Path of the Horseman (29 page)

Orcus was a strong, powerful animal with a
smooth, sickly pale coat. Both his mane and tail were thin and
ghostly, almost like they were invisible. Seeing Logan’s Horse sent
a pang of heartache through me. It had been too long since I’d seen
Bacillus, and seeing Orcus reminded me of how much I missed
him.

Looking away from the animal, I focused on my
brother, who was still waiting for me to say something. I still
couldn’t think of anything. My eyes dropped back to the cigarette
dangling from his fingertips.

“You’re smoking,” I blurted.

Logan glanced at the cigarette and shrugged.
“I collected them while we were turning the world on its head. Kind
of like mementos. I had nothing else to do, so I started the habit.
It’s not like it’s going to hurt me.”

A laugh sputtered out of my mouth. Logan’s
sense of humor was drier than the sand I was standing on. I hadn’t
realized how much I’d missed it.

Twigs and branches snapped behind me, Maddy
and Simon finally stumbling through. Logan studied the human girl
with slow motions. She shifted on her feet then looked at me,
waiting for someone to tell her what was going on, and why this man
had stunned both me and my brother into silence. Logan just stared
at us and smoked.

“Holy shit, Logan?” Simon finally said. “What
are you doing here?”

“Getting lectured by Avery about my latest
bad habit.” Logan stood up slowly, rising and literally towering
over us. “If anyone should be asking your question, Simon, it’s me.
I was hoping my wall would be a deterrent to everyone, including
you two.”

“Wait, you made that?” Maddy asked. Logan
looked down at her. “How?”

He blinked, then turned his pitch black eyes
on me.

“She knows,” I admitted.

Logan sighed. “I was wondering how long it
would take for our secret to get out.”

“Hang on, you’re the fourth brother?” Maddy
began to piece it together. “Then that would make you…” Her eyes
bulged. “Oh my God.”

Maddy stepped back, wanting to create as much
distance between her and Logan as possible.

“You can relax, Madeline Armstrong. It’s not
your time.”

“Then how do you know my name?”

“You’re human, and unfortunately that puts
you on my list. But you still have time.” Logan’s eyes turned
distant. “Others will die before you.”

Obviously not reassured, Maddy slid closer to
me. Logan made her so nervous that she actually grabbed my hand. I
wasn’t sure why she’d be so scared of Logan when Kade was an actual
animal, but then I considered what meeting my oldest brother meant
for a human being.

While Kade was a monster, he was predictable.
If you got to know him well enough, you would know how far you’d be
able to push him. It was a terrible idea, but you would see the
signs. Logan couldn’t be anticipated. Only he knew when and where
he was supposed to show up, and he never gave any hints. If you
were on his list, you stayed there until the circumstances fell
into place and he put his bare hand on your shoulder. Even when you
were dying slowly and agonizingly, there was no way to predict when
Logan would appear. He did things at his own, controlled pace, and
nobody but him would ever know his agenda.

“Way to fill us all with confidence, Logan,”
I said to ease the tension, though my hand never left Maddy’s.

Logan glowered at me. “You sent millions of
dead to me and destroyed my solitude. Forgive me for hurting your
feelings.”

The problem with Logan’s sense of “humor” was
that I could never tell when he was being serious, or when he was
fucking around. I didn’t think Logan would hurt me until it was my
time to die, but a man that can kill with a single touch is not a
man anyone should aggravate. Logan followed his agenda to the
letter, but he had no problem fast tracking certain people to the
grave.

“You don’t seem surprised to see a human with
us,” Simon pointed out.

Logan glanced at Maddy again. She twitched,
but when I squeezed her hand, she began to relax.

“I’m not. I knew there were more of them out
there. But I didn’t want to say anything to the three of you.”

“Why not?” I asked, trying not to sound too
demanding.

Logan stared at us blankly. “Because I hate
my job.”

We all fell silent. Not even Maddy, who must
have been confused beyond belief, laughed. Of the four of us, Kade
was the only one that I knew didn’t regret his actions. Simon might
have moped and complained, but deep down, he cared. He wouldn’t be
here with me if he didn’t.

“Why did you build the wall?” I asked.

Logan glanced at it and took another smoke
from his cigarette, which was past the halfway point now. “I needed
a way to pass the time, and saw the brush was dying. I tried to
make it grow, but,” he snickered, but wasn’t smiling, “I guess my
gardening skills have been left wanting.”

“You were trying to bring it back to life?”
Maddy asked quietly.

“In a manner,” replied my brother. “I wanted
it to stay alive. Every time I found a dying cell, I tried to
reverse the decay. It was an experiment, something I was willing to
try on a living person if it worked. But it’s clear that I can’t
achieve my goal.”

“But you made the brush bigger than it should
have been,” Maddy pointed out. “That has to account for
something.”

Logan stared at her without emotion. “I made
it grow, because I filled it with death. The living cells grew and
tried to escape me, but they couldn’t. Nothing ever does.”

Maddy winced and pressed herself closer to
me. Logan looked at the two of us, his expression unreadable.

“Good, then you can help us,” I stated.
“We’re trying to stop Ciaran. He has some kind of plan involving us
and the humans that are supposed to be in a campground here. The
same ones Kade wants to kidnap.”

Logan finally expressed a readable emotion:
puzzlement.

“Ciaran’s motives I can understand, but why
does Kade want humans?”

“He’s made himself Emperor of Las Vegas,”
answered Simon.

Logan sniggered, waiting for the punch line.
He blinked when there wasn’t one. “Really?” We nodded. Logan
sighed. “Kade’s ambitions always were through the roof.”

“Do you know where the haven is?” Maddy
asked.

He took his time answering. “Yes. I have a
radio that played the same lie you probably heard.”

