'Til Death We Meet Again (A Grim Awakening Book 3)

by Michelle Gross

  “How could you—it’s not our fault this happened.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “But the only ones who will suffer from my mistake will be you and him, and horrible things will continue to happen if you guys are not separated.” She met my eyes, trying to make me understand her worry. “You won’t be separated forever.”

  Silence fell between us until I finally asked, “When? When will I see him again? When will we get to be together?”

  For the longest time, I was starting to think she wasn’t going to answer me. “You will live an entire life, Melanie Rose, and die before you see him again.”

  I stopped moving. I stopped breathing. I couldn’t wrap my head around the words she spoke. “You’re not lying, are you?” I was staring at the ground as I spoke. I didn’t even want to look at her.

  “I’m not,” she replied quietly.

  A lifetime? I dropped to my knees—they were shaking so hard they could no longer hold my weight up.

  “That was the way it was always meant to happen for you two. He would have found you the moment you passed away, and he would have known exactly who you were.” There was pride in her voice like somehow knowing was supposed to make everything better. She bent down next to me and touched my shoulder. “The Devil gave you the truth, you are Grim’s equal in every way, while he’s the Angel of Death, you will become the Angel of Light—which is life itself—the moment your heart stops beating as a human.”

  I threw my head back and the awfullest sound came out of my throat. It pierced through the empty night. The angel had just ripped my heart open and now she wished to comfort me.

  “Do you wish to know more of what you are?” she went on even though I was crying. “You will be able to do things Grim cannot in the future. He’s bound by the rules of which God created him of life and death—you, on the other hand, were born from life. You’ll have no boundaries or rules. Lives will be saved; evil will fear to cross your path. Demons that deserve better will be able to cross into an afterlife they deserve through you.”

  I stopped crying, her words brought me back to my conversation with Killian and Grim and how demons couldn’t go to Heaven even if they were deserving of doing so. Was this why I was born with the power? “It is,” she told me. Did she just read my mind? “I did,” she admitted. “But that’s not the only reason, I think you know by now how lonely it must be to live as the Grim Reaper. The power was placed inside your mother’s womb when we saw that your fate tied into Grim’s.”

  Her hand left my shoulder and moved to my forehead. I watched as the ground shifted below me and when I lifted my head, I was standing on my porch.

  The devastation of it all came rushing back. I stood quickly, and she followed. “It was very long time for him to wait for you and although I knew it was wrong of me, the moment I saw the opportunity for you to meet each other, I took it. As an angel, what I’ve done is unforgivable, but I must make sure I keep you safe. You’re too precious to us all and keeping you apart is the only way to do so.” She took a step forward, her beautiful face scrunched up with grief. “If you want, I can make it so that you no longer remember. You’ll be able to have normal life—”

  I couldn’t believe the words that left her mouth. I backed away from her. “Don’t you dare,” I hissed at her. “You’ve done enough already.”

  She sighed. “It’s going to be a long wait, are you sure you want to remember?” Her words were only making it worse.

  “Can we see each other just one more time?” I couldn’t swallow down the lump in my throat.

  “Do you honestly think he’d let you go if he were to see you again? For you, living to a hundred is nothing compared to the centuries he will have to endure without you.” That was right, time was different between our worlds… awful thoughts filtered my mind. How could a month and a half of knowing someone be enough to last several lifetimes without that person? Who could possibly wait that long for one person? The thoughts left as quickly as they came.

  Grim would wait for me. He’s always been waiting for me and would continue to do so. I was going to be with him again. No stupid amount of time would change how we felt. And even if our time together was short, it was real and I learned more about myself than ever before.

  “The spell can’t be reversed, there’s no way you two can see each other until your death,” she said. “And there’s no escaping your fate to live out a long life so don’t try to cut your life short. We’ll always prevent any attempts.”

  I took a deep breath and gave her a steely expression. “Who knew angels were actually the cruel ones.” She didn’t let herself react to my words.

  “I never expected either of you to forgive me and I never came seeking it, I came to right the wrong I caused.”

  “Does he know yet?” I asked.

  Faye nodded. “I’m sure Gabrielle has spoken to him already, and I will meet him after I part ways with you.”

  “If I ask you to let him know that this changes nothing, that I’ll see him again,” I had to look away as I spoke, “and that I loved him, would you even let him know?”

  “I would.” She nodded. “No one will remember the events that happened this night. No one will even remember you were missing for two weeks.” My eyes widened. “There will be no trace of any of it. No one will know except you. I’ll ask again, are you sure you want to remember?”

  “You know my every thought, so why do you even ask?” She was silent. “Ryan,” I started.

  “There’s nothing that can be done.”

  “What—” A light came on in the house, I must have woken Mom up.

  “Ryan has a completely new fate—his old one was cut off the moment Grim met you.”

  “What does that mean?” I gave her a dark look.

  She ran her hands down her dress and looked unsure as to whether she wanted to answer or not. “Not that it makes a difference now but Ryan had been your fate during your human life, he was to be your husband.” I didn’t even know how to respond to her words. “You had two different lives to live, one had been with Ryan as a human, and the other was with Grim the moment he found you in death.”

