Grim Tidings

by Caitlin Kittredge

  The outline was unmistakable now, and I almost wanted to laugh looking at the square-boot shape with the star-shaped scribble at the toe end. It was either laugh or scream. “Of course it would be there,” I said, as vines and cypress roots and moss and rotted, rusty iron fences played out all around the map.

  Uriel frowned. “Louisiana?”

  I sighed. “Yeah. Louisiana is where I died. And for some reason fate just won’t let me stay away.”

  Uriel looked without expression at the overgrown mound of brick and iron that had been a plantation house. Not a single drop of sweat coursed down his perfect hairline, even in the heavy heat of the swamp.

  I tried not to look. I’d seen it all. The cypress roots and the heavy blanket of greenery were the last thing I’d seen.

  “This isn’t really the place you died,” Uriel said. “You know that, right? This place looks different to everyone who visits it.”

  “Are we even supposed to be here?” I said, stripping off my jacket as sweat soaked through my top.

  “Nope,” Uriel said. “Places like this are strictly off-limits to angels. I’m going to have some very unpleasant conversations when I get back to the Kingdom.”

  He patted me on the shoulder. “But this is way more important, so let’s find the tree, find the Scythe, and get the fuck out of here.”

  We slogged through the mud for what seemed like hours. The old plantation where I’d died wasn’t anywhere near this large. This swamp just kept going, getting murkier and hotter until I was panting trying to move in the heavy air. “We could have used Leo,” I said, leaning against a cypress root and wiping a handful of moisture off my face. “A locator spell would be nice about now.”

  “I don’t think putting all three of us in one place is smart,” Uriel said. “You and I can be replaced but the Grim Reaper is needed.”

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “I’m used to hearing that.”

  We walked in silence after that, until the land started to tilt up, mud instead of dirty water squelching under our feet. The long gray curtains of moss parted, and Uriel cocked his head.

  “I thought it’d be bigger.”

  The tree was little taller than I was. The trunk bent to the left, and the gray and gnarled branches looked almost dead. Only a few leaves clung to the ends of the smallest twigs, wilting in the heat. What really got me was how green everything around it was. It wasn’t just the green of a hot, moist environment. There was grass, and flowers, all the most brilliant colors that almost hurt my eyes. Bluebells cascaded down the bank, crushed under our feet, and thorny vines loaded with roses tugged at my hair. Even the air was sweet, no longer like sucking on a wet rag. Sunlight filtered down through the haze, catching every droplet in the air and casting tiny rainbows down around us.

  “Wow,” I said quietly, because what else can you say when faced with a primal force?

  “It’s really beautiful,” Uriel said quietly. “More beautiful than I ever thought.”

  I tore my gaze away after a moment, even though I hated to let go of the feeling of calm and certainty that pervaded the air around the tree. “We need to find the Scythe,” I said quietly.

  Uriel blinked. “Yeah,” he said. “Sorry. Even we don’t see things like this very often. Life in the Kingdom is pretty dull, really—”

  I turned back when his voice trailed off, and saw him standing still. His face went slack, and his gaze dipped, like I’d just profoundly disappointed him. His mouth turned down in a sad frown and then his knees buckled and he fell in the mud, the black-green muck splashing up onto his dove-gray suit like he really had been shot in the wing and crashed to earth.

  Gary smiled at me, holding a short black blade carved from some kind of gleaming stone or glass. “Ava,” he said, a grin spreading across his face like kudzu. “We really have to stop meeting like this.”

  CHAPTER

  20

  No matter who you are and how much you face death, sooner or later fight-or-flight is going to fail you. One day your body will betray you and your mind will take wing, leaving you frozen and alone.

  I froze while Gary laughed at me, twirling the blade in his hand like it was a baton and he was leading the Asshole Parade.

  “Don’t look so hysterical,” he sighed. “You always reacted so badly to the slightest bit of untoward news.” He pointed the blade at my chin. “I’m not going to hurt you, Ava. It’s going to be just like it always was. You do as I say without arguing or I’ll liquidate you.” He leaned in. “And if you think demon blood tastes iffy, angel blood will really fuck your day up.”

