“I don’t understand how having visions could make you any better at what you do.”
“When I mentioned earlier that you were the only one that was resistant to his, ah… charms, that wasn’t exactly accurate,” Grim said, taking a seat on the couch. “It seems Charming here might be losing his touch. He isn’t as charming as he once was.”
“Yes,” Charming growled. “I am.”
Grim made a tsking sound. “You have two failed jobs this year. You used to havenone.”
“They weren’t failed, because I killed them,” Charming said, making another sour face.
“True, true,” Grim offered. “If you hadn’t managed to kill them, I would have recalled you on the spot. But still, we didn’t collect the money we should have.”
Charming didn’t say anything and the Grim Reaper kept talking.
“So, we thought giving him the ability to have visions,” Grim began, “might help us know if his certain charms would work before he put in the time and effort.”
They wanted to use my visions to pick and choose people to rob and kill. They wanted tokillme to make it easier to kill even more people. I felt tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I pushed them back. I wasn’t going to show weakness in front of these two men who talked about life and death as if it were something as trivial as which shoes to wear. How could anyone have so little value for life?
Without thinking, I turned toward Charming. “I get why he cares so little about life—he is the Grim Reaper—but why… why don’t you?”
He didn’t reply right away and Grim stood from his seat and changed the subject. “This has been fun, but duty calls. Where is Dex?”
Charming shrugged. “He went to the hospital. He went to destroy the stone.”
A sharp gust of wind swept through the room and the crystal glass in Grim’s hand shattered. “What did you just say to me?”
Just like that, the jolly air around him transformed into something sinister and absolute. His eyes glowed with an electric spark and his skin turned paper thin and stretched out over his bones. These things made him look scary and a little crazy, but it was the lightning from his fingers tips that seemed to spark out and rain down onto the carpet that was truly terrifying.
This was the man that claimed death with a single touch. This was how I envisioned someone like the Grim Reaper.
“You allowed this little conversation to go on when you knew what he was up to? You knew he was trying to break my claim!”
When he spoke the wind around the room blew, picking up the papers on his desk and sending them flying. The massive chair behind his desk began to spin rapidly with great whipping circles.
“I knew he’d never be able to do it,” Charming said, but there was fear in his voice. He knew his charm wouldn’t work on the likes of Grim.
“This betrayal will not go unpunished,” he said, taking a shuddering breath as another doorway appeared. This one I could see through, and on the other side was my hospital room. I didn’t wait for an invitation or for an order. I ran at the door and jumped through.
Unfortunately, Grim was right behind me.
Chapter Fifty-Seven
“Recall - to cancel, take back, or revoke.”
Dex
The nurses tried to talk to me when I burst through the second-floor doors. I ignored them and rushed past the desk and the slowly moving patients to Piper’s room. I slammed through the door, the handle banging against the wall when I flung it open wide…
Then I stopped, cold.
The bed was made.
The room was empty.
Not wanting to accept what I saw, I hurried into the bathroom only to find it vacant too. The nurse came in behind me and shifted nervously.
“Where is she?” I demanded, breathing hard.
“We thought you might know. She was all set to be released and then when we brought her papers to sign, she was gone.”