  Ryan… I’m so sorry. But even so, it didn’t change my heart. I didn’t have to trust fate, but I would trust what my heart felt and it would always lead me to Killian.

  “Is he…” I couldn’t even say it.

  “He’s Fear now.” I knew that. I just hadn’t wanted to hear anyone call him that. Why did I even ask? How did everything get so far from how I imagined this night to end? “He willingly accepted that fate, you saw it yourself. He must find his own way now. Don’t doubt what he can be—even as an angel, none of us know. We can’t see into the Underworld like we do here on Earth. But, trust in the boy that always trusted in you.”

  “When—”

  “Melanie?” The front door opened and Mom stuck her head out of the window. “What are earth are you doing out here?” she asked, part worry, part lecture in her voice. The angel, Faye, was already gone by the time I looked back to where she stood.

  I followed Mom inside and kept looking at her back, expecting her to turn around and yell at me and ask where I’ve been the past two weeks. “Mom, aren’t you going to ask where I’ve been all this time?”

  She turned around holding her neck. “You went to the Halloween dance at school with Tess, didn’t you?” They altered her memories? She let out a groan. “I have such an awful cramp in my neck. Alex and I must have fallen asleep watching a movie or something.” She paused. “Why didn’t I take him trick-or-treating this year?” she wondered to herself.

  And it crushed something inside me. It hurt. She truly didn’t remember anything. No one knew. I had no one to talk to about what I’ve been through. Why did I expect things to get better when Fear was no longer in my life? Now my best friend was that very monster, and my boyfriend was lost to me for a very long time. Tess wouldn’t remember anything from tonight.

  I lost everything and became alone
in my own world all over again.

  Mom looked back at me, something she saw in me had her eyes creasing with worry. I took a step forward and staggered, my shoulder smacked into the wall. “Melanie.” Mom came rushing toward me and her concern broke what was left that held me from falling apart. I sucked in a breath. I couldn’t breathe, I can’t breathe. A gurgling sound came from my throat and my heart hurt so much. I punched my chest over and over trying to regain oxygen into my lungs as I slid down the wall and crumbled to the floor.

  “Melanie.” Mom was panicking as she bent down next to me.

  No matter what I did—how hard I tried, the pain only intensified. I couldn’t be cured of what I felt. My heart was broken—torn apart.

  I had been ripped apart from Killian in the worst way. I pressed my face into my palms as I continued to cry. Mom gently touched my back trying to soothe me. I kept wishing—praying this was a bad dream, but deep down, I knew that angel hadn’t been lying when she said I couldn’t see him again.

  “Melanie, talk to me. What happened? What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t see him, Mom.” Tears, snot, and drool covered my face and palms when I looked up to meet her eyes. “Not for a very long time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Killian

  I didn’t want to believe the angel’s words when he told me they planned to keep Melanie away from me—how could they? As Grim Reaper, I did everything in my power to do what I must as a balancer.

  I’ve been alone, but I accepted it—I took it as my fate until Melanie came along and the thirst for a connection with someone came flooding back. Until I knew she was to be with me and they even admitted that she was born to cross paths with me. Then… they went and hid her from me. Supposedly, our time together wasn’t meant to be until the day Melanie died.

  I was pissed. I didn’t—no, I couldn’t control my anger. I attacked every angel in my sight while they were trying to close the portal. They had to bind me with their light and placed me on my knees where they stood and told me the same words I screamed for them not to say over again.

  They left me there. I yelled her name over and over, expecting her to magically pop up somewhere with a smile on her face. But she never did.

  I opened the portal to Heaven—the very one I ascended people into their afterlife through and tried to go through it. It sent me flying backward every time I tried. I knew how I was starting to look in front of my Reapers as they stood by silently as I screamed and caused a ruckus. My walls were caving in. I had to see the angels again. I had to make them understand I couldn’t live without her.

  I’d get on my knees and beg if I had to.

  I never felt so powerless—I never had a reason to. But that was all I could feel coursing through my veins as I faded into her bedroom. She wasn’t there. No, she might be lying on her bed crying right now, but I wouldn’t know because they planned to keep her from me in every way. My anger was bitter, a disease crawling up my throat, threatening to spill out.

  I could do nothing—nothing. The angels never messed around. I sensed it the moment Molly ported next to Melanie, something was changing. I couldn’t reach her in time. Maybe if I hadn’t been so thrown off by the change that was taking place, I could have faded to her. There was no way I could have kept her hidden from the angels, but we could have had a few more minutes…

  I heard Tina’s, Melanie’s mom, frantic voice and faded into the hallway downstairs. She was on her knees on the floor, cradling someone I couldn’t see in her arms. “Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay,” she chanted over and over. I knew Melanie was right there in her arms. So close, yet… agony ripped my chest right open. In my despair, I understood I wasn’t the only one suffering from one angel’s mistake.

