Then again, mine included not dallying withmortals. The fine print? Well, it didn’t say anything about entertaining one of The Few.
Suddenly, the Grim Reaper book on the library shelf and the note Helena had found inside made more sense…
As did the second Fated—Mr. Bluford.
Or, rather, Sir Blue.
Could it be… was it possible that getting rid of me had, somewhere along the way, become an inside job?
How many of The Few had Cedric enlisted against me?
Enough, it seemed, that the wizard was about to get his wish.
“I don’t need to remind you,” I said, “that you can’t take the job if I don’t pass it along.”
“But Icanapply if you’re found derelict in your duties,” countered Cedric through a bored sigh—like he was tired of thinking ahead of me. “Which you soon will be. Given that you’re about to go quite… well…missing.”
A beat passed in which my soul withered, wilting within me and sinking into my empty gut.
Cedric had me in checkmate. There was no denying that.
While I hadn’t expected my stint in Elysium with Helena to last long, I hadn’t foreseen it coming to a screeching halt quite this soon, either.
“Clearly,” I said, glancing from Cedric to Sir Black and back again, “I’m leaving the Hallowed Halls regardless. But swear in front of The Few to leave Helena alone, to let her live, to grant her your credited life, and I’ll make the bargain. I’ll pass the scythe—and everything—to you of my own free will.”
Cedric gave one short and scoffing laugh. Then he tilted his head at me, a look of dark bemusement crossing those features before they sobered back into veiled rage.
“Two things,” he said. “Firstly, I think you can appreciate how well beyond the point of negotiations the two of us have now traveled. Secondly, since I’ve had my own plans for that life right from the start—something you guessed at,correctly—I can only promiseyou one thing. And that is, unlike you, when it comes to Helena, Iwilldo my job.”
Gripping my scythe between both hands, I started toward him, fully aware I wasn’t going to get close enough to chop his block offandof the fact that, even if I did, it wouldn’t change anything.
All the same, if I was going to go down, itwouldbe swinging.
Every fucking time.
Cedric made no move to evade me. He didn’t have to with Sir Black stepping forward.
Not caring anymore, I took my swing at him, but the angel, the devil—whatever he was—caught the scythe, which he ripped free of my grip like someone tearing a toy from the grasp of a child.
As he discarded the weapon, which misted to nothing, his other metal, black-clawed hand lashed out to snatch me by the throat.
Caught in his grip—more unrelenting even than mine—I pried at his fist with both of my skeletal hands as he hauled me toward his Basin, the entrance tomyhell.
Helena. She’d be waiting for me again, and again I wouldn’t show.
Would she think—even for one moment—that I’d lied about loving her?
Why did that strike me as the most horrifying part of this?
Sir Black dragged me to the Black Basin, which, as soon as we got close, loosed tendrils of ebony muck—oily whips that lashed me by the throat as well. They snagged me by the wrists, too—my ribs and spine, which cracked as my assailant bowed me backward over the hungry vat.
Helena, I’m sorry.
Helena, I love you.
“Farewell, Grim,” said Cedric even as I still strained to escape. “You might not believe this, but I will miss you. It’s nice, though, to see you at last heading somewhere where you’re wanted.”
I fought against Sir Black even as he bore down on me, shovingme into the Black Basin, which unleashed more tentacles, all of them finding bones to wind around and tug.
