I shrugged. “Nothing amazing. Just creating new life from my fingertips.”
He cocked his head. “Testing your new goddess powers?”
“If a desperate need to garden arises, I’m your guy.” I glanced at the sky, at the shimmering blue shield above us. “Any news on the other horsemen?”
Adonis squinted in the bright sunlight. “We’ve received a message from Kratos. He wants to come speak to us.”
My shoulders tensed. “About what?”
“He wants to form an alliance. He wants his curse removed.”
“What’s going on with Johnny and Aereus?”
“Drakon located them. They’re both in Sadeckrav Castle. If I had to guess, they’re forming an alliance of their own, and they plan to kill us.”
I swallowed hard. “They still want to rule the earth as gods.”
“Can you imagine Aereus wanting anything else?”
“Conquest and Death against Famine and War. I like our odds.”
The red pendant at his neck glinted in the sunlight, and I reached over to touch it. “This is one of the flowers from Afeka, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s nearly as old as I am.”
“Why do you wear it?”
His expression darkened for just a moment, and he stared at the rushing water. Sparks of sunlight glinted off its surface. “I lived with my mother in Afeka when I was younger. She knew what I was—the horseman of death. But she thought she could keep me from my fate through love.”
“She sounds like an amazing mom.”
“She taught me to love living things. She taught me to identify plants, to grow flowers. She kept me away from humans, so I wouldn’t hurt them. We lived in isolation—near humans, but never among them. Then the fae came for me. They attacked everyone in the nearby city, burning, slaughtering until they got to us.”
He met my gaze, and my chest tightened at the raw pain glinting in his eyes.
“I fought them off,” he continued. “I killed most of them, trying to protect my mother. But they stabbed her in the side.” His voice sounded hollow. “She might have lived. If a real healer had been looking after her, she would have lived. But I tried healing her myself. I thought I could do it.”
I swallowed hard. “What happened?”
“Sometimes, if powerful emotions overcome me, I unleash death. I’ve changed, but…when I was young, I couldn’t control it. I pressed her side, trying to staunch the bleeding. She was telling me to run, I think. Her blood covered my fingers, staining the flowers around her. She kept saying I should run, but—I was fifteen and she was the only person I knew.” He didn’t meet my gaze, just stared at the red flowers around us. “It was just us. She was the only person I knew. Where was I supposed to run to?”
A lump rose in my throat. “I can’t imagine how scared you must have been.”
“I was trying to help her. I was thinking about living on my own—just living forever in isolation. Then I felt the wave of darkness roll off me—that sweet release that soothed my nerves, like a blanket of night, like dreams sweeping over the horizon.” His shoulders sagged, as if the weight of his unseen wings were dragging him to the earth. “I killed her. And everyone around us for miles. A vast landscape of death. That’s what I was created to do.”
I reached out, touching his arm. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Her blood spilled over the white flowers, staining them red. They’ve been that color since then.” He loosed a long, slow sigh. “I turned myself over to the fae who’d hunted me, the ones who served the Old Gods. I thought they could control me. Until one day, I realized I didn’t need them anymore. I’d learned to control myself. You cannot imagine how much I enjoyed killing those fae, though…” He touched his necklace. “I’ve always kept this with me, one of the flowers stained red.”
“It’s a reminder of your mother, but—it seems like some sort of penance. Like you feel guilty.”
“Of course I feel guilty. This is a reminder of why I needed to die. It’s why I belong in the underworld. I am Death incarnate, and the archangels should have never put me here.”
I slid my arm into the crook of his elbow. “But you are here, and I want you here. And you’ve changed. You’ve gained control over your power. We’re not just one thing, Adonis. You’re not just Death. Every one of us has many facets.”
He turned his head toward mine, his face so close that his breath warmed my skin.
When I met his gaze, I felt a jolt of electricity rush through me. “I want you to teach me about all the plants your mom taught you. And we can grow them all.”
“I can’t think of anything I’d like to do more.”
“What do you think will happen next?”
He plucked a red flower from the river bank and twirled it between his fingers. “We fight. And we rebuild.”