by Cara Wylde
He nodded. “Until next time, daughter.” He teleported away.
Oh, fuck me! Why am I cold? I lifted my arm and sniffed under my armpit. Aloe Vera deodorant. Good. The rotting process hadn’t started yet. God, I hate my life. On second thought, this whole thing about freedom from Life and Death didn’t sound that bad. I could bet Yig wasn’t complaining. I started walking in the opposite direction, my eyes scanning the forest up ahead. I had to get back to the ball, finish the scythe demonstration, but I didn’t feel like it. I needed a moment to myself.
“I can’t just let him destroy the world, that’s for sure,” I started talking to myself out loud. “I should just tell the Council what he told me and let them deal with it. Hm.”
I reached the shore of the frozen lake and stepped on solid ground. A white fox ran out of the trees, startled. She stopped a few feet away from me and turned to study me curiously, one paw in the air. All dressed in white, on a white background. I might as well have been a ghost.
“What’s your opinion about the Wheel of Time, little fox? About Miss Life and Miss Death? I bet neither of them is married.”
The fox sniffed the air. Seeing as I was safe, she trotted toward me, stopped at my feet, and sniffed me again. She stuck her tongue out and licked her snout.
“Really?!”
Foxes ate dead things. I huffed and teleported back.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was an ambush. I didn’t want to meet my revenant brothers and sisters, yet they wanted to meet me. Or more like Leopold Saint-Germain and Francis Saint-Germain Senior wanted to introduce us, so it was done. When I followed Francis, GC, Paz, and Sariel into the cavern, – Francis pushing the blindfolded girl we were about to throw down the well, – the first thing I noticed was that all the tunnels were lit. A knot formed in my throat. As we approached the main cave, a murmur of voices echoed down the narrow corridors, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Francis, what did you do?”
He turned to me, his mossy green eyes soft and pleading.
“I couldn’t stop them. When my father and my grandfather want something…”
“I’m not going in there.”
“It’s just a few people, I promise. Close family friends.”
“You don’t understand. I’m not part of your cult, okay? I’m not going in there.”
I started down the tunnel, back to the beach. The boys shuffled behind me, unsure of what to do. A muffled cry from the girl and a curse from Sariel. Quick steps. Francis must have pushed the sacrifice into Sariel’s hands for safe keeping, so he could catch up with me. A few more strides, and I’d be out in the open air.
“Mila, please!”
I snapped around to face him. The late December wind blew my hair back and caressed my collarbone. God, I was freezing! On second thought, though, winter was good for my rotting body. It slowed down the process.
“There’s a cult down there,” I pointed angrily toward the dark mouth of the cave. “A group of insane murderers who’re worshipping a monster from another dimension as if it were a god.”
He furrowed his brows and bit the inside of his cheek. “He is a god, Mila.”
“No, it’s not.” But Francis didn’t know what I knew. I hadn’t told my boyfriends about what I’d found out from Morningstar the night of the Yule Ball. In fact, I hadn’t found out anything. It was all insinuation. Either way, I refused to call the thing in the well “he”. “It’s different than us, it can do things we can’t, but that doesn’t make it a god. And I will not be part of its cult. So, kindly tell your dear family friends to fuck off, so I can push that bitch down the well and go home for Christmas.”
Almost everyone at the Academy had gone home for the holidays. Klaus and Lorna had left the morning after the Ball. Only Patricia and Joel had had to stick around and help with the cleaning. The bitch I was talking about? Drug dealer. Paz, who had a special built-in radar for sinners, had found her for me. She’d been dealing to high school kids. The world was going to be a better place without her. Or so Paz said… Or so they all said, because it was the only way to convince me. They needed me alive more than the world needed her, that was for sure. God, what have I become? God? Maybe I shouldn’t… speak your name.
“I’m sorry,” he said, defeated. “What’s done is done.”