  I finally got my mouth to work as, grinning all the while, he waved the black knife at me like it was a damn metronome. “You look pretty good for a dead guy. Better than you ever did when I worked for you.”

  Gary shrugged, spreading his arms. “What’s the saying? ‘Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated’?”

  “You know what I missed the least about you?” I said, crouching to check on Uriel. “You thinking you’re witty.”

  Uriel was in bad shape, making a gurgling sound when he tried to breathe, his face drained of all color. His blood was mingling with the mud underneath him, trickling down toward the water. “Ava . . .” he rasped, reaching for me.

  Gary stepped on his hand, crushing it into the mud. Bones cracked and Uriel let out a strangled scream. “Did I ever get the chance to tell you how much I hated you?” Gary said. “Never mind. I figure a Grim Reaper’s Scythe to the lung gets the message across.”

  “You are such a dick,” I said, trying to turn Uriel and see if I could stop his bleeding.

  “And you are so predictable,” he said. “You fight even when you’ve lost. I think I could cut off all your limbs and you’d still try and bite at my ankles.”

  I couldn’t do anything for Uriel. His breathing was fading away and his eyes were going glassy. I wanted to cry, or scream, but I was damned if I’d let Gary see me do either one. Instead I turned on him with a growl. “I’m so going to enjoy shoving that Scythe through your eye.”

  Gary let out a laugh. “You’re cute.” Then he hit me, how he always used to, a hard cross to the jaw that dropped me and exploded lightbulbs behind my eyes. My hands sank into the muck, next to Uriel’s still form.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered to him, as Gary stood over the two of us. Uriel blinked slowly, his eyes downcast.

  “Annoying little shit of an angel,” Gary said. “Like that kid who always wants to be the milk monitor. Look at me, look at me, I’ve got the biggest stick of all up my ass.” He put his foot on my chest, pressing me down into the mud, and grinned. “Bring back memories?” he said. “Ava the little waif, stumbling barefoot through the swamp to her death?”

  Uriel’s fingers brushed mine, and I felt the twisted lumps of his broken knuckles. He blinked at me again, and I realized he was trying to look at Gary’s foot. I shook my head as Gary stepped on me again. “You’ll die . . .”

  “You know, after I’m done here I think I’ll pop over to Kansas, pay your irritating little boyfriend a visit,” Gary said. “This Scythe can kill anything. Including the Grim Reaper. Won’t there be a lot of feathers fluttering in the Kingdom after I ice their big man downstairs.”

  Uriel gritted his teeth as a little blood dribbled from his mouth, and nodded at me. I linked my fingers with his, then looked up at Gary.

  “Gary?” I said. He leaned down, stepping on me so hard my ribs creaked.

  “Yes, doggie?”

  “Shut the fuck up,” I said, and squeezed my eyes closed as Uriel popped us out of the hot, wet swamp and back into freezing air.

  Gary looked around at our new surroundings, seeming almost surprised. “What kind of half-assed stunt is this, now?”

  Uriel’s eyes drifted closed, and he went still. Against the Kansas snow, his blood was much redder, almost the color of the roses twined around the tree back in the swamp.

  “I thought you’d be pleased,” I said, heaving his f
oot off me. “We’re here to see the Grim Reaper, just like you wanted.”

  Leo was already starting toward us at a run, and Gary smiled at me. “Okay, gotta hand it to you, kid,” he said. “That was a pretty sweet sacrifice play.” He turned and gave Leo a look, and Leo stopped in his tracks, gasping, and then went flying back against the fence.

  “Aww,” Gary said, pulling a mock sad face. “Denied. I was hoping for a little song and dance but I guess I’ll just stab him in the chest and get it over with.”

  “How did you survive, Gary?” I blurted, clambering to my feet as he started for Leo. Talking was literally the only weapon I had left, so I started jabbering. “I saw you die. You bled out in a parking lot. I still had your blood under my nails when I packed up to get the hell out of there.”

  “Ava.” He sighed, as if I were a very stupid small child. “You of all people know death isn’t as permanent as it looks. But seeing as you were never too bright, I’ll play.”

  I held up my hands. “You made your point. I get that you want payback but Leo is the Grim Reaper. You kill him and you throw the entire universe out of alignment, Gary.”

