Oh. “Is…is he not coming?”
“Kalos very rarely visits the realm of the dead. I imagine because I am here.” He gives me a thin-lipped smile that lacks warmth in the slightest. “And I’m not inclined to give him anything.”
I perk up. There’s a vague memory in my brain of Lachesis. Of me asking her to send me to Kalos because I’d changed my mind. “Fate asked you to send me to him? That’s great!”
“Is it? Why should I?”
“Because I’m his Anchor.Washis Anchor. He’s going to miss me.” I smile brightly to sell my words, even though I’m not getting any warmth from this Rhagos guy. He looks down his long nose at me as if I’m a worm. “Your brother is lonely, and I want to keep him company.”
“Lonely?” He scoffs. “He’s a god.”
“Gods can be lonely,” I defend. “He has feelings and loves—and hurts—just like anyone else.”
“I’m told that right now my brother is staring at a wall and plans on doing so for the next few millennia,” Rhagos says in adeep, dry voice. “That doesn’t sound lonely. It sounds like he’s sulking. If you know him, then you know he’s impossible.”
“He’s not impossible!” I put on my brightest smile, because he’s clearly wrong and I must make him see my point of view. “Apathy is hard for him to live with. He has good days and bad. We all do. That doesn’t mean anyone should give up on him or treat him poorly because he struggles sometimes. I’m not about to give up on him. If he’s too tired to do anything but stare at a wall, then I’ll stare at it right alongside him.” I lift my chin.
“You’re annoying,” he says. “Like a bird chirping incessantly in my ear.”
“Then send me to your brother and I’ll chirp in his ear and drive him crazy. Won’t that be fun?”
His green eyes glint down at me, the fog falling away bit by bit. My thoughts are becoming sharper, and with them, my memories return, my needs, my wants. How long have I been drifting down here? Every day is a day too long. Poor Kalos probably feels abandoned by everyone, and the thought feels like a knife in the gut.
“You should know that Kalos is the most flawed of all of us.”
“Flaws are fine. I like his flaws. Imperfectionsare what make us human.” Am I getting through to him? At some level?
“Human.” Rhagos tastes the word and smiles faintly. “We haven’t been that in a very long time. I myself am not particularly inclined to help. Kalos and I have not been on speaking terms for millennia, ever since he last betrayed me.”
My heart sinks. “I’m sure he had a reason.”
“Belara,” is all the god of death says.
“She’s a real piece of work,” I blurt out.
“Mm.” His eyes narrow down at me. “Like I said, I’m not inclined to help…but my Max, my Anchor, insisted.”
He kept his Anchor? I notice his tone softens when he mentions Max’s name. “Tell him thank you.”
“Her,” he corrects. Before I can apologize, he moves on. “The Plane of Vultures is not a pleasant place. Are you sure you want to go?”
“A thousand percent sure.”
“You’re…not what I would have expected for my brother.”
“Because I’m determined and positive? It gets on his nerves, too.” I clasp my hands under my chin, turning my best puppy dog eyes on Kalos’s brother. “Please take me to him. I swear to be a pain in his ass for all eternity.”
“One can only hope,” the god of death replies, and swirls his cloak over my head, tugging me into darkness and out of the Field of the Forgotten.
The godof death is right—Kalos’s Plane of Vultures is kind of a downer.
When I arrive, I’m alone. There’s a thick mist everywhere I look, and my bare feet are ankle-deep in swampy water. I panic, imagining what’s creeping around in that water…and I remember I’m dead.
Being dead takes a lot of the fear out of scary places.
It’s a bit chilly and I glance down at my torn, weather-beaten dress that saw me cross half of Aos. It’s speckled in mud and smells like goats and fields and sunshine. I lift it to give it another nostalgic sniff and cross my arms over my chest for warmth. There’s no sunlight here, and the trees on the horizon all look dead, naked branches clawing at the gray sky.
It’s miserable, but if Kalos is here, I don’t care. We can laugh about it. We can plant flowers or something. Add a few goats. Nothing is set in stone, not even godhood.
