The Phantom King (The Kings) by Heather Killough-Walden

remained there staring at her, unspeaking, unblinking, and unmoving.
    It was a millennium before he found himself leaning forward, his hands gripping the sides of the door, his entire body, spirit and mind wanting nothing more than to touch her, to infilt r ate her, and to be enveloped by her all at once.
    “It’s you,” he said, his voice sounding far off to his own ears. “You’re the one I’ve been…”
    Dreaming of.
    That’s what he’d almost said.
    But some wariness in the depths of her magnetic eyes had pulled him up short, and he’d swallowed the last of the sentence, holding it within himself as if to save it for a later date.
    Not yet , his mind had whispered. She’s not ready. Not yet .
    In a heartbeat, he changed directions. “You were the one I sensed on the Anime. It’s your power keeping him here, isn’t it?” It was true, at least. Not only was she the woman he’d been dreaming of, he recognized the signature of the aura around her as the same that had surrounded Lazarus just before his d isappearance. It was what had drawn him back to the house to begin with. He just didn’t know what it meant.
    Siobhan told him to leave, but he ignored the command. It was weakly issued and he knew she didn’t mean it. Not really. At least, he hoped she didn’t. Because there was no way in hell he could leave, especially not now.
    He looked deeper into her eyes , pushed harder past the barrier of her aura , and tried to rea d her with everything he had. As he did, he realized that she was a magic user. And not just any magic user , but a warlock .
    It was unexpected and peculiar. There was an incorruption about her, a purity and stainlessness that was not normally found with regards to warlocks. It was as if she’d possessed the ability to do great harm from the moment she’d been old enough to walk – and yet had never used it.
    The sparkles in the darkness , he realized. That was what had made her dark power so beautiful when it had surrounded Lazarus’ Anime. It glittered and shone like pixie dust – because it was not yet evil. Only dark. And there was not anything inherently wrong with that. After all, it was in purest darkness that one w as most able to see the stars .
    A warlock who did no harm. Such a thing was nearly unheard of. The strength it must have taken to come this far astounded him.
    But as he pondered this, as he took it all in, he felt the balance of life and death ripple elsewhere in the world . A car bomb had just taken twelve lives. Just like that, in the c ourse of a mere fraction of moments .
    The human race had no idea how prec ious life was. The very improbability of existence w as taken for granted, and yet a living creature was so rare, it was as the astronomer Carl Sagan had once spoken : “In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
    And just like that, Thanatos was needed elsewhere. Once more, the tug of time was growing too strong and he knew that his moments on this plane were limited. He had a job to get back to.
    “Please leave,” she repeated.
    But he couldn’t do that . Not without you , he thought.
    No , he corrected himself. His own mind was going rogue now it would seem. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he said aloud. Not without Steven Lazarus .
    Two things occurred to Thane just then. One, if Lazarus had returned here in order to protect this woman, then probably the best way to draw the ghost out wa s to threaten her in some manner . And two, if Lazarus had returned here in order to protect Siobhan , he must have cared for her. There were no rings on her fingers, and no shadow or dent that would have indicated she’d ever worn one. So she’d never been married. Steven Lazarus must have been a boyfriend.
    Thanatos very sternly decided to let the second observation go in favor of concentrating on the first. He hadn’t the time to deal with the anger the other evoked.
    Siobhan’s reaction to his words should have been expected. She