  “But that’s the first mistake you made,” he said with a sarcastic lilt to his voice. “I’m not Gary.”

  “No,” I said. “You’re Belial. Fallen pretending to be Hellspawn, hiding in plain sight. I get it now. It’s very clever, yay for you.”

  “Wrong again,” he said, flipping the Scythe over his knuckles. “Belial’s just a name I picked up from a dead angel. Figured it was as good a cover as any, but the Fallen are dull. And whiny. Bunch of sad navel gazers, all of ’em.”

  I swallowed, not moving, still blocking him from Leo, who thrashed against the fence, letting off a string of curses. If this thing really wasn’t Gary, douchebag reaper with the fashion sense of a blind librarian, or Belial, asshole Fallen with a penchant for beating on demons, then what the hell was he?

  Whatever he was, I was afraid of him, but I made myself keep standing there, because for some reason it was keeping him from Leo.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me what I am, with that little southern belle tremor in your voice?” Gary smirked. I felt my lip curl reflexively.

  “All right. What the fuck are you?”

  “Pick a shapeshifter,” Gary said. “A trickster, a god with a thousand faces. I’ll answer to any of those.”

  “You expect me to believe,” I said, “that you are not Hellspawn or even an angel but an ancient god of something?”

  “Used to be,” Gary said. “So long ago even the stars have forgotten I exist. Everyone else is gone. They faded out and gave up. But I’m a survivor. What you might call adaptable.” He pressed his foot into the earth and the snow bubbled, hissing away. The grass under it sprouted green, then withered and died, all within the space of a breath. “I started seeing signs a few centuries ago. I went to the Garden and prepared for the end times at the world tree, as you do, and . . .” He poofed his fingers out. “Nothing. So I figured it was my job to get the ball a-rolling, and I started looking for things like me. Other survivors, and adaptors. Your boy Cain over there was my best find by far.”

  “Cain, the Scythe, and a little bit of unrest in Hell was all I needed,” Gary said, standing. Black frostbite spread out from his feet, climbing over everything, including Leo, who moaned. “All I needed,” Gary repeated, “until you got cute. I don’t know why that bag of bones over there couldn’t keep you with him in his love bunker until it was over but I swear, Ava, there is literally nothing that can stop me, so give up, lie down, and let the world die like it should.”

  “If the world dies, you die,” I said. “And I know you aren’t suicidal like Cain.”

  Gary shoved me out of the way, landing me on my ass in the frost, and advanced on Leo, pulling out the Scythe. “You’re so small-minded, Ava. Worlds come and go. Only I’m eternal. I’ll be just fine with whatever’s left, and I sure as hell won’t make a mistake like you again.”

  I jumped up and ran at him, leaping onto his back as he swung at Leo. He staggered under my weight and swung around, driving the Scythe back into my shoulder.

  I let go when he did. The blade felt like running into a brick wall. The pain dropped me, and I watched snow start to drift down around us, thick and furious. Not snow, I realized as a few flakes landed on my tongue as I panted. Ash. The same kind of burning ash I’d tasted in the camps.

  Gary looked down at me and shook his head. “I’ll always be the alpha dog, Ava. That’s the natural order.”

  He reached down and patted my head, cool hand pressing on my sticky hair. “Good girl. There’s a good girl.”

  I curled away from him, trying to work the knife out of my shoulder while I played at flinching. It felt like it was burning my flesh off, stripping me down to the bone, but it finally popped free. I convulsed slightly and Gary chuckled, giving me one final pat.

  He’s not Gary, I reminded myself.

  “It’ll be better than you think, Ava,” he said. “It’s a cycle. As natural as birth and death. The new world kills the old. That’s what my people believed, back in the day.”

  He kicked me over onto my back with his foot and picked up the Scythe. “Nice try, by the way. You were always secretive and sneaky. Guess that’s why I liked you.”

  “I hate you,” I choked. “It’ll almost be worth it to see the world end just so I don’t have to listen to you anymore.”

