Page 200 of Famine

Chapter 52

Ana

Death lives.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

My pulse is pounding between my ears, and at the back of my throat I can taste the acrid tang of bile.

“Death?” I echo. “As in … your brother?”

He doesn’t even need to answer. There’s no misinterpreting the Reaper’s words.

Just the thought of the fourth horseman has my skin turning clammy. Death doesn’t seem like a lenient horseman.

“But … I thought that you said …” Famine said he was relinquishing his purpose.

Like Pestilence and War.

Oh God.

The Reaper lifts a hand, hovering it over the ground. From the earth a wispy stalk rises. Within seconds, a small bud forms at its tip. It bursts open, a delicate white flower unfurling.

“I didn’t lose my power,” the horseman murmurs.

“Were you supposed to?” What is going on?

When I first noticed the unnatural storm brewing above us, I came out here wanting to know what pissed the horseman off. But he didn’t look angry then so much as agonized, and if what he’s shared so far is any indication, he was trying to give up his task. Presumably for me.

“Why would you do that?” I ask before he can answer my previous question. “You don’t need to be mortal for me. You hate being mortal.”

His gaze meets mine. “Not anymore. Not with you,” he says.

I take all of him in, rain still pelting the two of us. He’s wearing his armor and his scythe and scales are at his side.

“But it doesn’t matter,” he says. “It didn’t work.”

“It didn’t work?” I echo. “Should it have?”

Famine pushes himself off the ground, the plant slipping off of his forearm. He gives me a strange, intense look.

The Reaper closes the distance between us and cups my face, pinning my hair to my cheeks.

“He’s coming here.”

“Who?” I ask, my heart galloping away.

But I know. I know.

I search the horseman’s face.Tell me everything is okay, I will him.Tell me the world is not about to end.

Famine’s gaze is fierce. “There’s something I need to show you.”

He’s still not acting right.

Famine drops his hands from my face, then moves away to grab his scales. After he scoops them up, he takes my hand, leading me back towards our house.

“Death is awake, and he’s coming here.”

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