I can’t argue with him about getting away.
But right now, anything that keeps me from crawling inside his skin bothers me. Plus, it’s pretty hot that he picked me up like I’m a doll or something. We’ve nearly reached the creek when I shove against his chest. “Far enough.”
He sets me down, his right hand cupping my jaw. “You—you don’t hate me, then?”
I sigh. “I’ve missed you, Xolotl, almost from the moment I left with Leonid and Izzy. They didn’t kidnap me, by the way. I left. I was trying to figure out how to put you to sleep. I told Leonid to kill me. He would have, if it hadn’t been for my sister’s insistence that we find another way.”
A muscle in Xolotl’s jaw pops repeatedly. “He almost killed you anyway. I had shoved that distasteful memory out of my mind.” Now muscles all over his body are bunching, like he can’t quite control his reaction to his rage.
I drop a hand on his chest, mostly to calm him, but also to see whether it really has the effect he claimed. His eyes immediately drop to my hand. “You’re touching me.”
“I am.” I can’t help my smile. “You like it?”
He nods slowly. “Too much. So much that it makes my heart beat too fast.”
“Did your heart beat at all before?”
He nods. “But very steadily, all the time. Now it keeps racing.”
“You’ll get used to that,” I say. “Or at least, more used to it.” I can’t really ignore it entirely. And now that I’ve admitted it to myself, I’m even more aware of my body’s reaction when he’s near. “But what we feel. . .” I clear my throat. “It’s not common, even among humans.”
His eyes widen. “I can’t help thinking about how often you might have done this with other men, and it makes me very, very angry.” He’s scowling. “It makes me long to kill someone. Anyone. But mostly the men who have touched you in the past.”
I laugh. “There weren’t many, actually. I had a recurring dream for most of my life about this one guy. I knew I’d love him and only him.” I freeze, because I’d almost forgotten about the other part. The part where I knew I’d love only him, and then the part where I know he’ll kill me.
I almost died because of him.
Leonid only stabbed me to free me.
But I didn’t actually die. Maybe I misunderstood my dream. Maybe it just meant I’d almost die, and that’s surely already happened. Now that I’m here with him, I find that I don’t really fear death anymore. Maybe I just realized that to love him was to love death.
He’s just leaned over to kiss me again when there’s a massive explosion and that ear-popping sensation. Xolotl freezes. “This is bad,” he whispers against my mouth. “That’s one of my brothers, and they won’t be pleased to learn that I’ve retired for a human.”
“We can’t leave my family to deal with him.” I glance back at the house. “But maybe I should go alone. Will you be safe?”
“Not a chance.” Xolotl wraps one arm around me. “I’m not sure how they’ll react, and I’m not sending you. You’ll never sacrifice for me.”
I can’t help a tiny smile. “We’re about to meet the family—both sides—on a first date. My life is so strange.”
“A date?” He smiles. “A date.” He takes my hand, interlacing our fingers, and he starts jogging toward the house again. “If we survive this, I want a proper date. I think we should go on another walk.” He looks over his shoulder with a grin. “The same kind of walk, but without such a short time limit.”
“Agreed,” I say. “If we survive.”
He wraps me in bands of air then, and he flies us back to the house. He may not be a horseman anymore, but he’s at least as powerful as the horse shifters we know, and he’s had millennia to develop his use of these particular powers.
“So it’s true.” Short hair was my least favorite of all his brothers, so it would have to be him.
“Hey, Osiris,” Xolotl says.
“Don’t you think you should say Anubis now?” Dark energy crackles around the disgruntled horseman, and I wonder whether it was always there, but I couldn’t see it, or whether Xolotl’s demotion somehow powered his brother up.
“Oh, I think you’ll find not much has changed.” Xolotl lifts his chin.
“I see it, though.” Anubis steps closer. “The bright, shining ribbon inside of you is right there, pulsing in your soul.” He shakes his head. “You’re a bigger idiot than I realized. You gave up all this for a human?” He spreads his arms wide and dark energy crackles from one hand to the next. “Guess how I know?”
Xolotl tilts his head, looking extremely bored. “How?”
“I got a new power. Wanna see me use it?” Anubis turns toward me. “I can finally yank souls right out of bodies, just like you could.” He flicks his hand my direction, and just like that, I’m sailing out of my body, which has slumped to the ground behind me, and I’m headed for stupid Osiris.
