“We’ll go with that,” grumbled Grim.
I smiled at Flora and Johann, who, both sniffling now, followed us, no doubt wanting to see us off as Cedric escorted us to the nearest portal—the doorway that would not just take us home but return me and Grim to the greatest gift of all.
Life.
And not just any life—but one the two of us would get to spend… together.
EPILOGUEHELENA
I wore a flower crown crafted from real, deep pink roses, yellow daisies, lavender, and baby’s breath. And Ididlook queenly.
My newkiller, smash-hit Halloween costume, a floor-length chiffon dress of a softer complementary pink, even had a short train.
Grim looked mouthwatering (as ever) in head-to-toe black and a spiky ebony crown. A sweeping black cloak, knee-high boots, and Gothic belt completed his own guise, and instead of his scythe, he now carried a dark staff topped by a crimson globe.
Hunter had come up with the idea for a couple’s costume, but it had beenmyidea to dress as Hades and Persephone—perhaps the OG power couple.
I hadn’t even had to convince Grim, either. He’d just said “sure” when I’d asked him if he wanted to attend the costume party with me—to return to the place we’d met roughly one year before.
Now, on Halloween night, we stood together amid the crowd of fellow partygoers, our contrasting figures bathed in the glow of colored lights, swirled in the mist of the fog machines, swathed in our faux finery, our hands linked.
“Do you ever miss it?” I asked him while spooky, techno-themedmusic pulsed and revelers frolicked on the dance floor, their costumes ranging from elegant to absurd, grotesque, and ironic.
“The job?” he guessed, glancing down at me, his tattoos poking through the sexy open collar of his tunic.
I gave him a soft smile. I’d asked him this question before and he’d given me a very Grim version of “no,” but now he’d had some time away, some distance to think and reflect… more fully adjust.
“I think I miss it the way you do Gus the Bus,” he said.
I snort-laughed, catching the unladylike sound in one hand. Then I grinned, basking in his attention and glowing under his ardent gaze.
He smiled, too—just a smirk. Grim rarely smiled big, but Ihadmade him laugh, too.
Like when I’d stepped in the paint pan while helping him to redecorate his new apartment, the one he’d rented in my same complex.
We still spent most nights together, either Grim at my place, or me at his, but my apartment was small, and he hadn’t wanted to cramp me by moving in while he, very literally, rejoined the land of the living.
He wouldn’t have cramped me but since he lived only a few doors down (much to Ms. Lynn’s dismay), I could let Grim do things his way without complaint.
In addition to getting to keep his misty shadow powers, his smoke skills, Grim, it turned out, got something of a pension. Enough to help him comfortably get on his feet in the “real” world, which he had through his music.
Understandably, practicing the modern guitar since the instrument’s inception meant he had acquired a certain level of skill. And one afternoon, after hearing Grim play during a special teen program I’d roped him into, Hunter immediately lost all fear of him—and began hounding Grim to form a band with him and a few of his friends.
Now they were Death’s Obsession, a metal band (of course) with an alternative rock flair.
Grim said he’d named the band after me—after us. Though Grim hadn’t expected the band to go anywhere, Hunter’s prowess with social media had ensured otherwise.
Now it seemed everyone knew him as “Grim.” Except, of course, for the people who called about car insurance for The Judge, credit cards, and bogus extended warranties.
On paper (and his new driver’s license), he was the man he’d once been, the man he’d spent time reconnecting with and remembering—Renwick Loxley.
I loved both versions of him equally and deeply.
“Oh my gosh,” I said when the pumping music died out and the DJ filtered in a new song, slower and far more melodious than the techno. It was also a song I knew well—David Bowie’s “As the World Falls Down” from the movieLabyrinth.
I seized Grim’s arm, wrapping it with both of mine. “Can we dance?”
Grim only gestured to the dance floor with one sweep of his arm, inviting me to join him there just the way the king of the underworld would.
