Page 35 of May: Bloom & Bane

CHAPTER 15

your reaper is showing

Ahand settles on my shoulder.

I whip around, thorns sprouting from my wrists. Black ichor drips onto the ground as a snarl tears from my throat.

“Easy, young one,” the stranger says. “Your reaper is showing.”

I freeze.

He is an impossible figure, standing even taller than me. His skin is almost translucent. I can map out the faint, glowing veins beneath the surface. A floating halo of autumn leaves circles his head in a slow, hypnotic orbit.

“Who are you?” I rasp.

He steps forward, and where his bare feet touch the dirt, grass cycles rapidly—sprouting, yellowing, and withering in a single heartbeat.

“A pawn. As are you,” he murmurs. “I am here because you need my help.”

“What kind of help?”

“They are coming, and they won’t be as forgiving as I am.”

“Who’s they?” I demand, stepping between him and the greenhouse door. My wings flare wide, instinctively shielding the entrance.

Behind me, I can hear Eden’s fists pounding against the wood. “Sage! Are you okay?”

My chest tightens. She sounds so helpless.

His pale blue eyes flick to the sealed door, then back to me, the corner of his mouth lifting.

“You care for her,” he observes.

“Of course I care for her! She’s ním,” I tell him.

“I am not arguing the fact, quite the contrary, Sage.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know much more than that.”

“You said someone’s coming. Who’s coming?”

“The Horsemen,” he says simply, as if that should mean something to me.

“The Horsemen…?”

He sighs, the sound carrying the weight of ages. The leaves of his halo slow their spinning.

“Sit. We have much to talk about.”

“Explain,” I growl.

He reaches out, plucking a single crimson leaf from his halo. He holds it between us, and it slowly turns into a mirror. I see four shadows on the horizon.

“The Horsemen are the balance, Sage. They have never needed to interfere directly with bonds because they do not believe in them.”

“Okay?”