Prologue
Phin
All the reapers would be present for the meeting taking place in half an hour. The office wasn’t full throughout the day. Reapers came and went, mostly finishing intake forms, but they didn’t congregate very often. Each reaper lived and worked in a different sector. They came in when Morgana, the head of all the reapers and my boss, called a meeting.
The reason for the meeting was on my desk. The paper had burned into existence yesterday afternoon. Bob, the reaper in Sector Two, had finally announced his retirement. He’d been the oldest reaper. No doubt his soul was tired. I liked Bob a lot, even though he’d stopped coming into the office two years ago. He filed his paperwork from home. It was always on time.
What would Bob’s afterlife be like? Sector Two was the most desirable because it was in the tropics. I had it on good authority — by which I mean Hale, the office gossip — that Bob lived in a villa on the beach. He spent all his free time fishing. How could one upgrade from that?
Perhaps where his life would end was how it would continue. In a villa by the water, so he could spend his time on a boat, holding a fishing pole.
I hadn’t been Morgana’s assistant for very long. At least not in reaper terms. Even the last reaper had served the Soul Management Bureau for over a hundred and fifty years. That was three times my age and five times as long as I’d been an assistant.
Not that I was talking to Ossy, the youngest reaper, who had been with the Bureau the shortest time. Ossy had stood me up for the last time. He made a good reaper, but a poor choice for office romance. Not that we were supposed to fraternize with each other. That was the only rule I had ever broken. I thought Ossy was worth breaking a rule for. I hope I wasn’t wrong about that.
I pushed my glasses up my nose and tried not to think about all the things Ossy had done last night instead of showing up for our date.
Jealousy didn’t look good on me, and it wouldn’t do for anyone to notice, especially Ossy.
I was pretty sure the reapers had figured out that Ossy and I had been sleeping together. At least the most observant among them had. But no one would say anything about it.
Grym was the first reaper off the elevator. Not surprising, given how much of a workaholic he was.
He stopped at my desk and set a cup of coffee in front of me. “Good morning, Phineas. How are you today?”
I smiled and brought the cup to my lips, sipping. I shut my eyes, letting the sugar and caffeine work through my system. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Grym remembered my coffee order. He remembered what I liked whenever we ordered pizza or Chinese food for office lunches. Not that I was special. Grymremembered everyone’s orders. It was the fact that he did that made him boyfriend material. So why did I have to fall for Ossy, who didn’t even remember when we made plans for a date? He’d even been the one to ask me. Not the other way around. Last night hadn’t been the first time he’d ditched me, but it would be the last.
“I’m well and still not telling you what the meeting is about.” I smirked, took another sip of coffee, and set the cup on the corner of my desk.
Only then did I remember the paper sitting in front of me, visible to anyone. I tried to turn it over, but Grym had already grabbed it.
I huffed, but only because Grym had been faster. It was really unfair that he had it all. He was the complete package. He was handsome, hardworking, and genuine. He also had a sexy accent.
I couldn’t even see without my glasses. My sister, who had bug eyes, always teased me about having eyes that were set too far back in my head. I completely disagreed with that, but I was now self-conscious about it. Tara had been a rotten older sister when we were kids. She wasn’t that great as an adult, if I were being honest, but that was mostly because her latest bad choice was a worse boyfriend than all the others combined, and that was saying something, considering one of them had gone to prison for ten years for a crime he had, in fact, committed. In her defense, I wasn’t doing any better in the love department, considering Ossy didn’t bother to show up half the time.
As Grym read, his smile widened. The pure happiness was unmistakable. He came back to himself, schooling his features. A cool calculation took over, and the wheels spun in his mind.
Grym had a good chance of getting it. Morgana liked his work ethic, as did all the reapers. What pushed him to the front washis willingness to help other reapers when they got into a bit of a jam. Grym was also quick to react.
“Morgana will announce it today, but keep it to yourself for now.” It wouldn’t do for the reapers to know before Morgana could make the announcement. What good would the meeting be if that happened?
Grym nodded. There was an extra spring in his step, and for good reason. If I knew Morgana at all, and I knew her better than just about anyone, she’d choose Grym for Sector Two. It would be between him and Azriel, with Grym having the edge. Morgana would consider his longevity in his current sector before anything else.
“I hope you get it, Grym. Truly.” I meant it. He deserved a break, and Sector Two would give him one.
“Thank you, Phin.” Grym headed into the meeting room.
I’d already set the boxes of donuts in the center of the long table. Morgana liked to soften them up with sugary dough, but I hadn’t made the copies she’d requested yet, and I was a little late starting the task. I grabbed the papers from her desk and headed to the copy room.
I was ten minutes into the stack, collating the pages, when the door opened and then clicked shut softly.
The copy room doubled as a supply closet, with shelves blocking the view of the door and of anyone entering.
The lock clicking into place was subtle, but it might as well have been deafening for how it affected me.
I knew exactly who had entered. My whole body recognized Ossy. Every cell hummed in appreciation of his presence, remembering the last time he’d touched me.
