her steps growing more cautious.
He softened his steps too, keeping the noise he made as he moved down to a minimum, in case the beast had good hearing and was hungry. They walked in silence for at least another mile, during which he didn’t hear the creature again. Maybe it had moved in the other direction from them.
Calindria relaxed too.
Promptly stumbled on another root.
Thanatos reached for her, but she found her footing and scurried away from him, placing more distance between them.
“When was the last time you slept?” He averted his gaze as she stopped and bent forwards to remove something from her foot, flashing more than was decent at him. It was hard enough to keep his eyes off her curves as it was. He was constantly aware of how little she wore, and how creamy her skin was now she had bathed. “You need to sleep.”
“I can’t.” She stomped ahead of him, but was careful whenever she encountered an obstacle.
Didn’t want to fall and give him more ammunition in their argument?
“You are tired and you need to sleep, Calindria.” He gave up being soft with her, put bite into his tone that revealed the irritation that was mounting inside him, sure that if she heard it, she might see sense.
She turned on him, a desperate and wild look in her eyes that he hadn’t been expecting. “I won’t sleep!”
He let her storm off ahead of him. That was more like it. She could sleep if she wanted, but she couldn’t because she would leave herself vulnerable and she didn’t trust him. For a moment, he had thought she trusted him now, knew he would keep her safe if she let her guard down, would watch over her and protect her. He couldn’t blame her for being cautious, even though it was a little insulting. He had done nothing to hurt her, had done his best not to frighten her, and to show her that he was there to help her.
“Tell me more about your power.” She didn’t look back at him.
He strode after her. “Why?”
She glanced at him now, slowed her pace a little when she saw the distance yawning between them. “Because I want to know more about my own power. Perhaps I can learn about it from you.”
He wasn’t sure she could, but he could see she needed to take her mind off sleeping, was determined not to succumb to it.
“I govern the veil… a realm that exists between the last breath and Hades receiving a soul for judgement.” He stepped over a root, keeping his eyes on the ground as he thought about how best to explain what he did. “When someone’s allotted time ends, I am the one who severs their body from their soul, and I usher the soul on to your father.”
“Sounds very laborious.” She stopped in front of two trees that had twined together and banked right, going around them. “How do you find the time? Death strikes countless times per second, surely?”
Death strikes? He was death.
“Most of it is… automatic… is probably the best word.” He shrugged when she looked at him in a way that said it wasn’t a good enough explanation. “Your father does not judge every soul that comes to him. Much of it is done by the will of his power, by him simply existing. Only special cases require my actual intervention.”
She huffed. “That does not give me any insight into my power at all. What other powers do you have? Can you… Does your touch hurt others as mine does?”
He shook his head, realised she wouldn’t see it, and said, “No. I can touch and be touched without harming others. I cannot bring death in the manner you do… not outside the veil.”
She paused and twisted to face him, a glimmer of curiosity lighting her eyes. “And inside the veil?”
He pondered that. “Within the veil, my power is absolute. I can kill with a touch if I will it. I can kill with only a thought.”
It was the reason the veil existed in the first place. Everything outside it was safe from any stray thought he might have. Without the veil, everyone who irritated him would drop dead and he would be unstoppable.
The most powerful god in existence.
“What’s the veil like?” She looked even more curious now.
“If you rest for a while, I will build a fire for you and will tell you all about it.” He almost smiled when her face darkened, that mulish