The Dark Calling (The Arcana Chronicles #5)(97)

Once Aric had cleared the way and we saw what remained, Jack breathed, “Jesus.”

I put my hand over my mouth. Thanatos’s red eyes were crazed with fear and pain, his legs nothing more than bloody stumps pawing the air. His black armor had been torn away, chunks of skin missing from his flesh. Bite marks told a horror story—hours of torment.

“Is that horse immortal like Domīnija?”

“No. Any horse that he claims as his own is mystically connected to him, but not immortal.” Still, Thanatos had survived so much that I’d thought of him as deathless. “Aric’s going to have to put him down.”

“Stay here.” Jack hurried from the truck to join Aric.

Ignoring him, I followed.

Aric had dropped to his knees beside Thanatos. “Whoa, stallion. Rest easy.” His gaze held Thanatos’s, which seemed to calm the horse, easing its wild-eyed movements. “I’m here. I will make the pain end.” As he soothingly stroked a narrow swath of unbitten flesh, Aric clenched his other fist.

I sidled closer to them. “What about Lark? You could use her powers,” I said, even as I pictured how vacant-eyed that sparrow had looked.

“Never,” he rasped. “Never that. He’s earned his rest. He’s earned far more than I gave him at this bitter end. I left him half-dead with threats lurking all around.”

“Then let me help. I can make it painless. He’ll just go to sleep.”

“We’ll be within striking distance of the castle tomorrow. You can’t spare an ounce of your power if you’re still bent on the same plan.”

“I am.”

“Then I will end this.” Aric placed the tip of one sword against the steed’s chest. To Thanatos, he whispered, “Good-bye, my old friend. Rest well.” Aric plunged the sword.

The horse shrieked, and I could have sworn Thanatos looked . . . betrayed. Was he wondering why his golden-haired knight would forsake him? After all his unending service?

Thanatos’s red eyes flickered. Once. Twice.

They closed forever.

Aric’s stoic fa?ade never faltered, but I could sense his utter agony. He must be drowning in guilt and grief.

I put my hand on his armored shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

He inclined his head, couldn’t seem to find words.

Jack said, “I’ll help you bury him. Evie, it’s too cold for you out here.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“We doan know if more Baggers will smell the blood.”

Aric absently said, “It isn’t safe.”

Jack squired me back to the truck, then helped me into the cab. Under his breath, he said, “Let him grieve without having to be in protection mode.” He was right.

“Okay. I will.”

Jack closed the door behind him. After fetching a shovel from the nearly-full truck bed, he secured a burial spot.

From their body language, I could tell Aric insisted on digging the grave, no doubt wanting to punish himself.

As he buried his horse, Jack stowed the tackle, armor, and saddlebags among the many boxes he’d loaded up from the cave. Joining me inside the truck, he pulled his flask from his coat. At the rim, he said, “Thought I’d give the Reaper some space too.”

I nodded. “He shared a bond with Thanatos for longer than I’ve been alive. On his card, Death is astride a stallion. Now he’s a knight with no steed.” Death was incomplete. “Aric loved that horse, yet he ran him into the ground and didn’t even spare a sword strike to euthanize him.”

“Which means the Reaper was out of his head to reach you.” Another swig. “Damn him.”

“Damn him,” I echoed.

“So much harder to hate him.”

“Welcome to my world.”

“What are we goan to do with him?”

“Hell if I know. But I don’t want to hurt him anymore.” I deeply regretted flying off the handle in the cave. “He must have already been crumbling inside because of what he did to me, and then I piled it on last night. Now this.”

“It’s not your fault. You’ve been through a lot. You’re doing the best you can in a shit situation.”

“It’s worse than you think. Jack, when Aric’s powers first manifested, he accidentally killed innocent people—including his parents. His mom was pregnant at the time.”

Jack swore low.

“For him to have come so close to ending me and Tee . . .” I trailed off when Aric turned toward us, trudging back.

His eyes were dim and glinting, his shoulders heavy.

Jack muttered, “Never thought I’d say this, but il tombe en botte. The Reaper is falling to ruin.”

When Aric rejoined us, he had a frozen track down his cheek. A tear.

Oh, Aric. The pain I felt convinced me that I was still as deeply in love with him as I’d ever been.

Did that mean I was right back where I’d started with both of them? Without thought, I placed my hand on his cheek and gave him a sympathetic expression.

In a pained tone, he rasped, “A touch and a soft look. I am felled.”

Jack tensed beside me, breaking the spell.





47


Day 586 A.F.





I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to come to this place.