I frown at that. “You already know why. You must be stopped.”
“Must I?” he responds, coming ever closer. “Perhaps it is you who needs to be stopped.”
I need to shoot him. I don’t know why I haven’t released my arrow yet.
“Is that why you’re here?” I ask, my gaze flicking to our surroundings before returning to him. “Because you wanted to stop me?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” he says.
A chill courses through me when I realize I am the only person he can really talk to. I don’t know the nuances of his power, but wherever he goes he kills. Perhaps I am the only person he has ever spoken to.
“You cannot change my mind about coming after you,” I say.
“Who said anything about changing minds?” His gaze sweeps down my body and back up to my face, assessing me. Only, his eyes linger for a beat too long on my mouth, and when they finally do rise to meet my gaze, there are so many emotions in those eyes. I feel like if I stare too long, I’ll fall into them and drown.
“You and I are fated to endure one another,” the horseman says softly as he moves towards me; he’s now no more than ten feet away.
“Don’t come any closer,” I say. “I mean it.”
Reluctantly, Death does stop.
I look him over the same way he did me. I hate that I find everything about him beautiful—from that ancient, tragic face to those strange wings, to his massive frame and his intricate silver armor. It all calls to me.
The corner of his mouth lifts as he watches me scrutinize him.
“What’s your name?” I ask, keeping my arrow aimed at his chest. “Or do you only go by Death?”
“Oh, I have many names.” His gaze returns to my lips, and a muscle in his jaw flexes.
“And what are they?”
“Anubis. Yama. Xoltol. Vanth. Charon. Mors. Mara. Azrael—and many, many others.” His eyes flick to mine. “But for you, Thanatos.”
Chapter 14
Cincinnati, Ohio
November, Year 26 of the Horsemen
“Thanatos,” I echo, letting my guard down for a moment.
He must sense it because he smiles and his eyes burn. The horseman—Thanatos—takes another step forward, and I tense all over again.
“I will shoot you.”
“Then shoot me already,” he challenges.
He doesn’t believe me?
I release the arrow. The projectile glances off his armor and clatters to the ground mere feet away.
And … the horseman now looks pissed.
I’m reaching over my shoulder for another arrow when Death storms forward, erasing the last of the distance between us. Before I can fully nock the projectile, he jerks my bow and arrow out of my hand and casts them aside.
“Hey—！” I cry out.
Even as I protest, Thanatos reaches for my quiver strap. The horseman pulls it off my shoulder and tosses it away from me. I wince when I hear it hit the corpse I was trying to rob.
And now I’m empty-handed against the angel of death.
I tilt my head back and look up, up into the horseman’s terrible eyes. He scowls down at me, that muscle in his jaw still ticking.
“Do you really think you are making any difference?” he says, crowding me until his chest brushes mine. “Following me, shooting me?”
He’s clearly angry, which means I’m at least doing something right.
“People are escaping you—surviving you,” I say, “—so yes, I do think I’m making a difference.”
His expression changes, he looks almost amused. “That was a single city—a city I wiped out only hours after I left your side that day. And I’ve eradicated over a dozen other towns since. Your efforts are sincere,” he acknowledges, “but wasted.”
Before I can respond, Thanatos shocks me by cupping my jaw, his eyes scouring my face. “All of creation falls to me, kismet. Kings and beggars, babies and warriors. Whales and flies, redwoods and dandelions. It all ends. And when it does, I am there to claim it.
“You will not stop me today, or tomorrow—you will not stop me ever. But—despite all sense, I think I do enjoy watching you try.”
He releases my jaw then.
I stumble back as he moves away from me.
“The next time we meet, Lazarus, I won’t be so kind to you,” he warns, his wings spreading wide. “But come for me all the same. I will relish our reunion.”
He leaps into the sky, his massive wingbeats further scattering my arrows across the street.
With one final, parting look, he flies away from me.