For a moment, her face was expressionless then she broke into a smile. She was a cute kid. Chocolate, unruly curls that were a mess all over her head, a splatter of freckles, brown eyes, and a cute little button nose. During the day, she kept her hair pulled back in a variety of headbands with huge bows on them.
She looked me up and down. “You don’t look like the Tooth Fairy.”
“Really? What does the Tooth Fairy look like?”
“Well, for one the Tooth Fairy is a girl, silly goose. And she wears a beautiful fairy dress with pink ruffles and sparkly shoes. And where’s your wand? Every knows a fairy has a wand.”
“I’m a different kind of Tooth Fairy. The cool kind. I don’t need all that stuff.”
Olivia narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you at least have pixie dust.”
“Pssssssh. Pixie Dust Shmixie Dust.” I had no idea what it was but it sounded lame as hell.
Olivia folded her arms over her chest. “Hey! The Tooth Fairy is only supposed to come when a kid loses their teeth. I haven’t lost a tooth in a long time.”
Uh-oh. I slapped my forehead. “You mean to tell me I’m at the wrong house. Aren’t you Allison Harris?”
Olivia shook her head sadly. “No. Olivia Breer.”
I sank into the seat. “Do you happen to know where Allison Harris Lives?”
Olivia shook her head again.
I sighed. “You mean to tell me I flew days and days all the way from . . . Toothlandia and I’m in the wrong house?”
Olivia grinned and nodded. “Sorry.”
“But I’m so exhausted. Do you mind if I rest a little bit in this comfy chair for a little bit before I head off to Allison’s?”
She grinned again. “Sure. And call me Liv. No one calls me Olivia. You can stay as long as you want to.”
“Thanks, Liv. Now you should get back to sleep. You have school tomorrow.”
Her smile faded, but she reached over, switched off her lamp and nestled back underneath her covers. “Okay. Good night Mr. Tooth Fairy Man.”
I exhaled a sigh of relief having pulled that off. I watched Liv breathing evenly, already in a deep sleep. I balled my fist and dared that kidnapping bastard to show up. There was no way I was letting anything happen to that kid.
For the next few nights Liv and I spent a lot of time bonding when it was my turn to be inside. I never considered myself a kid person but Liv had grown on me quickly. I read her stories, but she liked it best when I made up my own silly ones. Once she’d laughed so loud her mother had poked her head in and scolded her.
She loved Keira too and seemed to be mesmerized by her. I could understand why. Keira was beautiful and gentle. She’d always been motherly which was one of the things I liked about her. She was always taking care of people.
One day while Liv was at school and we lay across her purple ruffle bed spread, I kissed Keira on her forehead as she lay her head on my chest. “You’re going to make a great mom,” I told her.
“Thanks. Is that something you think about? Having kids?”
I shrugged. “I guess. A couple. Two boys.”
“Boys? Why not girls?”
“Too much to worry about and a lot of trouble. Just look at you and Naomi.”
She rolled her eyes. “Just for that I hope you have four daughters.”
I laughed.
“But seriously, whatever you have, you’re going to make a great father.”
“You think so? Why?”
She took a deep breath. “I know you better than anyone, Bram. You’re not as hard as you like to pretend to be. You’re protective. You’re a good leader, a good teacher. Look at how you’ve been taking care of everyone.”
My cheeks warmed at her comments. It wasn’t everyday people said good things about me.
A familiar heaviness weighed on my heart. “I didn’t take care of everyone.”
Keira was silent for a long time. “Bram, what happened to our brothers wasn’t your fault. You can’t blame yourself for that. The only ones to blame are Nightstar and we’ll get them back.”
Yes, we would. “So, you said whatever I have. Could that be whatever we have?”
She looked up at me with those large doe-like eyes and kissed me on the cheek. “Of course, it could. I couldn’t see myself be married to and raising a family with anyone else.”
That was all I needed to hear.
“If we go back home, it’ll never happen though,” she added. “Dunningham will never allow it. I’m sure he’ll lock me up in Gattica if he doesn’t have all my years subtracted.”
I pulled her closer to me. “That’s never going to happen. I promise you it’s not and no one’s going to make any one of us marry someone we don’t want to marry.”
