Styx (The Four Book 1)

by Layla Frost

  “Not Lula.” Loyalty and love were fierce in her eyes. “She’d never.” She glanced down. “But maybe it’d be best if we talked alone first. If it’s going to be upsetting, you’ll have your hands full with me. I don’t think even you could handle Lula and me,” she held up her glass, “and booze.”

  “Okay, my love.”

  Smiling, she moved away. “Let’s get to work.”

  I looked around the table. “What’re you doing?”

  Lula seemed to be in shock as she stared at Denny for a long moment. Giving herself a little shake, she returned her focus to unboxing the items. “Wedding favors.”

  Denny held up a small teal bag with a patch on the front. “We’re making little hangover kits to pass out to guests at Lula and Chase’s wedding. Pain meds, antacids, mints, and a coupon for a greasy breakfast at a diner near the wedding hall go into little pouches that’ll be hung around a bottle of water.”

  “And we have to assemble these photo booth props,” Lula added, looking a little panicked as she moved a stack of paper cutouts and the flat wooden sticks to the side. “Why did I decide against Vegas?”

  “Both families threatened to riot.”

  “Oh, that’s right. My mom would climb into bed and refuse to get out until we agreed to a real wedding. Or until I was pregnant.” She lifted her glass. “Honeymooning in Paris means the only pregnancy I’ll have is a food baby.”

  “Don’t tell your mom that,” Denny said. “She’ll start emailing you baby pictures and articles about the best positions to conceive in.”

  “And hunting through my stuff to discard any birth control.”

  I made a note to discuss that topic with Denny.

  She sat across the table from me, giving me a small smile. “You can go watch TV if you want.”

  I shook my head. Wedding favors were of little interest to me.

  But Denny was.

  Lula sat at the end of the table, and the two of them got to work. Their banter was easy and funny, bouncing from topic to topic.

  I leaned back to soak it all in, my leg stretched between Denny’s. Every once in a while, she’d glance at me, her smile small and secret as her foot rubbed against mine or traveled up my leg.

  The small touches were enough to make me painfully hard. I wondered how long it would be before I could take her again. Since her glances were growing heated and her touches more frequent, I knew she wondered the same.

  A short time later, Denny looked around the table before moving things. “Crap, I forgot my hot glue gun.”

  “Yes, as did I.” Lula nodded. “I forgot to be the kind of adult who has a hot glue gun.”

  Denny laughed as she left the room.

  “So,” Lula drawled, setting her supplies down, “I’d never hurt Denny. There’s literally not one thing she could tell me that would change that.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. My approval of their friendship wasn’t needed. If anything, I wondered how much Lula’s opinion of me mattered to Denny since their relationship had almost twenty years on ours.

  “Denny hates secrets. Hates them,” she emphasized. “Don’t keep any under the misguided notion you’re protecting her. It’s the quickest way to lose her.”

  “I know.”

  “Good.” She refilled their glasses. “That’s all I offer in advice. I’m not one to threaten bodily harm if you hurt my best friend—she’s more than capable of exacting her own revenge.”

  The thought of hurting Denny was enough to cause an ache in my chest.

  Lula looked at me, solemn and sincere. “All this is crazy. That means that whatever you haven’t told her must be extra batshit crazy. When you tell her, if she decides to tell me, you don’t have to worry. I’d never hurt her.”

  “My real name is Thanatos.”

  She blinked, no flicker of recognition or understanding.

  No one studies mythology anymore. The classics… A shame.

  “I’m Death,” I elaborated.

  Her eyes went wide, her mouth opening and closing.

  “Found it,” Denny sing-songed, coming into the room before suddenly stopping. “What’s wrong?”

  Shaking her head, Lula said, “Nothing. He’s Death. I’m assuming he’s not meaning that metaphorically, which is cool. Totally cool.”

  Maybe I should’ve had a paper bag on hand.

