Famine (The Four Horsemen #3) - Laura Thalassa Page 0,47
back on my feet. I begin to move, then slip again, and only the Reaper’s hold on me keeps me from going down once more.
Near the dead man is a second corpse—another man, I think, though I can’t be sure. The sight is too gruesome for my mind to process.
Famine steers me outside, where his dark horse is waiting, and I’m trying not to focus on the fact that blood is dripping from my dress and snaking down my skin.
We stop in front of his steed, and he nods to the beast. “Get on.”
Already the horseman’s scythe—the same one that must’ve cut those people apart inside—is strapped to the creature.
Slowly my eyes move to Famine’s.
I can’t do this.
“Ana—” he cautions.
I bolt.
My arms and legs pump as I make a beeline for a field lined with rows and rows of wheat that are somehow, inexplicably, still alive.
I don’t quite know what I’m doing, and I don’t especially care.
Run-run-run-run-run.
I weave through the plants, their stalks slapping at me. Over my heavy breath, I hear Famine’s pounding footfalls behind me, and Satan’s balls, the fucker is coming for me.
I strain my muscles, pushing them to their limits.
The problem is, I’ve spent the last few years being a soft, pliant thing that men can fall into. My muscles are nonexistent, and they’re tiring fast.
It takes Famine a laughably short amount of time to close in on me. He catches me around the waist and the two of us go tumbling into the dirt.
I cough, the heavy press of the Reaper at my back making it hard to breathe. After a moment, he flips me over.
“You foolish little flower, don’t you know?” he scolds me. “I kill everything. If you leave my side, you will die.”
I push uselessly at his shoulders. “Then let me die, damn you!”
“No.”
Famine looks at me, gobsmacked; his response seems to shock him more than it does me. He searches my face, like it holds some answers.
Gentler, he says, “You saved me once. I am going to return the favor, even if it means forcing you to stay with me.”
My mind flashes back to the way Famine looked at me all those years ago when he realized I had saved him. Like a drowning man clinging to a lifeline.
I think maybe he believed in humanity in that moment. Even though he shouldn’t have. Even though he doesn’t now.
Still, I can tell he believes in something when he looks at me. His cruel expression is gone, and his eyes are alight with … well, whatever it is, it’s not anger.
The horseman pushes himself off me, rising to his feet.
I lay in the dirt a moment longer, just staring up at him.
Famine dusts himself off. After a moment, he reaches out a hand to me. When I don’t immediately take it, his green eyes flash.
“We can either do this the easy way—and you can willingly come with me—” he says, “or we can do it the hard way.”
He doesn’t elaborate on what the hard way is, but I’m not interested in finding out. I feel defeated all of a sudden. Resisting him doesn’t seem to get me anywhere.
“I think your definition and my definition of hard are two very different things,” I say, taking his hand.
He doesn’t get the joke—or if he does, he doesn’t react.
Famine pulls me back to my feet. Even once I’m standing, however, he doesn’t let my hand go. It’s not until the two of us are in the saddle and his horse begins to move that he relaxes his hold on me. But then, the arm that held me fast last night is back around my waist, pinning me against his armor. I don’t think the Reaper is afraid of me diving off his horse or falling asleep.
I think, despite all the horseman’s hate and anger, he doesn’t half mind touching me after all.
Chapter 19
“I’m tired.”
“Not this again.”
For the second day in a row, the two of us have been riding late into the night.
“Newsflash—” I say, “I’m going to want to sleep every day. Just like eating, it’s not really an optional activity for me.” Even though it clearly seems to be an optional one for him.
I shit you not, the man growls in response.
“Also, I’m hungry,” I add.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“Listen, asshole,” I say, my irritation spiking, “if you’re so determined to keep me alive, you need to fight your stupid base nature and actually help me meet my needs.”