Page 208 of Famine

A bolt of lightning strikes a nearby tree—

BOOM!

The trunk explodes, fire and sparks bursting from the wet wood, and the small clearing we’re in lights up.

The corner of my mouth lifts into a smile.

“Have I now?” I say, gripping my scythe tighter as rain comes down in torrents. “And you would know, wouldn’t you?” I say, as my anger mounts. “You, who have not felt my pain or my anger or lived through—”

“Every human feels pain,” Death says. “I don’t need to know yours—”

“I suffered here for years, brother,” I say, cutting him off. “Years. Where were you then? Why didn’t you slay my oppressors and save me so that I could return to my task?”

Death is quiet.

I point to Ana with my scythe. “It was this woman with herpleasing enough form—”

Ana—God bless her vanity—frowns at that.

“—who saved me,” I say. “So, you and your offensive trade can fuck—right—off.”

I will find another way to be mortal—or I won’t. Perhaps I’ll keep my immortality right up until Ana’s death, and then I’ll make the trade.

Thanatos’s fingers dig into Ana’s shoulder. She glances up, giving my brother a look that would shrivel the balls off a lesser man, and tries to jerk her shoulder free. It doesn’t get her anywhere, but I admire her all the same. The knot of worry that sits in the pit of my stomach loosens just a little.

“Do you really think I’m going to let the two of you just walk away to continue on as you were?” Death says, raising his eyebrows. “Whatever you’ve been doing in this corner of the world, it ends today.”

Rain is coming down in torrents and the wind howls through the forest. More lighting flashes, hitting neighboring trees and setting the lumbering plants on fire before the rain douses them out.

I can no longer tell if Ana is crying, but her eyes are agonized.

It was too good to be true, her face seems to say.

I want to prove her wrong, but Death is one entity I cannot so easily vanquish.

“You heard my first offer,” he says.

I scowl at him, squeezing my scythe so tightly that my knuckles are turning white.

“Here is my second: Resume your task. Ride with your—” his upper lip twitches with distaste, “woman. Use your powers as they were meant to be used.”

Even as he speaks, the memory of the wind in my hair and the pound of my steed’s galloping body is so sharp it feels as though I could reach out and touch it. Most of me aches for that wild freedom.

Thanatos continues, “I will ensure that your female is one of the last humans to go. All you must do is take up your task once more. Let’s finish what we’ve started, brother.”

As if on cue, Death’s horse trots into the tiny clearing, followed by my own steed.

I can see it now: The three of us riding to the ends of the world. Thanatos would take humans right where they stood, and I’d blight the crops of any individuals who escaped his attention. We’d cut down humanity one city at a time.

Even now I can feel the oily urge to mount my steed and do just that. Domesticity was never a natural state for me.

Ana would be with me. It would be alright, for a time—

“Famine,” Ana says.

My gaze moves to her, still in Death’s grip. Around us the thunder has quieted, and the rain has lightened up to a thoughtful drizzle. I stare into her eyes.

“Don’t,” she says.