Maddy blinked. “Lie? What do you mean?”

“That message? The one about food, shelter,
protection? None of it is true.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve seen it.”

Maddy let go of my hand and walked up to
Logan, all her fear seeming to disappear. She had to crane her neck
to see him properly.

“You need to take us there.”

“Did you not hear what I just said? There is
no haven. You don’t want to see what happens there.”

“Yes I do, and I’m going with or without your
permission.”

Logan tilted his head, scrutinizing Maddy
again. Something like amusement passed over his face, gone before I
could be sure that’s what it was. I took a step forward.

“We came all the way here, after pissing off
Kade,” I said. “We might as well see what’s going on before going
back and dealing with him.”

My brother read my eyes, knowing he could
change my mind about as much as he could Maddy’s. Simon let out an
exaggerated sigh and stood behind us. “As insane as this whole trip
is, I’m with them. I didn’t steal a car and drive them out here for
nothing.”

Logan could say no. He had no obligation to
his two younger brothers, let alone a human. If he wanted to go
back into the red brick cabin behind him and spend the rest of his
days trying to save a dying bush, none of us could stop him.

Logan exhaled the last of his cigarette,
dropping the stub onto the sand and snuffing it out with his boot.
“All right,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Simon, help me
for a minute.”

He turned around and started walking for the
cabin, which looked like it belonged in the Stone Age now that I
was analyzing it. Logan moved past Orcus, smoothing a gloved hand
along the Horse’s strong neck. The animal huffed and turned to
follow his master. Simon sighed and trudged after his brother.

“I really didn’t think we’d see him again,” I
muttered.

“Can we trust him?” Maddy asked.

“Yeah,” I told her. “Logan’s not a liar and
he doesn’t have any hidden schemes. What you see is what you get
with him.”

Maddy nodded slowly, then closed her eyes for
a long time. She blinked rapidly and shook her head.

“You sure you don’t want to stay here and
sleep?” Maddy looked at me. “You’d be safe, and we wouldn’t be gone
very long.”

She narrowed her eyes and pouted. “And give
up my chance to see what this haven is like? No way. I’ll be
fine.”

“You’re asleep on your feet. You’ll start
hallucinating soon.”

Maddy crossed her arms and glared. “If you
have any ideas, please share it.”

I looked in her eyes, then asked her the
most dangerous question I could ever ask.

“Do you trust me?”

Her lips parted as she thought about my
question. After learning the truth about me, Maddy had no reason to
trust me ever again. I’d helped her as often as I could, but I was
still a monster and a genocidal killer. After our moment on the
hill, she might have softened her animosity toward me, but that
didn’t mean she trusted me.

“Yes.”

How about that? More miracles.

I faced Maddy directly and held out my hands.
She eyed them nervously.

“I use my power by directly affecting the
human body,” I explained. “I know how to manipulate every cell
inside you.”

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Not
really filling me with confidence here, Avery.” Her uncomfortable
smile proved that.

“What I’m trying to say is that when I touch
you, I’m going to fiddle with your brain so it will keep you awake.
I’ll boost your energy levels and make your stomach think it’s
full. The effects should last at least a few hours. It’s not going
to hurt, I promise.”

Maddy looked at my hands skeptically, then
raised her eyes to mine. She read me carefully, and slowly
relaxed.

“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s give it a
shot.”

Nodding once, I lifted my hands and pressed
each palm against Maddy’s temples. She only went stiff for a moment
when she saw the black smoke rising from my skin, but looking in my
eyes seemed to calm her nerves.

My power slipped into her skin, and she
frowned at the alien sensation. I knew I wasn’t hurting her,
because I was avoiding as many pain receptors as I could. Still,
she probably felt a weird tingling in her head. I worked quickly,
finding the neurotransmitters at the base of her brain and tweaking
them so they remained active. Maddy’s eyes widened almost
instantly.

Still keeping my hands on the sides of her
head, my smoke trailed around her brain until it found her
hypothalamus. I worked with the signals it was sending out,
tricking her brain into thinking her stomach was full rather than
empty. Then I decided to give Maddy just a little bit more.

While her alertness and hunger were dealt
with, it was an illusion. Maddy would still need sleep and food as
soon as she could get them. The more exertion she used, the faster
she would tear the façade down. So I strengthened her muscles. I
didn’t make her She-Hulk, but with a stronger body, Maddy would be
able to face any trials ahead at nearly full capacity.

Satisfied with my work, I let the smoke slip
back into my skin. Maddy blinked, looking around with a rejuvenated
clarity in her eyes. Her smile widened when she looked at me.

“Wow,” she breathed. “Is it weird that I kind
of liked that?”

I chuckled. “No, but don’t get used to it.
Next time I’ll ask for cash.”

Maddy pouted and crossed her arms, but her
eyes glittered like sapphires. “Boo. You’re no fun.”

I laughed again, and noticed that my fingers
were still threaded in her hair, and she wasn’t asking me to take
them back. I twirled the soft strands between my fingertips, loving
how healthy and soft it was. Taking a risk, I drew my hand back
until it rested on her neck. Maddy still didn’t tell me to stop. If
anything, she seemed expectant. I rubbed my thumb along the curve
of her neck, feeling her pulse pound with fresh adrenaline.

My own pulse was hammering, racing with my
desire to be consumed by Maddy. She made me forget all the things I
had done, and pushed me to become more than what I was. She had no
idea how much she’d done for me, though I wondered if that had
changed. I started leaning down toward her face, wanting to let her
know–

“Are you kidding?”

I jerked away from Maddy, taking my hand back
to my side. I glared at Simon, who fucked up the moment yet again.
I wished he could read my mind, so I could tell him what I thought
about cock-blockers.