Traveling with Death—seducing Death—was never supposed to be about me or my complicated feelings. But I’m afraid that despite everything, I do care for this monstrous man.
As we ride through the city of Rosenberg, my eyes sweep over the carnage. A few bodies lie out in the open, and overhead, carrion-eaters are already beginning to circle.
My grandiose plan has blown away like dust in the wind. In fact, I’m not sure it could’ve backfired more spectacularly than how it did.
It’s not until the sun is setting that Death stops his horse out of the blue. He swings off the steed without any sort of explanation, hopping to the ground.
When he begins to walk away from me, I feel an unwelcome sense of abandonment.
“Where are you going?” I call out.
He turns around, though he continues to back away. “Miss me already, kismet?” he says, a curving smile on his lips.
I frown at that smile, even as my stomach flips in the most off-putting way.
First I took an arrow for him, now this.
Before I can answer, Death’s expression turns serious, his eyes intense. “Nothing in this world could part me from you for long.”
It sounds like a vow, and I think it’s supposed to be reassuring. And my stomach is definitely not supposed to do that stupid flip thing all over again.
Thanatos’s wings spread wide, and he looks as though he’s getting ready to fly off, but then he pauses.
His gaze finds mine. “Would you like to join me, Laz?”
“Where?” I ask skeptically. “In the sky?”
He inclines his head.
No, I wouldn’t. I distinctly hate flying and the horseman and—
I’m off his horse before I can complete the thought.
I cross over to where he stands in the middle of the highway, nothing but fields stretching out on either side of us.
Death stretches out a hand. Ignoring it, I step into him, my arms going around his neck. I tell myself I’m doing this all for Ben and humanity, but then Death smiles at me, and now the lightness in my stomach is back.
The horseman’s massive arms wrap around me.
“Please don’t drop me,” I say softly.
A muscle in his jaw jumps. “Never again,” he vows.
Then, as he stares down at me, another slow, delicious smile spreads across his face, even as something softer enters those glittering eyes of his.
“First you protected me, and now you come to me of your own free will.”
He’s now noticing the same awful pattern I am—I’m going soft.
Death leans in. “I will make sure you don’t regret it.”
With that, he wraps one of my legs around his waist, then the other. My pelvis is pressed against his lower abdomen, and with my arms wrapped around his neck and my face mere inches from his, this feels intimate. Very, very intimate.
That feeling only increases when Death’s arms come around me again, bracing me against him.
“Hold on, Lazarus,” he breathes, gazing down at me.
His wings spread wide, then with a leap, we’re rising into the air. The pound of the horseman’s wings is almost violent, and yet it’s like the two of us are in the eye of the storm.
I stare up at Thanatos as we rise. I drink in that ancient face as the wind stirs his hair, my eyes lingering on his beguiling lips and sharp cheekbones. For once his own gaze isn’t fixed on me. Instead, it roves over the land around us.
“What are you searching for?” I ask.
“A home fit for a queen,” he responds, his eyes still scanning the landscape.
I continue to stare at him, feeling like even though I’m soaring, I’m also in freefall. I lean forward and press a soft kiss to the underside of his jaw. I know I’m immune to death, and yet somehow I’m sure I’m not going to survive this.
After a small eternity in the air, we descend towards an unremarkable patch of land. I see green grass and trees nestled close together and some dirt roads that this far away look crudely carved into the earth. It’s only as my eyes follow that dirt road that I realize Thanatos did find another house, one just as palatial as the last.
The ground grows closer and closer, and I can make out a soft knoll that gives way to a muddy pond, and a tiny chapel built off to the side of the house. Lastly, my eyes land on the hacienda-style house with terracotta-colored walls and a red-tiled roof.
Death lands in front of it with me in his arms. I’m reluctant to let go of him, though I tell myself it’s just because my arms are stiff from holding on for so long.
Giving me an indulgent look, the horseman releases me.