“I thought I’d let him do it. He was munching on your blanket a second ago too.” Pete looked down at me. “I mean, come on, he likes you.”

  “Don’t get attached to the sacrifices. Let me get ready, and I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  Pete nodded and pulled the goat out of the room. I got myself ready and dressed. When I walked out into the kitchen, everyone looked up.

  “Famine decided not to come us. Since we won’t be searching Greed out.” Death crossed his arms.

  I locked my jaw and looked at Famine. “Don’t think we’ll need you as back up?”

  “You made it clear that you handled yourself like a champ last time. If we’re not going to lure her out, what is the point of me going?”

  I forced myself to relax and not rise to his words. “That’s fine. I don’t trust you to watch my back anyway.” I shook my head. “It’s no big deal. Let’s go, Dad, Pete.”

  I closed my eyes and took myself to Hag’s gateway. We all appeared in front of it, and Hag walked out of her hiding spot.

  “You brought me goats.” She smiled her crooked smile. “Five, that’s enough for two in and three out.” She looked at Pete. “Here for moral support?”

  He nodded. “Something like that.”

  “Let’s get this over with.” I ushered my goat over to Hag. She let us pass before devouring the poor animals.

  The world swirled around us, and gray stone walls replaced the human world. Hell.

  I put my hand on dad’s arm. “Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  I willed the calm, peaceful pastures to surround us instead of the dark stone. The grass swirled around us and replaced the damp hallway. I ran my hand over the green grass that came up to my hips.

  “Where’s the seal?” Death looked around. “I never knew there was a place like this in Hell.”

  I snorted. “I said the same thing.” I pointed up at the red and black swirls above my head. “The seal is up there.”

  He looked up and then looked at me. “Okay, stay close, I’ll handle the seal.” He summoned his scythe. I stepped back and called my own scythe.

  I waited for the sounds of coins, but they never came. Nothing broke the peaceful sound of the wind blowing through the grass. A thought occurred to me. Maybe Greed couldn’t enter here because it was a peaceful place.

  A cry and a thump brought my attention back around to where my dad was. A huge man sprawled on the ground. He pushed himself up, his armor reflected in the light and covered his chest, back, arms, and legs. Death helped him up.

  “Good to see you, my friend. Come, let’s go before this place of peace is corrupted by you and we accidentally set lose the damned souls held here.”

  So War in peace would corrupt it. His seal must have kept the corruption at bay. Interesting, it explained why Aeron hadn’t wanted to go into the church.

  “Let’s.” He looked at me and then to my dad. “A woman.”

  “Yes, and a damn good fighter. I’ll explain when we get back.” Death put his hand on War’s shoulder, and I touched my dad’s arm.

  We reappeared in the silent hallway where we started. I glanced at my dad and then to the gateway. No one was blocking our way since Hag had accepted our sacrifice, but there was no sign of Lucile or Greed coming to stop us.

  I looked at dad, and he nodded towards the gateway without a word. We walked out and into the human world where Hag was picking on the bone of a goat, with her legs crossed.

  Pete stood from his rock. “Nothing?”

  I shook my head. “Silent as the grave in there. Which means Famine’s plan wouldn’t have worked.”

  “It also means that Greed is up to something.” Hag picked her teeth with the bone. “She likes you, always going on about how you took her hand, it’s grown back now of course, but she won’t stop talking about it.”

  “Greed is always up to something.” I shrugged. “Let her come when she’s ready.” I turned back to my dad. “Back to your realm then?”

  He nodded and looked at War. “Meet you there?”

  Everyone around me disappeared, and Hag grabbed my shoulder before I could take myself back to Death’s Realm. “What is it Hag?”

  “Just know that Lucile is determined to take everything you love because she feels the hate in you. The grief and devastation that fills you is her calling card. Once everything is gone, she feels that you’ll have no choice but to turn to her.”

  I met her gaze. “There’s one thing I’m sure of, and that’s I will never work for that women. She’ll never get my soul.” I stepped away and took myself back to Death’s Realm.

  Dad and War stared at me for a minute. “What?”

  “What did Hag want?” Dad asked.

  “To warn me about what we already know, Lucile wants my soul.” I held a hand out. “Hi, I’m Death’s daughter, Sammy.”

  War shook it with his massive hand. “I’m War, Aeron’s Father. I never thought I’d see the day where a Horseman was a woman.”

  I smiled. “I’m not a Horseman, yet. We were all surprised; it’s a long story. Aeron can fill you in on it. Welcome back though.”

  “Thank you. Aeron and I will take a look and see what wars we can stop. There are thousands about to break out, some small, some massive. We’ll see if we can minimize the damage.” He looked around at the dead weeds. “It’s been a while, you should think about getting some live plants around here.”

  My dad chuckled. “Go see your son.”

  War bowed his head and headed towards the house. Dad looked at me. “So it seems that Lucile has turned her sights away from me and on to you.”

  “Seems that way. That’s what Lust and Wrath whisper in my dreams, so I’m not surprised.” I crossed my arms.

  Dad mirrored my stance, and we stared at each other for a moment. “Famine’s plan would have failed because Greed wasn’t there.”