“You couldn’t keep them away? You couldn’t stop them from coming? For me…”
“I tried, believe me. My grandfather…”
I dragged in a painful breath. “Your grandfather is an asshole.” I threaded my fingers through my blue hair, pulled harshly, and to my horror, ended up with a clump of it in my hands, a bit of bloody flesh hanging from the roots. “Shit. You have me cornered.” I couldn’t wait a minute longer, let alone a day. If I didn’t go into the cavern, they’d get bored of waiting and just go away. Right? I couldn’t verify my theory when time wasn’t on my side, though. I’d waited long enough. Too long. “Fine.” I stomped past Francis. “But this doesn’t mean anything. This is just me buying myself another three or four months.”
“They won’t bother you again, I promise.”
“Hold your promises, Francis,” I growled. I was super pissed off at him. Usually, I was pissed off at GC or Pazuzu, who were experts at getting on my nerves. “I’m not sure I believe in them anymore.”
He followed me in silence. We reached the opening to the main cavern – tall and wide, filled with candles and people in black cloaks. GC, Pazuzu, and Sariel were waiting for us there.
“Well, let’s go in, shall we?”
I exchanged a glance with Sariel and saw the sadness in his blue eyes. I briefly wondered if he’d assisted to one of these meetings before. But why would he? He wasn’t a revenant. Maybe only to support his friend… Does friendship even run this deep?
I made my way through the small crowd that had gathered around the well. Leopold and Francis Senior were there, at the front, holding candles and chanting something under their breath. When they saw me, Leopold offered me a smile, and Francis Senior simply nodded. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at them. At everyone. Roll my eyes at how stupid this whole thing was. Francis took the blindfolded girl from Sariel and brought her to me, then took a few steps back. He pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. By their standards, I was probably dressed inappropriately. Blue jeans, an old T-shirt, and a leather jacket. GC, Paz, and Sariel were dressed normally, too, but they’d retreated at the back of the cave, sensing they didn’t belong here. As if anyone would have ever wanted to belong here.
I looked over the people Francis had called “close family friends.” They all had their heads covered and eyes cast down. With dripping candles in their hands, they chanted the same mantra the two Saint-Germains were chanting. “Ya kadishtu n’gha.” They looked young under their hoods. As if the moment they’d entrusted their souls to Yig, the creature had made them invisible to Time.
I sighed and said the words, too. “Ya stell’bsna y’bthnk orr’e syha’h. Ya kadishtu n’gha.” I walked the girl to the well. Yig’s tentacles were reaching hungrily over the edge, spilling onto the floor, feeling their way around, searching for the prey. One of the slimy things found my left foot. I stood frozen in place, staring at the tentacle, waiting to see what it would do next. Would it recognize me as one of its children, or wrap itself around me and drag me down into the pit? For a second there, I hoped. “Not her,” Francis had yelled at the monster the fateful night I’d come down here for the first time. And the monster had listened to him.
“Not me,” I whispered now, my self-preservation stronger than the disgust for what I was about to do.
The tentacle retreated swiftly. With a sigh, I pushed the girl over the edge and said the words again. There was no reverence in my tone. Yig didn’t notice or didn’t care. The cultists were chanting louder now, their voices filling the cavern and echoing down the winding tunnels. It was a good thing Grim Reaper Academy was empty.
; My strength was returning, which meant that the blood sacrifice had worked. I needed to get out of there. If I accepted to do it with all these people watching, it didn’t mean that I wanted to stick around and actually meet them. I was surrounded, though, and now the black hoods were falling, eyes seeking mine. They’d all stopped chanting.
“Mila Morningstar,” Leopold Saint-Germain said in a voice that betrayed… pride? “This is Mila Morningstar, and she is family now.” He wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to them… Parading me. “Soon, she will be the most fearsome Grim Reaper our world has ever seen.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re confusing me with someone else, old man.”
Leopold merely grinned. “If you take your father’s place, – and you will, – what do you think you’ll become?”
