The snow was now ten inches thick, the cart struggling, horses neighing in disagreement of Vera’s orders to keep going.

  “Keep going stilly stallions!” she yelled. “Lakevalor has fire and carrots for you four cunts! Keep it steady!”

  Death opened his eyes to see Snow staring at him lovingly while rubbing his hair and face. He was comfy, so he didn’t complain. He rolled onto his side and tried to get more rest.

  “Onwards stallions!” Vera screamed. “Slower than a granny at an orgy, get fuckin’ moving!”

  Gods, that fox’s mindless screeching is going to push me to the edge of insanity. “Snow, do you think you could do us all a favour and stab that gremlin in the back of the neck?”

  “Huh, you talking ‘bout me?” Vera leaned to the back of the cart and flicked Death in the forehead. “I didn’t have to lead the charge of the horses, you dumb dummy, you should be thanking for me making these USELESS OVERSIZED RATS keep moving.”

  Snow giggled at Death’s sigh. He’s so exhausted from that fight with cambion, he’s adorable when he’s tired like this—I can’t wait for him to kill more so he can give me some powers, I want to fight with him and be his warrior wife!

  “Stupid fox, you have fleas under your armpits,” Death said with a yawn. “You stink of cheese.”

  “WHAT DID HE SAY TO ME?”

  “I think he thinks he’s still dreaming,” Snow said. “Isn’t he cute when he’s tired?”

  “Tell him to take it back!”

  Death snapped awake from the shouting. “Take what back, you horrid fox, can’t you stay silent for more than a second?”

  “You were talking in your sleep!” Vera exclaimed. “You don’t get to say anything me about staying silent, especially when I’m the gal sat in the cold while you get blankets!”

  “I am a conqueror; I do not talk in my sleep.” He sat straight by Snow. “How far are we from Lakevalor?”

  “Fuck you,” she snarled. “Fuckin’ conqueror… if you’re such a powerful man, use your special powers to figure it out.”

  “Do you find pleasure in insulting me constantly, fox? Is there a reason you enjoy it?”

  “You’re a power-draining previously all powerful big-dicked immortal, probably a god, fell from grace to such a low that not even the books mention you… I’m getting everything I can in before you get to a point you can erase my ass from existence just for blinking too slow… and I’m cold, okay? I don’t like the cold.”

  “You told the trader you like the cold,” Snow snickered.

  “I was lying to seem cool! It’s hard to seem cool when that man is my competition.”

  “That is fair, I will accept that,” Death said with a chuckle. “You may insult me as much as you wish, fox, it is entertaining.”

  Snow’s eyes showed pain and sadness, she frowned. “What’s wrong with you?” she squeaked. “You’re acting different, looking at me different, did I upset you? What did I do?”

  Death didn’t understand what she was on about.

  “You’re looking at me like I’m a stranger,” she said low. “Like you’re passing me on a path, never having to see me again.”

  “We are strangers, are we not?”

  “No.”

  “We have barely known each other for a week.”

  “And in that week, you know me more than anyone else has in my whole life, and I love you; I’ve eaten human flesh for you, killed for you, you told me I was enough.”

  “You are enough, Snow, my skull was cracked open not even a few hours ago, if I’m looking at you funny maybe it’s because that cambion soul didn’t heal me to me fully.”

  “It’s not that,” she grabbed Death’s face and looked into his eyes with a pout. “I have stared at you long enough to know you’re eyes are meeting mine more, with loving looks, not scornful.”

  Loving looks? I doubt that’s true, Death thought. “You are complaining about the lack of hate?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed. “It was attention, now you are looking at me like I’m not there, smiling at someone behind me.”

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  Someone behind you? In her eyes he saw the flash of the girl from his memories, the same feeling of ‘love’ spread across him like a heartbeat then faded away with his next breath.

  Snow saw it and got sadder. “I command you to tell me why you’re looking at me differently than you normally do!”

  “Oh no, mummy and daddy are fighting,” Vera joked.

  “I’m not looking at you differently,” he promised. “That woman entered my mind and made me see things that make me confused, I feel foggy, staring at you for too long makes me feel dizzy, as does staring at the ugly fox.”

  “I am not ugly!” she squealed. “Is he telling the truth? Does he think I’m ugly? Ask him, Snow, ask him!”