Keira talked about what type of house we would live in and how she would decorate it until we fell asleep. I didn’t care where we lived as long as I was with her.
That night Keira and I changed shifts. Liv was in her bed making a tower out of Legos when I settled into the rocking chair.
She placed a small red block on the top of her tower. “Do you like her?”
“Like who?”
“You know, Keira.”
I waved my hand playfully. “Nah. What would give you that idea?”
Liv chuckled and covered her face. “I can tell.” She yawned and lay back on her pillow. “How long are you guys going to stay here? Until one of my teeth fall out?”
“Sure kid.”
Liv had been asleep for two hours when a commotion came from the yard and Keira screamed my name. I grabbed my scythe resting in the corner and hurried to the window. I opened it and stuck my head out. A man wearing all black was scaling the picket fence. He wore gloves and black boots. From the top of the fence he dropped down right in front of Keira. From his movements, it was obvious that he couldn’t see her. I didn’t know what it was that made us visible to children but not adults.
The man stood and brushed himself off. I leapt from the window, landing on the first-floor roof and then dropped down to the lawn just in time to see Keira pull her knee back and connect to his groin. The man groaned and doubled over with a painful, puzzled expression. He had no idea what had hit him. For a second, I thought about letting her Keira handle it on her own, but then I thought about Liv sleeping peacefully in her head. My head filled with thoughts of what this asshole would do to this innocent little girl and I couldn’t hold back. I elbowed him on his back, sending him crashing to the ground on his belly.
“What the—”
He had the same reaction other Humans had when they got their asses kicked by some invisible force. Keira flipped him over and punched him in the face. I straddled him and pounded his midsection.
We were never told what to do with this guy once he showed up. If we alerted Human law enforcement, they would come and maybe charge the guy with trespassing on people’s property, but then what? He’d be back out on the streets looking for another kid. He would never stop. People like him were sick and they would never give up unless they were dead or locked away.
I grabbed his throat and squeezed.
Keira knelt beside me. “Bram, what are you doing?”
I couldn’t answer her because I didn’t know. I did know that all the anger that had been bubbling underneath my surface was overflowing. I thought about Dorian and possibly my parents being taken away from me and then I thought about how this creep was about to take Liv away from her family. No one should go through that.
Finally, I reached for my scythe beside me and stood. The man grabbed his throat, gasping for air.
Keira stood. “Bram whatever you do to this man, you can’t take it back. This isn’t part of our assignment.”
I held my scythe at his neck as he struggled to climb to his feet. “If it’s not Liv, it’ll be some other kid and I can’t let that happen. Not when I have the power to stop it.” I kicked him in the face, forcing him back down, then I held the scythe right at his throat. Then I thrust it down
as hard as I could.
The man’s head rolled to its side, completely detached from his body. “Now, we’re done.”
Keira was upset with me and the clean-up job we had to do in the middle of the night was brutal, but I was at peace with my decision. Clean up was also part of our training when those types of thing happened. We hauled the body to a canal three blocks over and tossed him in. The body and head would be discovered eventually, but it would probably remain an unsolved crime.
By the time morning came we had to report back to the farm and we didn’t have a chance to say bye to Liv. She’d probably be wondering where we were, but at least I could sleep at night knowing she was safe.
For the next month, we continued to rebuild and collect more assignments while working on getting the transportation chamber to send us to Nowhere. The farm was somber and quiet after our great loss but we pressed on because we had to.
That Saturday night we had a big celebration in honor of Chase’s eighteenth birthday. Turning eighteen was a huge deal in Nowhere. You got confirmed, you got a house, and you got married to your betrothed. There were huge elaborate parties and ceremonies. Since Chase was missing out on that, I wanted to make sure he had the best party we could give him.
That morning I grabbed his shoulder as he exited the barn headed for the showers. ‘Happy birthday, man.”
He gave me a half smile and shrugged.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Just thinking about my parents and how proud they would be of me on this day and all the things we would be doing together.”
“I know. I’m sorry. They would have been proud of you. They would have also wanted you to celebrate and have a great time. They’d want you to have fun in their memory.”
“I guess so.” Then he continued to the showers.
