A chill washed over me again and it had nothing to do with the wind. “There are going to be kids there. A lot of littlekids.”
“Yes,” he said. “I amaware.”
“You can’t...” I stopped because yes, yes he could. He could come to the celebration. He could take the life of anyone there. Because he was death. The big “D” death. And it was his job, his power, to endlife.
“Ah,” he said almost gently, though still too cold. So cold. “You see that I can,indeed.”
And while it was making me a little panicky, along with angry and frustrated and horrified to know he only wanted to come to the festival to kill someone, I wasn’t getting that sickening end-of-the-world feeling that told me we were in for a truly awfulthing.
The sound of a Jeep arriving in the parking area and pulling up right next to my truck gave mehope.
“Delaney’s here,” Isaid.
“It would appearso.”
“She won’t let you kill someone. She’ll tell you youcan’t.”
“And why so ever would I listen toher?”
I flashed him a big grin. “Because she’s your favorite and you likeher.”
He blinked, both eyebrow slipped up. Yeah, he could act surprised, but I knew how he looked at her. She’d even told me he’d all but admitted he liked her. Liked being here. Liked beingmortal.
But this was not the powerless, mortal Than leaning against the fence on the edge of the world. This wasDeath.
A door shut. Boots crunched on gravel and then sand. “Thanatos,” Delaney said. “You can’t be here for ten moremonths.”
Delaney stopped right next to me, shoulder-to-shoulder, facing off against the god ofdeath.
I could see the slight shift in him. The relaxing of his shoulders, the sharpening of his eyes. He was happy to see her. Perhaps evendelighted.
Something in my chest unwound a little. This would work out. This would all workout.
“You can not tell me where I walk, ReedDaughter.”
And Delaney did that thing. It was the same thing Dad used to do. She went from looking like a police chief who had everything under control to somethingmore.
She took a single step forward and somehow looked taller, stronger, a lighting-struck figure cracking with a power that pulsed up from deep within the ground beneath her feet, as if all of Ordinary, all the world, stood at her back, facing him. Facing thestorm.
This was her power. Her ability to stand in front of any god and tell them to take ahike.
It was now, just like it had always been, pretty amazing tosee.
It made me so proud of our family. It made me so proud ofher.
“You are not going to walk this town, my town, as a mortal, Thanatos.” Her voice was even and hard as hammer on steel. “And if you’re here as a god, then I need to know why. You’ve never shown up like this before. There must be areason.”
“You know what my power is, Reed Daughter. I am here for just that. My business is myown.”
“No,” I breathed, and I could see Delaney’s shoulder hitch a little from my reaction. “You don’t get to stroll in here and kill someone,” I went on, ignoring the fact that he could do exactly that because that was the one thing he actually did. “You’re not going to take some little kid. You’re not going to take someone I love. You’re not going to take one of myfriends.”
Death’s gaze slipped from the challenge in Delaney to the worry in me. He exhaled, once. It was as much of a gesture of yielding as I’d ever seen fromhim.
“Bring me thehead.”
“The...head?” Delaneyasked.
“You aren’t going to kill him areyou?”
