Apocalypse's Horsemen (Devil's Assistant Series - Book 3)

Apocalypse's Horsemen [18]

Chapter Eighteen

I was no stranger to terror. I had felt it many times in my rather short life but as I stood face to face with Death and Famine, it wrapped its arms around me like an old friend. My feet could have been superglued to the floor and I wouldn’t have noticed as every part of my body froze. Even my heart skipped a beat as I looked into those eyes.

With a gulp, I tried to take a step away from the beings with so much death and madness in their eyes only to find myself pinned in place by a glare from Death himself.

“Come now Miss Holmes,” he spoke softly, his lips turned up in a poor attempt at a smile while he held his hand out to me. I eyed the offer of cordiality as if it harboured some deadly disease. “Stop being so rude, it is unbecoming on you. Take a seat and enjoy the festivities – the party is about to start.”

His brother cackled merrily as he danced from foot to foot before slamming his foot into Castiel’s limp form.

“Stop it!” The words escaped my lips before I could stop them drawing a smile from both horsemen. They knew my weakness.

Even as dread knotted in my stomach I couldn’t find it in me to care. My eyes were firmly trained on Castiel. A vice gripped around my heart as I stared at the fallen angel. I feared in that second that he was too far gone. I feared that he would not be coming back to us for he did not flinch. He did not groan. He did not show any signs that someone had just kicked him while he lay there helpless. He just remained there on the floor. Still. He was too still.

“Please don’t be dead Cass.” I murmured under my breath watching the smallest rise and fall of his chest. “We need you.” 

From my limited experience in the supernatural world, I knew that angels, demons and even the fallen could be killed. I just didn’t know all the ways that they could die. Would these wounds snuff out Castiel’s life force? What even happened to an angel when they died – especially a fallen one?

I shook my head and was forced to clench my jaw as death prodded his own booted foot into a particularly deep welt on Castiel’s back, his eyes watching me intently as he groan the toe of his shoe in deeper and deeper. It was only my sheer strength of will that stopped me from reacting the Horseman’s baiting.

When I gave no reaction, Death sighed and took a seat upon the throne of bones, his features shifting as he did so. I sucked in a sharp breath. I felt for the first time that I was seeing the truth behind the human mask. He leant back on the bones of dead while I stared on in horror. Is eyes were cold, lifeless and yet there was knowledge held within those dark orbs. There was too much knowledge.

Those eyes had seen worlds ending and new ones beginning. With certainty, as I stared at Death and understood that out of all of the horsemen, this one being  alone had enough power to end the world. He did not need his brothers to help him.

“Stop thinking so hard Miss Holmes. It won’t do you any good. Besides, you are painfully transparent which is ruining all of my fun.” Death tapped his fingers on the white skullcap of one of Famine’s victims. “You do know that your end is coming tonight?”

His eyes watched my every move, a sparkle lingering in his eyes as he waited like a cobra waiting to strike. I pressed my lips together and looked away from Death and stared at my injured friend instead.

“Of course, you were supposed to live until you were eighty five in your original plan. But then He and his children interfered and messed with my original design. So what’s one more change?”

I could feel his eyes staring into the side of my face as he spoke but I refused to give in. It didn’t feel real. How could any sane person process that they were in the same room as death talking about their own mortality like it was the weather.