  I bent down next to her mom—her mom couldn’t see me because I kept it that way. My hand moved to where I knew she was but as soon as I tried, I was thrown out of the house by the spell. My resolve was crumbling and I stood back up and walked back in the house. I fell to my knees beside her. I couldn’t comfort her now; I couldn’t tell her I’d wait an eternity to be with her again. I couldn’t tell her how much I already wanted that eternity to be over because I didn’t think I would make it through the first night. The only thing I could do was wait for the day she was in my arms again.

  I didn’t even know I was capable of crying until the tears slid down my cheeks, and I found myself screaming out my frustration.

  I must be alone one last time so that she’d be mine.

  I sensed an angel outside the house and stood. I looked to where Melanie was and wiped my face before walking outside. It was the angel that came to me a long time ago to tell me of Melanie. She had a small brown chest in her hand with gold patterns wrapped around it.

  She saw my expression and dared to look sad. “This is a small price to pay to keep her forever… you know that,” she told me.

  “That time had already started for us.”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t the right time.” Time, fate, destiny, I grew tired of the words the angels used to pin everything on. “With her powers being awakened after meeting you, she was nothing but a target. Not just because of the power, but because she was someone you loved. How many demons would have gone after her because of you? You wouldn’t have always reached her in time.”

  “I could protect her.” I would have done anything to keep her safe and by my side.

  “No, you couldn’t have, fate would have ruined you both if the path continued off course.” The angel’s eyes flickered with a warning. “If we had not arrived when we did, the Devil would have killed her.” Her words cut me like a knife because I knew she was telling the truth. I couldn’t find her no matter how much I tried—it was like I was being blocked from doing so. The Devil prevented me from sensing her, and he would have succeeded in killing her if it weren’t for them.

  “Here, this will stay with you.” I held out my hand as she placed the chest into it. “Melanie couldn’t keep this part of herself after she awakened that part of herself too soon. Your—her light would have been a beacon for more danger. She’s too vulnerable as a human. So, you keep it for her and return it to her when it’s time.”

  I held a part of Melanie in my arms—the thought sent another wave of emotion through me. I tightened my jaws to keep from revealing any emotion in front of her.

  “When you two are together again, you’ll see that this price was small when it meant she was safe and in your arms for eons to come.”

  Protecting Melanie’s soul from Fear was no longer our greatest obstacle.

  It was time itself.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Melanie

  I would have probably slept the day away if Mom hadn’t forced me out of bed. The kind and gentle parent who had soothed me the night before was long gone. I was not motivated to go to school or do anything, but the scowl on her face told me I would be. I raised up slowly and peeled my hair from my face that clung to the dried tears.

  “I knew this would happen,” she began, “I knew he would hurt you. I could tell he was trouble coming from a mile away. What did he do? Did he make stupid promises before he ditched town and left you? Something just wasn’t normal about him…”

  I gave her a crazy look. Where did she get these crazy assumptions? No wonder my own mind took so many different directions—I inherited it from her. “Mom, just go so I can get ready for school,” I told her. It wouldn’t matter how hard I tried to defend Killian. She’d only see it through her eyes. He would never get to defend himself either. The damage was done. I shouldn’t have let the words spill from my lips when I said that I’d never see him again. It gave her the impression that he was a bad guy.

  She dragged out her sigh as she looked at me. “Are you okay now?” she asked.

  “I will be when you give me some space. Yelling at me before I’m even up hardly seems like a way to make me feel better.” She nodded before stepping out of the room. Once she closed my door, I bunched my kn
ees up and placed my chin on them. I wasn’t okay, but I had to be.

  Tess was full of life at school that day and at least that gave me something to smile about, but I hated that she remembered nothing. I had been relieved last night when she had finally seen what I’ve been going through. I had happily thought there would be no more secrets to keep from her, but now my secret would be mine to keep until death.

  We walked side by side to fourth period when she randomly said, “I had a strange dream last night.”

  I stopped and turned to her, something like hope crisscrossed into my heart. “About what?”

  “Ryan was in it with us,” she started and my hope only grew. Was it possible she could remember what happened subconsciously? “It was crazy. We were right slap-dab in the middle of town and all these monsters were attacking.” My eyes widened as she shrugged her shoulders. “And we died.” My hope died about the same time my shoulders dropped. Her subconscious was feeding her something, but it wasn’t actual truth. “A dragon bit my head off right before I saw what happened to you.”

  I nodded then smiled. “That was a crazy dream.”

  She shook her head and muttered, “Tell me about it.”

  It was funny how I used to think seeing the dead was the absolute worst fate to have. Now as I walked the halls of Campbell High and discovered the absence of not being able to see the things I once could, I realized how wrong I was. It was worse to know they were there and being unable to see them anymore.

  After school, I stopped and filled my car up and spotted a bunch of colored notebooks on the counter as I was paying. It gave me an idea. I bought one—blue because it reminded me of Grim—and took it home.

  I sat on my bed that night studying the necklace Killian had given me. The only thing the angels hadn’t taken from us—the only connection I had left with him. It warmed my chest to know that he was also wearing his around his neck. I let it fall back onto my skin as I picked up my pen and opened the notebook.