  I tried not to roll my eyes. “I know, and as much as I want to, I won’t tell Famine that I told him so. Though I don’t like how easy it was to rescue War.”

  “It was much too easy.” He nodded. “The question is why? What is it that they think they can gain because we freed War?”

  “They gain us thinking that we’ve beaten them back.” I tugged at a stray piece of hair. “Think about it. We celebrate because we got in and out of Hell without facing a demon or a Sin.”

  “We gain false confidence.” He shook his head. “Then we’ll have to make sure we just continue being cautious about it all.”

  “And we plan on making a trap for Greed out in the human world.” I walked towards the house.

  “Where are you going?” He pointed the other way. “Don’t you normally go see the horse after an eventful day?”

  I shook my head. “Not tonight, tonight I feel like joining the others for a drink and some laughter.”

  “I’ll go feed her then; she likes me better anyway.” He winked and turned to walk to the stable.

  We hadn’t been in the human world that long when we rescued War, but the rest of the day would be filled with celebration over War returning and some stories to catch him up on what had happened since he was locked away.

  I opened the door and walked in. Pete looked just as surprised as my father had. He jumped up and got me a beer from the fridge.

  I opened it and took a long pull. It amazed me the amount of human stuff this world could produce for us. “I thought I’d join you guys, instead of trying to play nice with the horse.”

  “Has she bucked you off yet? Aeron was so stubborn that he jumped right on to mine. That beast bucked him off the moment the lad got settled.” He chuckled.

  “I’m a little more tactful than Aeron.” I raised my beer to Aeron. “As we’ve all learned.”

  Aeron bowed his head. “It’s been rough getting used to.”

  Famine shot me a glare, but I took a swig of my beer and ignored him.

  “Aeron tells me that they call you Little Death.”

  I nodded. “They do, for different reasons. I tried to call Aeron Little War once; he’d have none of it.”

  The comfort I found being surrounded by them eased some of the anxiety and grief about past trips into Hell. Tonight, I didn’t feel guilty, and there was no reason to go hide with the horse. Tonight, I joined them as an equal without worrying about what could have happened in Hell.

  “There was no sign of a demon or anything while you were in Hell?” Famine broke the conversation the others were having.

  I started to speak, but War beat me to it. “Nothing, it was like the hall was cleared for us. There was no one where I was locked up either.”

  “Don’t you think that’s suspicious, Sammy?” He turned to me.

  I sat my beer down. “I do, and we think it’s because Lucile wants us to gain fake confidence and think that we have the upper hand.”

  “And do we not? We have one Horseman left to free, and the apocalypse is over.” Famine met my gaze. “Which means that we should just go in and free Pest.” He leaned back in his chair. “Then we’ve won.”

  “That’s what they want us to think. If it was that easy to get War out then it would be easy to get Pestilence out, we’re not going to fall into that trap. We’re going to make sure that we stick to our plans.” I reached for my beer but paused when Famine stood.

  “You mean your plans.”

  “Dad,” Kaleb took a step towards him. “Back down, we all made these plans together.”

  “No, you followed her lead, Kaleb. She has gotten people killed and yet you continue to let her call the shots. It should be Pete leading you, but he’s too blinded by his love for her to even stand up to her.”

  That wasn’t true, and Pete had proved that the day before. “Our plans have succeeded, that’s how we freed Death, freed you, and now freed War.”

  “You couldn’t have done the rest without our help though, to seal the Sins takes a Horseman, not just a child.” He took a step toward me, nearly trapping me against the wall.

  I took a deep breath. “You’re right, we couldn’t have, and maybe some of our choices turned out questionable, but either way we’re on our way to stopping the apocalypse.”

  “You plans are rash and stupid.” He poked me in the shoulder, and my back hit the wall. My pulse sped up, and I clenched my fist. I would not freak out about being trapped.

  “You want to lead a bunch of children? Let me remind you that we freed you and if it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t have been able to find your seal.” I looked up and met his gaze. “Or you want Pete to take over? He’d make the same choices because as Kaleb said, we made the choices together, we are a team.”

  Famine put a hand on either side of my head, officially trapping me against the wall. “Do you really think that?”

  “I do.” I clenched my fists hard enough that my nails bit into my skin.

  “Then let him lead.” Famine backed off. “Pestilence was the first called from the great beyond and was given a crown to lead.”

  I bowed my head. I was familiar with the passage in Revelations. “Fine, Pete can take the lead from now on. He can assess the battles and plan the attacks. He can hold everyone’s life in his hands.” I shoved Famine away from me.

  He stumbled back a few feet and turned to Pete. “As it should be.”

  I walked out of the house, expecting Pete to follow, expecting him to stand up for me in some way. Any of them, instead of watch Famine pick on me. Of course, maybe none of them wanted to stick up to the older Horseman.

  Part of me also thought that he was right, maybe Pete should lead. Maybe he’d make better choices and get more of us out alive. I took myself to the human world, not wanting to deal with anyone else from my world.

  The sun cast long shadows over the college grounds. The workers been busy in the last couple days. Instead of piles of rubble, now new steel beams stood tall forming the buildings’ skeletons.