  Denny’s eyes went huge, her gaze meeting mine. “You told her?”

  Or two paper bags.

  I shrugged. “I’d assumed you were going to.”

  “Yes, of course. Once we were alone. And drunk. And after I’d figured out a way to ease into the conversation.”

  Lula started giggling before it turned into a gasping belly laugh. Pushing through her laughter, she wheezed, “‘Knock, knock. Who’s there? Death, and I’m sleeping with him.’”

  “Hey, a rousing game of Twenty Questions was also an option.”

  They both burst into a fresh round of giggles until Lula began coughing.

  I stood and got her a glass of water.

  “Okay, okay,” she said, inhaling without further issue. “So you’re really Death? Like scythe, cloak, ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper,’ all that?”

  “He prefers a hoodie,” Denny put in.

  “Oh. How modern and fashionable.”

  Leaning against the counter, I settled in, crossing my arms. Waiting.

  It didn’t take long.

  Lula let loose with rapid-fire questions. “How old are you? Like, beginning-of-time old? You aged well, so if you have a skin care routine, please share. And why are you here? Is someone about to get ganked? Should we salt and burn the bones? Oh, and if we do, are we supposed to use the salt we use on driveways in the winter or is the regular table stuff fine?” She gave another hysterical burst of laughter. “This is crazy.”

  “And this is my life,” Denny said, though she didn’t look upset by that fact.

  Thank fuck.

  “I bet the UFO isn’t seeming so farfetched, huh?” Lula looked at me. “Are aliens real? Do you do your deathy business on them, too? And who cursed you to this house?”

  I looked at Denny, her expression just as curious as her friend. Though we’d decided to talk about things related to her in private, I didn’t mind sharing my own story. I’d have to word it carefully, avoiding certain parts, but it was a good way to gauge Lula’s reaction. If she flipped out, it was better she did it about me and not Denny.

  “I’m a little more than a thousand years old,” I said.

  Denny lifted her glass in a toast. “And you don’t look a day over eight hundred.”

  I winked at her, loving the way her eyes flared and her cheeks grew pink.

  “Shh.” Lula swatted at her. “I want to hear this. Does that mean humans have only been around for a thousand years?”

  “Short version—”

  “No.” Denny shook her head. “Long version. Story time while we work on putting a billion of these things together.”

  The long version would likely take a couple weeks, but I did my best to sum it up. “Humans have been around longer than I have. In the beginning, they had a short life and died, nearly all of them going to a pleasant afterlife.”

  “Horrible harp music and shapeless white robes?” Lula asked.

  I shook my head. “Individually tailored versions of a utopian afterlife.”

  Denny’s brows shot up, her mouth dropping open.

  I want to feel those lips around my cock while I bury my face between her thighs to lick at her sweet wetness.

  My cock hardened, stretching painfully along my thigh. Turning as if to get water, I adjusted so it curved across my pelvis, though it was only slightly less painful.

  Only Denny could ease the ache.

  Putting my hands in my hoodie pocket so it was covered, I turned back and leaned against the counter. “Time passed, man evolved, and my siblings and I were needed.”

  “Siblings?”

  “Three of them.”

/>   “The Four Horsemen,” she whispered, connecting the dots. “Does this mean the apocalypse is coming?”

  “Oh, fuck.” Lula looked at Denny, panic paling her face. “Remember in high school when we said that if we ever settled down and got married, it would be a sign of the apocalypse? I’m getting married. This is all my fault!”

  Even Denny looked freaked, her eyes shooting to mine for reassurance.

  “No apocalypse. Ever. Not part of the plan,” I said.

  “But you and your siblings are the Four Horsemen.”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Helpful,” Lula muttered.

  “We were created to help, not to destroy. Working with…” I stopped suddenly, almost giving away too much. I ran my hand through my hair. “Fuck, this is hard to explain.”