  “Don’t know how you missed it,” Gary sighed. “The signs are all there—the dead rising, the Grim Reaper taking his seat at the head of the table, demons walking the earth, angels turning their backs on it.” He rocked on his heels, crunching the frost like a happy little boy as he faced me. “And you, my pet, will get to see it all. Before I kill you, again.”

  He stood up and whirled away from me, heading for Leo. “But first, I’ve got a bone to pick with the guy who stole my seat.”

  I was dying. The hit from the Scythe was killing me, surely as Lilith’s poison blood or the knife wound I’d gotten when I’d been human and died for the first time. The fire wasn’t just in my arm now; it was in my chest and everywhere, and I thrashed, spitting blood into the snow. Soon I’d be as still and cold as Uriel, all alone in the cold. Cain would get to watch every one of us die with that smug, satisfied look on his face.

  I flopped onto my other side as I convulsed, and looked at Leo, who met my eyes as Gary advanced on him. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “I’m not scared, Ava. It’s okay.”

  Gary lifted the Scythe, and I didn’t even think, I just let go. If I was going to die, I wasn’t going to die a sad little broken body in the snow.

  I was a hound, and that was how I was leaving this earth.

  My feet crunched heavily over the snow and I was still trailing blood, but I took one step, then another, letting out a low snarl that rattled the frost on the chain link fence. I was going to look at Gary as I died. I was going to let him know he hadn’t beaten me down, not in the end.

  “That’s cute,” Gary said. “What are you gonna do, bite me? Better think on that one, Ava. Bad doggies get a smack on the nose. Bad doggies—”

  I lunged at him, slamming into his chest with my full weight, shoving him backward, until his arms windmilled, and I sank my fangs into his shoulder and kept pushing, until I felt the impact of something solid thumping into Gary’s back. Got him in the left lung, in my semi-expert opinion.

  He raised the Scythe, his face finally twisting into the real one, the hateful, spite-driven mask that couldn’t pass for human on its best day. “You bitch,” he rasped. “You can’t kill me—”

  I locked my jaws around his wrist and bit down with all my strength. I bit through skin and muscle, tasting the bitter, battery-acid blood that burned my tongue and throat. I shook, ripping at the tendons and finally crunching through the two bones that held Gary’s hand to his body. Gary let out a scream, a real one, and his hand thumped into the snow, the fingers relaxing on the Scythe’s handle,
letting it slide out of his grasp.

  I fell back, landing on two legs. Gary was close behind me, and he slammed me back into the ground, his one good hand wrapping around my throat.

  “You’re dead,” he snarled. “You just don’t know it yet. That wound will burn you up.” He shook me by the neck and spat blood in my face. “How does it feel to die alone again, Ava?”

  “She’s not alone,” a voice said from above us, as my vision blurred. “She’s got me.”

  Somebody kicked the Scythe to me as Gary spun around, distracted, and I jammed it into his neck with all my strength, where the fat vein pulsed under the skin.

  Gary swayed back and forth, like a tree in a gentle wind, and then he toppled off me, releasing my throat.

  Leo skidded to the ground next to me and wrapped his arms around me. “I’m okay,” he said as I let out a long, shuddering gasp. “Biting him got him to let go of the hex. I’m fine. It’s over.”

  I looked past the bulk of his chest at Gary. I’ve seen plenty of people die, but this was different. The life drained out of him, but slowly, as if the Scythe were drinking down the forces that had kept him alive this long.

  I pushed away from Leo, getting to my feet, and went over to Gary’s body. Leo tried to stop me but I shook him off, kneeling in the bloody pool next to him and pulling the Scythe free from his neck. His blood fountained over me, dousing my upper body, and he gave one last shudder as his heart stopped and the blood along with it.

  I staggered back to Leo and put the Scythe in his hands. “I’m your hound,” I said, raising my voice over the howling wind. “You’re the Grim Reaper. Now we both have what we need.”

  Leo folded me into his arms again. He was warm, and I was so slick with blood I felt like I’d slipped underwater, going down and down until the blackness swallowed me.

  CHAPTER

  21

  Uriel was where I’d left him, lying in the snow. He was pale—corpse pale, blue around the edges, and I shivered as I touched his skin. It was cool and lifeless. I put my hand on his face. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was wrong about you.”