This was a waste of time. An old man who’d been alive for too many centuries, who was bored out of his mind, wanted to make a show of me because I was the most interesting thing that had happened to his family in forever. I didn’t have time, nor disposition for this. I made to walk past him. He caught me by the arm. When our eyes met, mine were burning with hatred, and his with unabashed curiosity.
“What will you do with all that power, Mila Morningstar?”
“You know what. I’ll take all of you lot down.”
He shook his head. “You won’t be concerned with us or with Yig anymore. Now, you feel like your life is defined by the Great Old One and the sacrifices you have to bring…”
“My life is not defined by anything,” I spat through gritted teeth.
“But once you become a Grim Reaper, you will be working directly for Death, and she will grant you immunity. For two hundred years, you won’t have to sacrifice a soul to keep what our Great Old One has given you.”
My eyebrows might have just disappeared into my blue, disheveled fringe at that point. He was right. Once I became a Grim Reaper, I’d be free of Yig. Two hundred years of freedom. Enough to find a way to get rid of him. I smiled at the old Saint-Germain – who didn’t look old at all, – and he released my arm. Everyone was looking at me, now. I met the gazes of those who were closer, nodded politely, then finally made my exit. GC, Paz, and Sariel followed me. Francis stayed with his family. Fine. I didn’t want him anywhere near me, anyway. For the time being.
“Are you okay?” GC asked me.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, love,” Paz tried.
I stopped in the middle of the beach. I was feeling better, my body having healed from the inside. I wasn’t cold anymore.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I looked the demon in the eyes.
“Francis said it was for the best. He couldn’t get rid of his family, so better now than later, when things get complicated.”
“Complicated how?” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at my three boyfriends. Of course, Pazuzu had known because he was a telepath. GC and Sariel looked just as guilty.
When Paz only sighed and left my question hanging, GC stepped forward into the moonlight. His curly blond hair turned a shade of silver and blue.
“Mila, we know something’s going on. Skipping classes with Lorna, Corri becoming all flustered when we ask her where you are… And now Paz…”
I turned to the demon again. “You’ve been reading my thoughts!” Which was outrageous, because I’d been trying extra hard to keep them shielded from him.
He faced me, his eyes turning red. This might have just been the first time he was angry at me.
“I haven’t, because you wouldn’t let me! You’re hiding something from us! What is it? Why can’t you tell us?”
I shook my head. Because you’ll think I’m insane. Because you won’t love me anymore.
“It’s none of your business,” I said, instead. “And why should I tell you when you’ve been hiding things from me, too? You knew I didn’t want to meet the revenants. And yet, you ambushed me. All of you!” I looked at GC, and then Sariel. “You made me sacrifice that girl in front of all those people, and they were chanting… as if… as if…” I was losing my breath. Maybe my lungs were slow to recover. I swallowed heavily and centered myself. I didn’t have time for this. In a fair world, the blood sacrifice would have taken me five minutes tops, and I would’ve been home by now. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” I continued in a calmer voice. “I think we should take a break. I’m going to spend my winter vacation with Stepan and Ilena, and I need you to… give me space.”
They couldn’t believe their ears. GC’s eyes widened, and Paz’s red orbs turned to normal.
“You’re… breaking up with us?” Sariel asked in bewilderment.
“No. Yes. I don’t know.”
“Because of what Francis did?”
“What did I do?” Francis came running out of the caves.
Great. As if this wasn’t hard enough already.
“Yes. And also because Paz has been poking around in my head when I specifically asked him not to do it. My thoughts are my own.”
“I’m sorry,” the demon whispered.
“Goddess, you can’t do this to us.” There was GC with that pleading, seductive voice.
I couldn’t look at them. It was true – I needed time and space. To think. To act. And then, when all of this was over, we could get back together. Start anew. But now… Now I just didn’t feel like I was good girlfriend material. Too much pressure to be the woman they thought I was, the woman they loved and cared for. I wasn’t, and that was that. For now, I had to accept it. One day, maybe I’d become her.