  Denny shot me a sexy smirk. “Yeah, more than a thousand years is probably hard to sum up in ten minutes. Maybe if you had a PowerPoint and some handouts.”

  “Probably doesn’t help that we keep interrupting every thirty seconds,” Lula added. “And we’re supposed to be working as he talks.”

  “Oops.”

  Waiting until they resumed packing the bags, I tried again. “As humans evolved, so did evil. People used black magicks to steal souls that were supposed to go to the afterlife. Others used magicks to prevent their own death. When someone is supposed to die, their soul knows it. So while their spell may keep their physical body alive, their soul fades, eventually disappearing. And a soulless person?” I shook my head. “There is bad, and then there is true evil. Soulless, black-pitted evil with no hint of remorse or conscience.”

  “Are you okay?” I heard from beside me.

  Startled, I looked to see Denny standing close. Her hand covered mine where I’d been absentmindedly rubbing my chest.

  Rubbing where my soul had been.

  “I’m fine, my little hellion.” I leaned down to kiss her. When she still didn’t step away, I offered her a smile. “You taste like sweet pineapple.”

  My evasion didn’t fool her, but she let it go and returned to her seat, her face lined with worry.

  Dropping my hand, I tried to find my place in the exceptionally long timeline. “Along with the maliciously stolen souls, there were ones who just simply got lost. As the population rose, that number did, too. Souls aren’t meant to roam. They become angry and vengeful.”

  “Without you for the last three hundred years, does that mean we’re surrounded by pissed off ghosts?” Denny asked, a chill running through her.

  Lula’s eyes darted around as she leaned closer to Denny.

  “There are some.” At their panicked expression, I rushed to clarify. “Not in this house. But in the world, there are trapped souls.” I rubbed my bearded chin. “But not as many as I’d expect.”

  “Maybe they’ve found a new system, or…” Denny hesitated before finishing gently, “they’ve replaced you.”

  I shook my head. “I’d know. My powers would be gone, transferred to the new Death.”

  The absence of morbid responsibility and endless blame was a nice thought. I could be human, have babies, grow old.

  I could live the kind of burden-free life I’d seen countless others squander, unaware of the gift they had.

  But that burden was worth it because it was accompanied by the one benefit that mattered.

  The only thing that made my entire existence mean anything.

  “Are they just letting the souls die off?” Lula asked.

  I shook my head. “They wouldn’t. When just a few souls were lost, it had been a crisis. All factions of the afterlife came together to decide how to deal with the situation. That’s when my siblings and I were created. Put on Earth to help stop the human race from imploding.”

  From rumors and retellings, each faction had their own self-serving solutions, and they’d refused to compromise or entertain other ones. When the devil pitched his idea during a raging kegger, his solution had been chosen.

  I kept that detail to myself.

  “Does that mean with you back, senseless deaths will stop?” Denny looked so hopeful at the thought.

  “Not all of them, no. Free will was promised, and we’re forbidden from tampering with it.”

  “Then why didn’t you get in trouble for messing with my dates?”

  Shrugging, I ignored the jealousy that burned in my veins. “If I had to guess, I would say because it was you. What I did had little to no effect on the future.”

  “What do you mean because it was me?” Her lips tipped down. “Would it have mattered if it were some other woman?”

  “Yes,” I said simply.

  “Why?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  She harrumphed, muttering something under her breath. “All this doesn’t explain how you ended up a stuck specter.”

  Anger and betrayal seared through me. “Because human souls were given free will, we couldn’t get involved in their natural evil—no matter how widespread. When the evil involved magicks, however, we were supposed to intercede. Drawing on that kind of otherworldly power nulled their eternal contract.”

  “Okay, following so far.”

  “When something bad happens, it’s human nature to find a reason. And, if necessary, a scapegoat. The gods, my siblings, and I often took the blame—good or bad. We were the answer to the unknown and the cause of the unfortunate.”