  Snow breathed a sigh of relief and tucker herself between his legs, cosying up to his neck, closing her eyes and covering herself with a blanket. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I command you to tell Vera whether you think she’s ugly or not, three worlds only, I don’t want to get jealous of you complimented other girls.”

  “You’re not ugly,” he forced.

  Vera was satisfied with this answer. “Y’know, if yer really thinkin’ we’re still just a couple of strangers, we could share some stuff about ourselves, what’d’ya say, hm? We pick some stuff to know about each other and we answer—I’ll go first, the way you fought that pink-skinned shit-sniffing brute was similar to how you brought down Quinn… except for the part where you nearly killed yourself by strangulation… doesn’t that get boring?”

  “Does what get boring?”

  “Using the same fighting style.”

  “I do not need to change my method if the method words, and besting my opponent is never boring.”

  “Cool,” Vera giggled. “Now you ask me something.”

  “There is nothing I want to know.”

  “Oh, c’mon, don’t be a platypus, ask some questions.”

  “I have one,” Snow whispered. “Why don’t you like having any friends, Death?”

  “I am a conqueror, I do not need friends.”

  “If you had friends when the scarred man and the succubus did what they did, they could’ve helped you.”

  Death refused to acknowledge that Snow had made a good point. He instead returned with a question of his own, asking about Snow’s family.

  “My family?” she squeaked. “Oh… well, uhm, my parents are dead—I don’t know who killed them, but it was murder, I saw their heads come off from the swing of a sword whilst I hid under a bed. I was six, the man was scary, wrinkly, I never saw his face again.”

  “Did you parents have bounties?” Vera asked.

  “No, but they were thieves, just like I am… I was taught young to be light with my hands, take just little things from a pocket, never anything more than bread, keys, little coins, nothing that was worth losing your head over.”

  “I’m certain people have been executed for less than stealing a crumb of bread,” Death said. “A stroke of bad luck.”

  “Bad luck,” Snow repeated with a giggle. “My parents die and you call it unlucky? You’re right, I guess, mhm, I miss them.”

  Vera’s voice boomed and ruined the sorrowful moment. “Well, my parents were killed by—”

  “We know,” Death interrupted. “You told us, fox.”

  “Hmph, no need to be so mean, trying to lighten the mood so your girlfriend doesn’t cry, it’ll make her little rosy cheeks cold.”

  Death wiped her tears with his thumb and the blanket. He was surprised that the action was instinctual for him.

  What am I doing, comforting a girl like this? I should be out in the cities slaughtering my enemies… but she does look cute from up here, I will admit it. No, that feeling from that memory is bleeding into me, these are not my true thoughts, I must resist.

  “Death?”

  “Yes, Snow?”

  “Do you think my parents are waiting for me in Heaven?”

  “No, Snow. Even if they were, there is no future where any of us were getting through the golden gates.”

  “So, they’re in Hell?”

  Death patted her on the head. “There is no Heaven, Snow, not anymore,” he explained. “Angels are extinct, they were righteous do-gooders with wings and spirit.”

  Vera was intrigued by the tale. “What?” she squawked. “But my mother told me the seraphim still roamed.”

  “She lied,” Death said drily. “A wasteland of angel corpses, that is what my mother told me, I have a memory of that.”

  Vera wasn’t convinced that Death’s mother told the truth, but he explained that it was common knowledge.

  “That’s why we see demons, but not angels,” Snow realised. “I feel sick… does that mean we all go to Hell? Do you think they’d go to Heaven if it was still there?”

  “I am not dead, Snow, I have no clue what happens when the darkness takes you. But, the people who raised you? Definitely no Heaven for them, straight to the deepest pits, boiling eternal in a nice bowl of soup for the tieflings.”

  “Hm… thank you,” Snow whispered.

  I have no idea what she is thanking me for.

  “For joking about it,” she continued, “and making me smile.”

  “I wasn’t joking.”

  “Yes you were.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because I commanded you to be nice to me when I first met you… it would be mean if you meant it.”

  “Oooo,” Vera laughed. “She’s got you cornered, mister god, you actually tried to be funny.”

  “Get in the back of the cart,” Death demanded.

  “Why? You want a threesome with your girlfriend and a fox?”

  Death took the ropes of the horses and threw into the back. “I will get us to Lakevalor,” he declared. “And when we get there, I know there will be answers waiting for me.”