Eternal Rider - Larissa Ione [87]
“And Harvester. She was feeding on the dying.” Limos’s eyes flashed like hot amethysts. “Reseph was—” Her gaze flickered to Cara. “It was bad.”
Cara looked between the two. “Who is Harvester?”
“Our other Watcher. Reaver’s evil counterpart.” Limos made a sound of disgust. “She’s a major bitch.”
Another gate opened, and Thanatos, on his dun horse, stormed through. Jesus, he looked like something out of a horror movie… teeth bared, nostrils flaring, veins bulging in his throat and temple. The shadows that sometimes surrounded him had taken form, were circling, mouths gaping. One broke from the pack and shot toward her with an earsplitting screech.
Ares threw out his hand, opened a gate, and dragged her through it. She now understood why Thanatos was Death.
He’d had murder in his eyes.
The place Ares instinctively fled to when he needed a quick escape was his island. Specifically, the cliff where he’d taken Cara the first time he’d grabbed her.
“What was that all about?” Cara took a step back from the cliff, her eyes wild as she looked down at the rocks below.
Ares moved closer to the edge, putting his body between it and Cara. “When Thanatos is exposed to mass-casualty, he… changes.”
“Like how violence excites you?” She inhaled harshly. “Sorry.”
Shit. Not a comfortable conversation. “Yeah. Like that. He needs to kill.”
“What are those shadows?”
Ares looked out over the water, focusing on a fishing boat. That was the difference between him and Cara: He got up in danger’s grille but looked beyond. She backed away from danger but kept her eyes on it. “They’re souls.”
“As in… souls?”
“His armor collects them. Every time he kills a demon, human, or animal, the soul is sucked into his armor.”
Her horror penetrated his own softened armor. “Oh, my God. They’re trapped with him?”
“For a time. When he gets angry or goes into battle, or if he calls them out, they have a shot at freedom, but only if they kill something.”
“Does the victim’s soul replace the shadow after it earns its freedom?”
“No.”
“Can he get different armor?”
Ares shook his head. “None of us can. It’s part of us, like our horses and our curses.”
“What’s Limos’s curse?”
Ares turned to Cara, his breath catching at the sight of her standing there in the breeze, her lips rosy, her silky hair blowing around her shoulders. It was hard to believe she’d lifted his heavy ass off the ground, especially given the dark crescents under her eyes. She looked exhausted, and at the same time, so very alive that he had to remind himself she was dying, no matter how strong she appeared to be.
They die. You love them, and then they die. That’s what’s going to happen to you, Cara. You’re going to die, and then I’m going to— God, he couldn’t believe he’d lost it like that. He never exposed himself, but Cara had dismantled his defenses, and he wondered how much of it was due to his proximity to the agimortus, and how much of it was just… her.
He had to clear his throat to continue. “Limos becomes a danger to herself. When she’s drawn to famine of any kind—a lack of food, medicines, water—she falls into a deep depression and becomes self-destructive.” It had always taken Reseph to get her out of it.
“And Reseph?”
“He was drawn to disease, plague. He would… become that disease. In order to rid himself of it, he had to kill someone with it. If he didn’t, he’d spread the disease wherever he went. Now that he’s Pestilence, he can cause whatever disease he wants, more potent and faster-spreading than its natural counterpart.” His cell buzzed, and he checked it, cursed at the note from Kynan.
Where are you? You’d think Horsemen would be a little more prompt.
Hard to believe, but Aegi had actually gotten more annoying over the centuries.
Smiling tightly, he took Cara’s hand. “You ready to do this?”
“Yep.” Cara’s big eyes took him in… she looked like that damned Puss-in-Boots cat in Shrek, all cute and heart-melting. The way she’d looked when she’d told him that she saw more in him than a killing machine. But how could she? No one had seen him as more than that. Even