  Every representation of The Four was that of evil and chaos. We were the bringers of the end. Murder, mass destruction, illness, and starvation…

  What we were created to prevent was exactly what we were blamed for.

  “In the late 1600s,” I said, “I was brought here because the town had found someone new to blame.”

  “The witches,” Denny surmised.

  “Yes. It was… Gods, it was an atrocity. The official death count is much lower than the real one. Mobs went around a legal system that willfully turned a blind eye. They carried out executions with no trials. Hate and fear powered the community. Accusations became the way to deal with disputes. And it all stemmed from Absolve.”

  “From huh-what-now?”

  “A secret sect of men who were bent on ridding the world of anything supernatural. They used fear and intimidation to increase their numbers, brutally killing anyone who questioned them or their motives. The nobodies in the organization were easy to find. But the powerful ones who whispered sinister claims and ordered heinous torture were protected by the very magicks they claimed to despise.”

  “How did you know?”

  “When a soul leaves a body, it’s a gentle separation. A clean cut. When it’s stolen, it’s ripped and jagged. Each of their victims had their souls violently torn from them.”

  Their favor packing forgotten, Denny and Lula sat with their eyes glued to me, riveted by the grim history lesson. I paused and dipped my head to the table. They resumed their work, but at a slower pace than before.

  “Why couldn’t you use hocus-pocus to find the bad guy?” Denny asked.

  “In order to protect those who possess it, magicks is nearly untraceable unless there’s a shared bond. Just reading magicks is a nearly unheard-of gift,” I shared.

  “So, when Juno saw your magicks on me…”

  I hesitated, weighing my words. “I told you she was powerful.”

  “Okay, I know I said I was excited to meet her,” Lula whispered to Denny, “but now I’m thinking maybe not. What if I say the wrong thing, and she turns me into a toad?”

  Denny smiled, patting her hand. “I’ll get her to change Chase, too, and then I’ll keep you both in a large tank.”

  “See? That’s what best friends do.”

  Turning back to me, Denny asked, “Can you read magicks?”

  “I can. And even though my gift comes from the gods themselves, the universe relies on balance. For every bit of good magicks, there’s an equal amount of dark. And they were harnessing it, hiding behind it where even I couldn’t find them.” Fury filled me, my
muscles tightening painfully until my bones hurt. “But then I thought I had. Each clue pointed to one man, so I sent for my siblings. It was a trap. A setup. My friend,” I sneered, “the one person I allowed myself to trust, was part of Absolve. Their second-in-command.”

  Denny’s eyes closed, my pain mirrored on her face. “I’m so sorry, baby,” she whispered so quietly I shouldn’t have been able to hear. But I could, and her words and emotion wrapped themselves around me.

  “We found out the witch trials were just that. A trial. An experiment to see how fast the hysteria caught on.” My hollow chest panged. “To discover how many lives and souls they could destroy.”

  So many souls had been lost.

  The stolen ones.

  The blackened ones that’d belonged to the accusers and participators.

  And the darkened ones of those who’d sat idly by—not participating but also doing nothing to stop it.

  Denny got up and moved into my space. The front of her body pushed against my side, and her hand came to rest on my chest, easing the pain that tore at me. Remaining silent, her head tilted up as she waited for me to continue.

  I wrapped my arm around her waist, sliding my hand under her shirt so I could feel her skin against mine. She shivered at my touch, but she didn’t move away.

  She leaned closer.

  Inhaling her scent, I resumed my twisted tale. “Absolve fueled a fire that was already there—is still here. People allow fear, prejudice, greed, envy, and whatever else to dictate their lives. One whisper that someone is different is all it takes for humans to turn on each other. To destroy each other. The way suspicion and hatred spread like wildfire through Salem showed Absolve they could move to a new town and do it again. And again. And again.”

  “Don’t take this wrong,” Lula said after a moment, her eyes scanning me in an observational way. “On your own, you’ve got to be more powerful than most everyone else, right?”