“I’m gonna go now,” I said firmly. “Don’t call me, okay? Don’t text me.” I teleported to my room.
“Mila, what the hell?!” GC teleported right after me.
With a sigh, I pushed him aside and grabbed my scythe. Corri had been snoozing in my sock drawer. She never attended the bloody rituals. When she saw us, she shot in the air, raising a small cloud of pixie dust.
“Pack my clothes for me and bring them to the Lazarovs,” I told her, then turned to GC. “It’s temporary.”
“Don’t go.”
“I have to. And you have to give me space, okay?” I leaned in and kissed his lips.
“I’ve always been on your side. I was the first.”
He was talking about him being my first boyfriend, before Pazuzu had broken his engagement to Pandora, and way before Sariel had lost his wings and fallen into my arms. Before Francis, too.
“I love you,” I said.
“It doesn’t mean anything if you’re leaving.”
“It means everything, GC. Because I’m protecting you.”
He huffed in frustration. “From whom?!”
“From me.”
I teleported to my adoptive parents’ house, knowing two things: one, my boyfriends wouldn’t follow me because they knew that would only make things worse, and two, there was a good chance I might give Stepan Lazarov a heart attack if I appeared in the middle of his living room.
“Well, welcome home, since you’re here already,” he said boredly.
Shoot. The bastard’s tougher than I thought.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“You want us to do what?”
“Adopt her, like you adopted me.”
We were all sitting in the kitchen the next morning, around a table filled with Mom’s pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, and a pitcher of orange juice. She’d brought the juice and the pancake mix from the diner, as usual.
“No,” Stepan said simply.
“Why not?” Lena tried in a meek voice. She was poking two pieces of bacon around her plate, looking at him fearfully, from behind her lashes.
“Woman, you wanted to give Mila a home, and look how that turned out. I’m done with this family.”
“Yolanda is not directly related to me,” I tried to reason with him. I knew what he was afraid of, and to my chagrin, his instincts were right. “Second cousin. And her parents aren’t supernatural. I checked.�
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My adoptive dad pushed his plate aside and stuck a toothpick between his lips. Leaning back in his chair, he gave me an intense look, as if he was trying to read into my soul. I averted my eyes and cut myself a piece of pancake. I hadn’t told them the truth about why I hadn’t been home in such a long time.
“You seem different,” he said. “What happened?”
“What do you mean? Nothing happened.” I shrugged.
“You didn’t tell us about last year, about how you spent your summer…”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and I sighed. I had to give him something. “Last year was a mess because of Valentine. No vacations, no breaks, no nothing. I needed some time for myself after that.”
“Nah. You cut us off completely.”
“Aww… you’ve always wanted to get rid of me, and now you’re telling me you missed me?”
“You broke you mother’s heart, that’s all.”
I wasn’t getting anywhere. My best bet was to convince Ilena they had to take Yoli in, and there was a chance she could convince Stepan. So, I told her about the orphanage, about how Lorna and I visited the children every month and brought them things, and about how hard their life was. My mom was a kind soul. She didn’t need much convincing.
“Maybe if you told your dad the whole truth,” Corri told me one night, “That you need Yolanda to catch Morningstar… He’d be more inclined to help. He hates the guy.”
I shook my head. “I can’t tell them that. You know how bad it sounds… The girl is eleven, and I want to use her to find my real mom and my asshole of a father. If she can dream jump, that is.”
Corri blew out her little cheeks and dropped it. These days, not even she could make me change my mind when I’d already decided something.
I badgered them for a week. I went to help my mom at the diner, and not once did I let her forget there was a girl in an orphanage in Bulgaria who needed her help. The Lazarovs weren’t rich, but what they had was still more than what Yolanda had now. I caught my dad alone in the garage, and badgered him some more.
