, and partially because once I snapped out of my stupor, I ran for him.
I kneel at the horseman’s side, and I swallow my own choked cry when I see the damage we’ve inflicted on him, damage I insisted on. I have to fight back the urge to retch.
I’ve never done anything like this before, and the sight fills me with deep remorse.
He killed you twice, and he likely wouldn’t hesitate to do so a third time if you got in his way.
The thought lessens the sickness I feel, but only slightly.
I place a hand on the horseman’s silver armor, my eyes lingering for a moment on a procession of mourners hammered into the metal plating.
Leaning towards his ravaged head, I whisper, “Death?”
Nothing. He doesn’t stir at all.
I have this crazy urge to remove the arrows one by one and clean his body, but I don’t get the chance.
Behind me I hear the footfalls of others coming to inspect the horseman. A strange surge of protectiveness wells within me. My hand falls away from his silver armor.
“No one touches him,” I say hoarsely, standing, then swiveling around to face the incoming crowd. I feel like a lioness defending her kill.
“Who says?” calls out a familiar voice.
My eyes hone in on the man who speaks.
I’ll be damned. It’s the same official who walked out of the meeting yesterday, the one who thought I was crazy. What was his name … ?
George.
I hadn’t realized that same man had been posted here. My eyes dip to the sheriff’s badge pinned above his chest. I also didn’t realize he was involved in law enforcement.
“I say.” I meet his frigid gaze with my own. “So far, I am the only person Death hasn’t been able to kill.” Something most of the people here are aware of; they were all debriefed on me last night.
“This is ridiculous,” George says, approaching me anyway. And then he’s pushing past me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him. “We don’t even know that he’s dead.”
The rest of the officers and a growing crowd of onlookers form a semicircle around us, peering curiously at the winged being, his body strewn with arrows.
“Do you really have any doubts?” I say, fighting the urge to drag insufferable George away. It would be useless; the man is much larger than me.
Ignoring my words, George reaches for the horseman, presumably to check his pulse.
The moment his fingers brush the horseman’s flesh, his body stiffens, then collapses in a heap, half on, half off of Death.
My breath catches.
“George?” another officer calls—and I realize after a moment that it isn’t just some officer—it’s Jeb, the chief of police. “George,” Chief Holton says again, sterner now.
He shrugs off his bow and quiver and steps forward.
“Wait,” I say, giving him a meaningful look. “Let me do it.”
Jeb pauses. His jaw works, but after a moment, he gives me a nod.
I kneel at George’s side and place my fingers against his inner wrist. There’s no pulse.
Slowly my eyes lift, meeting Jeb’s. I shake my head, then set George’s arm gently on the ground, even as I hear a choked cry from the crowd. Apparently, the horseman can kill even when he’s dead himself.
I glance back at Death.
“This is the part we agreed on, Jeb,” I say quietly to the chief of police.
I’d only requested a few things yesterday, when I began coordinating this strike with Lexington’s officials, but the one I’d been most adamant about was taking Death’s body.
Chief Holton runs a hand down his mouth, then turns to the rest of the crowd. After a moment, he clears his throat.
“Congratulations,” he says to them. “Together we have stopped Death himself. We’re all alive today because we brought him down. But there’s much we still don’t know about this rider. So, in terms of survival, I need you all to return to your stations. If you’re part of the evacuation teams, please check in with your supervisor for further instructions. If not, I suggest you go home, grab what few items you can, and evacuate town.”
“What?” an officer says, surprised by the news.