  I walked down the newly paved sidewalks to the where they were rebuilding the dorm where I once lived. I looked up at the bare bones building and smiled as I remembered my first day. The fear and nerves I had felt compared to nothing that I had felt throughout the last year and a half.

  “You know, if you want people to believe you’re human, you should stop just appearing places with half-assed excuses.” Katie’s voice came from behind me.

  I spun around to face her. There was nothing different about her, no sign that she was a demon, no sign that she was an angel or anything else for that matter.

  “How do you know I’m not human?” I crossed my arms to keep me from summoning my scythe.

  She shrugged. “I’ve always been that way. I know what’s different in this world. I knew the moment that I met you and the others that you weren’t human.”

  “Interesting.” I dropped my arms. “And what are you doing out here? Isn’t curfew about to be active?”

  She nodded. “Come sit and have coffee with me? You look like you could just use some quiet company.”

  “I’d love that.” I followed her back through all the construction.

  “You keep coming back to this place. Why is that?”

  We walked side by side as we made our way through the grounds. They had started to landscape it again so that the damage from the apocalypse looked minimized.

  “This is where everything started for me. I guess it’s kind of a homing beacon for me. My roommate, Ruthie turned out to be an angel, and from there everything just went kind of crazy.” I shook my head. “I don’t know how much of this you know about. You told us you didn’t believe in monsters.”

  She laughed. “That’s because of the guys, they all want to believe that your secrets haven’t leaked into the human world. You, you’re from our world. I know that because you’re more familiar with how to act around humans.”

  “I didn’t think it was that obvious.” I followed her to the sidewalk and down past the school. “I did start here; I had no idea what I was until a year or so ago.”

  She kept her steps with mine. “I didn’t know what I could do either until things started happening. When the plague victims stopped dying and the demons started to show up…a priest called me a prophet, but I don’t think that’s what I am.”

  “What do you think you are?” I made a mental note to ask my dad about it.

  “Someone with a special gift, it just makes me different. It allowed me to see things in the city and know that I needed to get out in the first wave. I was lucky when they condemned my house.” She stopped and gazed ahead. “The damage that was coming was horrible. Did it happen? Was everyone killed?”

  I nodded. “I’m sorry. It was awful, it was like you had said about the scouts, but they weren’t human either.”

  “Demons, sent from the other cities?”

  “Yeah.” I nudged her to start walking again towards her house. “I’m glad you weren’t there, you shouldn’t have to see that.”

  “I already did, remember? I saw it coming.”

  We walked in silence for a few minutes, and I found myself relaxing with her. I didn’t want to force any more conversation, and like she had said before, I needed quiet company. Though apparently standing out in the courtyard of the college wasn’t what she had in mind.

  We came up to her townhome, and she opened the door, letting me walk in. I slipped off my shoes and plopped myself down in the red beanbag. “What do you do now that you’re not in the city?”

  “I work at the store across the street. I get paid minimum wage, but really, all my money goes right to the government anyways to pay for my rent and other things. Since they are the ones trying to put society back together, all the money goes to them.”

  I snuggled down into the foam beads trying to get it to fit my body right. “The world will return to some form of functionality. Once the death rate goes down and the plague goes away.”

  “Which you have something to do with, don’t you? I can see these skulls in your eyes. They are cool, but I can’t figure out what you are.” She went to the kitchen and rummaged around to get the stuff for coffee.

  “I’m the daughter of Death. In a way, I do have a lot to do with the apocalypse. We’re trying to keep it from happening again. It’s been such a crazy ride that I don’t even know where I would start with that story.”

  She moved around the kitchen, and within a few minutes, she handed me a steaming cup of coffee. “The Daughter of Death. So that means the guys are each what? Famine, War, and Pestilence?”

  “Close, they are the sons of those.” I shook my head. “I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this.”

  “I figured out most of it myself, so I think you’re okay.” She cupped her coffee mug and took a sip. “Do you come to the human realm often?”

  “No, because normally when I’m here, I have to deal with demons and risk running into really powerful creatures. I don’t want to face either on my own.” I looked into the black liquid and sighed. “I shouldn’t stay long for that reason.”

  She shook her head. “If I were going to be attacked, I’d see it first. Don’t worry. You’re safe here, and you’re welcome whenever you want. As long as you don’t live here, the people running the place don’t care.”

  “Thank you. I can stay for a little bit, but then I need to get going back. Eventually, someone is going to come looking for me to talk.” I leaned my head back against the squishy furniture.

  “Take your time. I know you need quiet company. Enjoy your coffee; I’m going to dig out a book.” She stood and disappeared down the hall.

  I sipped the coffee and savored the warm liquid as it went down my throat. This felt right. Everything was welcoming, and the coffee was perfect. I’d have to ask my dad about prophets, and until then, I wouldn’t give her any information that was vital to our plans…or as the case was now, Pete’s plans.

  I shook my head, trying to keep myself from thinking about it. He’d follow everything that we set up. He wouldn’t fail us on that.

  “I hear that they are starting the power plants back up soon.” Katie got up and set her coffee cup on the counter after a little bit. “It’ll be nice to have electricity again.”