Page 213 of Famine

My gaze moves to Thanatos. I close my eyes and swallow.

“Alright, brother. You win—I accept. Just bring her back.”

Chapter 55

Ana

I gasp in air, my eyelids fluttering open.

Famine stares down at me, my body cradled in his arms. As soon as he sees me awake, he pulls me into a tight hug, crushing me against his armor.

Of their own accord, my fingers thread themselves into the horseman’s hair, holding him to me.

“What … ?”What happened to me?

“I’m sorry,” the Reaper whispers, his voice broken.

“Sorry?” I say, confused.

My mind is groggy. There’s a metallic taste at the back of my throat, and I have this deep-seated and inexplicable feeling of beingoff.

I turn to the Reaper. “How did you get to me so quickly? Did I faint?”

The last thing I can remember is that Famine stood across from me and …Death…

I pull away from Famine, searching for his brother.

Death meets my gaze, his expression pensive.

Famine cups my jaw with his hand, and he’s looking at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world.

“No,” he says simply.

“Then what happened?” Even as I say it, my voice wavers.

The answer is right there, in that taste at the back of my throat. Or maybe it’s my skin, which is cold and clammy in the most unnatural of ways.

But I want the Reaper to deny it.

To deny that I died.

He takes me in for a long time, and then he slowly nods his head.

I shudder, my spooked eyes moving back to Thanatos.

He killed me, and he did it so quickly that I didn’t even realize it. I try to recall anything that came after that … but there’s nothing there.

I couldn’t have been dead for very long. We’re still in that same bit of forest I last remember seeing, and the stormy sky looks about the same.

But if Thanatos killed me, then why am I breathing—?

The second awful realization hits me.

My gaze snaps back to Famine.

“Youagreedto it,” I say. Death’s second offer. That’s why he’s apologizing to me.

The Reaper squares his jaw. “I did.” There’s no remorse in his voice.

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