“I’m telling you,” Bianca urged, “if he dies,” she pointed at Xander, “we are going to face a world-ending threat.”
“You also said that would happen if I revived Grim,” Vivien countered, stepping protectively in front of Grim. She wouldn’t change anything about what she did and dared Bianca to say otherwise. Vivien seemed to have forgotten they were on the same side.
Bianca brushed her hair back from her face. “That’s what I’m telling you, Vivien. This is all connected. Bringing Grim back has tipped a line of dominoes into motion that are falling faster and faster, bringing us all here. And it very well may take us to the end of days.”
“Bianca,” Timothy snapped, his voice tinged with frustration. “Xander deserves death. It is his right. He has been denied all these years, and the world has only suffered from his presence.”
Xander’s spine curved as if he’d been physically hit.
Timothy kept going though. “He is the reason we left our home and came here, to get far from the ocean. He causes brownouts with his overflow of power and is one step away from being a nuclear bomb.”
“But he’s better,” Vivien said, her tone pleading. “Miranda has been cutting a lot of his power away, and he is better. They can have a happy ending.”
“Xander has been too far removed from the world,” Timothy chided, his eyes narrowing at her. “He cannot reintegrate, not after so long. It would be a danger to everyone. It’s not just his power that makes him dangerous.”
I nervously licked my lips, watching the battle unfold, feeling excluded. I had been prepared to be thrust into the melee, but it felt worse being left out of it.
All this time, Grim had been silent, his gaze heavy upon me. He was studying me, like he could see all the mistakes, all the strange games, and the bizarre dance I’d engaged in with Xander. I’d started out as a professional, but now I’d fallen into another mode altogether.
“Love,” my brain whispered. “You’ve fallen in love.”
Or was it Bob that whispered that?
But Grim had also forsaken all the rules because he loved Vivien. I was ready for him to take the work out of this, tell Timothy that it was clear I couldn’t go forward with this. Not with Bianca’s vision. I was going to be released here and now from my duties by the Grim Reaper himself, and then we’d go from there.
“You are such a baby,” Vivien said, wheeling on Timothy, her stance defensive. “This feels way more about your piss-poor excuses to keep Aaron at an arm’s distance than it is about Xander and Miranda’s situation. Do you just not want anyone to be happy if it can’t fit into your little boxes?”
Timothy’s face flushed fully red. I’d never seen him so out of sorts. A crackling power filled the room, different from Xander’s. It was more lightweight and nipped at the skin like little sparklers that almost, but didn’t, hurt.
“That’s enough,” Grim bellowed, his face flickering into a skull of deep, sucking darkness. It made the pit of my stomach drop out, as if my body anticipated instant death. But Grim’s face cleared back into the whiskey-colored human eyes, gaze still trained on me and Xander.
“Bianca, I give your visions great credence, but if there was one thing I know, it was that death was necessary for the health and wellbeing of this entire realm. Xander’s anomaly threw even the elements into chaos. And as the protector of humanity, I could not condone his existence to continue in such a way. Miranda swore she would uphold the duty of her blade and made the judgement that it would be so. I trusted she would abide by her judgement without emotions clouding the matter.”
The breath was sucked straight out from my lungs. Instead of grabbing and clinging to Xander’s arm protectively, I curled my hands into fists. My boss’s eyes were a mix of disappointment and regret. Disappointment in me, regret for having to be the enforcer in the situation.
“Grim,” Bianca breathed sharply as if he’d slapped her. The god of the dead held dominion over all other gods, and what he said, went. She’d been shut down, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Vivien’s expression was crestfallen, her shoulders curved in disappointment. Her eyes welled with tears, and I knew my best friend well enough to sense she was taking his judgement personally. While she was a vampire, she still had an overabundance of humanity and did her best to influence him with it, but it was clear he would not be swayed on this matter further.
Timothy adjusted his cufflinks, avoiding my gaze. He’d gotten what he wanted. But a bitter seed of resentment in me agreed with Vivien. Timothy had made my situation with Xander some strange avatar of his own issues with Aaron. He wanted to ruin our chance because he didn’t have one of his own.
No, that wasn’t fair. Timothy was my friend.
It was me. Me who wanted Grim to change his mind. But there was someone else’s will I answered to over Grim’s. My shoulders straightened. I told Grim I wouldn’t do it for him. I would judge based off the plea of the god himself.
“I agree,” Xander said. “Thank you for making this simple, Grim. I’ve always appreciated your sound judgement.”
I pivoted to Xander, incredulity contorting my features. My eyes, usually guarded, laid bare the sting of betrayal. I expected him to be defensive and cold like he usually was when he was trying to push me away. But instead, I saw sound logic and agreement with Grim.
I could fight him on being stubborn, but I couldn’t fight this.
“Xander, I—” I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill him because I loved him.
My throat closed around itself, strangling the words out. I could barely admit it to myself, much less in front of so many others.
Xander gave me a half-smile and grabbed my shoulders, kissing my forehead. “This was always the plan,” he said, reaching for my duster and pulling out Bob.
Bob cried out in protest, “No, no, no! Tell him, Miranda! Tell him you can’t kill him because you love him. That every time you end his life, you kill a little bit of yourself. And tell him I don’t want to taste his blood anymore. It’s. . .it’s icky.”
