Famine looks stunned as she stands there, and her hand that had been reaching out to Selena slowly falls to her side.
“You don’t mean that.”
Selena’s face twists into an expression of fury. “Get out of my way.”
“You are not my Selena. No… you just need time. Yes, you just need time. So please, let’s turn around.” Famine grabs a handful of sand out of her pouch and lifts it, prepared to blow it in Selena’s face, maybe to convince her to leave. Before she can exhale, the dirt in front of Famine shifts, and I see blood spraying out behind her back when Selena pierces Famine’s chest with a spike that thrust out of the ground.
Famine tries to move back, but the spike is angled up, and she can’t draw her body off it.
“I told you to get out of my way,” Selena snarls as she lifts her hand, prepared to stake her to the spot where she stands, but Sigma dashes forward, breaking through the ground that’s pinning Famine in place, freeing her from the spike. Feeling a little shocked, I realize that something inside me convinced Sigma to throw ourselves in front of Famine.
Like what the fuck am I over here protecting Famine for? She can die off for all I care! She sacrificed so many lives to bring her lover back. And while I know I would be torn apart if I lost Torin, it would hurt him too much to know I sacrificed even a single soul to bring him back to me.
Famine staggers away while I draw my bow, and the others rush forward to stop Selena who is swiftly moving back to put some distance between us.
“Don’t kill her! Please don’t kill her!” Famine shouts. “I will do anything. You can take me, but please don’t kill her.”
I ignore her as Selena increases the distance between us by ripping a crevice in the ground. And when Quill easily clears it, she throws up a wall of dirt and stone that blocks his path. He scrambles, nearly falling into the crevice, but then he sprints up onto a space wide enough for him to stand.
Sigma moves toward the edge of the crevice, and I realize with horror that he’s planning on jumping it, but before he can, Famine reaches for me. Sigma swings his head and throws her bloody body back, refusing to let her touch me.
“Brother, please?—”
“Please? You killed so many people, and she’s determined to kill even more.”
“How far would you go for the man you love? I know you love that god,” she says.
“I do. He’s everything to me, but it would hurt him if I took even a single soul to bring him back. I would never hurt him like that. She is not the person you once loved,” I tell her.
Lightning slashes down from the sky, and it hits me that the storm clouds that followed us didn’t belong to Selena, they belonged to Torin.
The lightning tears through the blockade, savagely ripping it open as dirt sprays out and crumbles, allowing Quill to leap through with Torin on his back, and Vero’s right behind them on his own mount.
“No, no, no!” Famine yells while she moves toward her horse, but the hole torn through her chest is significantly slowing her down. “Brother, please. Please stop her and let me take her with me. I will put her in a deep slumber and will only allow her to wake again once I’ve broken what is affecting her. Please. At least let me try to save her.”
“She will return and kill innocents.”
“I will not let her. Please. If you kill her, I will never forgive you.”
“I’m not sure forgiveness is what I want from you,” I say.
“Give me her soul, then. Please. You’re the only one who can determine the fate of her soul.”
I look at the souls bounding around me, always eagerly along for the ride.
But Famine’s not done with her offer. “If you do, I will draw back, and in exchange, I will help you when you call upon me.”
She’s leaning against her horse, but I know that we likely haven’t even seen a fraction of her strength since she hasn’t used it against us.
Sigma turns from her and leaps over the crevice before jumping right into the fray. Selena is out of control. She doesn’t care if she drains herself of her magic; as long as she can kill us along the way, she’ll be pleased.
Her power seems endless, while Torin’s power is only starting to return to him and Vero still appears powerless. Then we have Mickey who can raise the undead, but the ground simply swallows them up.
Sigma is steady, waiting for my guidance as I wonder what would happen if we killed Selena. Would we be introduced to a wrath that none of us could deal with? Can the four of us take down a goddessandhorseman in our condition? Or would we be better off having a horseman on our side?
I set a hand on Kit to make sure she’s holding on tightly.
Selena rushes Torin and when Quill draws back, he smashes into another blockade she’s created. It throws off Torin’s aim, and the scythe coated in sparking lightning shoots off and nearly hits Vero.