Naomi and Keira had made sure the meal pavilion was all decked up for him. That day they had taken a drive into town and came back with all sorts of things from some party store. Marshall didn’t look very happy about how much they had spent of the monthly budget, but Keira reminded him that after all we had been through, we needed this. All of us could use a good pick-me-up.
The pavilion was decked out with black and blue balloons and streamers. Trays of delicious-looking food filled the tables. Music blared from the speakers.
We ate and danced until our hearts were content. I spent the whole night dancing with Keira. Chase looked happier than I had seen him look in a long time and that was all that mattered. He was a good guy and he had every right to enjoy his special day. After a while, he and Naomi disappeared and the party died down. We cleaned up and then headed to the barn, exhausted.
That night sometime after midnight, a bright light woke me out of a deep sleep. I opened my eyes and closed them promptly, shielding my eyes from the light. The other stirred around me.
“Whoever turned that damn light on better turn it off now!” Ebony snapped.
Everyone looked around accusingly. It took us a few seconds to discover where the offensive light was coming from.
Naomi pointed to the corner of the barn. “Look. Someone’s scythe is glowing.”
Yes, that’s what it was, a glowing scythe. Why would a scythe be glowing?
I stood beside my bed. “Whose scythe is that?”
I couldn’t tell whose in the darkness, but a figure made its way over to the scythe. Finally, Kale’s face was illuminated in the light of the scythe. He held the scythe sideways to examine the blade. Every Grim had their name etched into their scythe the day it was given to them.
“This is Chase’s scythe.”
“A glowing scythe?” Keira asked. “You guys know what this means right?”
It was then I remembered. It had never happened in our lifetime or in the lifetime of any other Grim that I knew, but I’d learned it in my Grim studies. A scythe glowed on the Lord of Death’s eighteenth birthday, but that made no sense. There had to be some mistake.
“Anyway,” Nokomis said, “can we hide that thing under a bed or something? Better yet, put it outside.”
Chase trudged over to his scythe, wiping the sleep from his eyes. “Sorry, guys. I’ll put it outside.”
Before I fell asleep again, the doors of the barn opened and closed.
11
“More bacon,” Naomi asked, already piling the extra slices on my plate. It was her morning to help serve breakfast.
“Thanks,” I said, taking my plate to a table where Chase and Keira were already eating. I dug into my scrambled eggs. “So, what’s on the schedule today?”
Chase took a sip of coffee. “Training then I’m helping Scarlett do some planting and I guess whatever else needs to be done.”
Our recent loss left us with less people and more work to do to keep things going. “How does it feel officially be a man.”
Chase thought for a moment. “Exactly the same.”
Keira was about to comment when she stopped watching something over my shoulder. I turned to see what she was looking at. A small, silver transportation chamber materialized right before my eyes.
Everyone stopped eating and stood. There was no telling what would step out of that thing.
The door slid open and out stepped Dunstan and Doyle. I exhaled, relieved.
“What are you doing here . . . again?” Marshal demanded.
Doyle held his hand up, ignoring him, his eyes fixed on me. “We received news of a glowing scythe.”
I turned to Chase.
Chase frowned. “Yeah, my scythe started glowing last night. I’m sure it will stop soon.”
Dunstan’s face brightened and he waved Chase over. “Come here, son.”
Chase rubbed his forehead and did as he was told. Dunstan rested his hands on Chase’s shoulders. “You know what a glowing scythe means, right? There’s only one reason a scythe would glow.”
The other Grims looked at me as if I had any idea what was happening.
“Yeah,” Chase said. “A scythe glows when a Death Lord turns eighteen and it’s time for him to take the throne. But of course, that has to be a mistake. Dunningham has no children and I’m no heir to the throne.”
Doyle bounced on the balls of his feet with his arms folded over his chest. “It would seem that way wouldn’t it, but one thing we all know is that the scythe doesn’t lie. Someway or somehow, you are our new Lord of Death.”
Chase looked helplessly at my sister who only shrugged. I was just as confused as they were. What was happening?
Dunstan placed his hands on the sides of Chase’s face. “Nephew, you are officially the Death Lord of Nowhere. Now, you must come back and save Nowhere from the hands of my maniacal brother. Long live death.”
Want to know what happens next? Find out in Chase Grim: Book Four of the Final Breath Chronicles
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