Not with my car barreling straight at me, headlights blazing.
11GRIM
“Happy All Hallow’s Eve, Grim.”
I sighed inwardly as Flora drifted to stand in my periphery, bare toes peeking out over the roof ledge of the New York City high-rise. I’d chosen to brood there after collecting a blue soul from one of its cubicles. Hopefully they would find his vacated shell sooner rather than later, but then, the ones who worked late tended not to have many who would miss them quickly.
Seated on the edge, a hulking stone gargoyle on my left, my boots dangling toward the windows, I glared at the glittering streams of traffic below.
The sour stench of smog swirled with the far-off hints of food, the conglomeration of scents so different from Helena’s warm, citrusy, and faintly floral aroma. Oranges and honeysuckle, with just a hint of vanilla.
Shit. How the fuck did I know how she smelled?
Maybe I’d caught a whiff while holding her hostage in the library basement. Maybe her scent lingered in her apartment, too.
Disturbing that I could list the components. And maybe a little creepy.
Fuck, was I a creep?
“Quiet night for me, too,” said Flora. “Hope it lasts…”
Far below, horns honked, and sirens wailed, all while the wind rushed past us, sending Flora’s fiery tresses into a flurry while it tugged in vain at the hood I never allowed to come down.
“I have to ask,” she said. “Are you really not going to speak to Johann again?”
Shifting her cloth satchel into her lap, Flora took a seat beside me, her own legs kicking while she waited for me to answer. When I didn’t, she scrounged in her bag.
“Just left Wisconsin,” she said. “Lookit what I got him.”
With one delicate hand, Flora yanked forth an enormous wedge of fake yellow cheese. Grinning, the fairy popped the foam triangle onto her head, revealing the novelty to be another hat for Johann’s growing collection.
“I think he’s going to love it,” she said, “don’t you?”
I didn’t say anything. Not because it was in my plan to ignore Flora. Just as was the case with Johann, I didn’t know what to say to her.
The truth was… I needed help. At the same time, I didn’t know how to ask for it.
I wasn’t sure I truly wanted it, either.
Because, if I did ask for help, that meant Flora and Johann would get involved—become culpable, just like me. Flora might even have the capacity to collect the librarian’s—Helena’s—soul herself. Most adult souls proved too strong and cumbersome for her, but Helena’s might just go with the fairy.
Over the phone, Helena had said she could “feel” it was me. In a way, I could sense her spirit, too. I got the impression her soul, if handled properly and so long as it wasn’t disturbed, would be light and easily transferred, delicate like silk.
Though the idea of it leaving Helena’s lifeless body conjured a sick churning in my empty gut.
Maybe that was only because of what would happen after that.
I wouldn’t put it past Flora to make the delivery to Sir White personally and try to claim responsibility in an effort to take the heat off me.
The Few—they weren’t going to remove Flora from her role. Who would they get to fill it?
Still, Flora’s indispensability didn’t mean she wouldn’t still incur some kind of punishment for conspiring.
Aside from that, I didn’t want her to collect Helena’s soul.Iwas supposed to do it.
But then, the task wasn’t one I wanted to perform, either.
Flora sighed. “You’re not going to tell us, either of us, what’s really going on, are you?” Tilting her cheese-adorned head at me, she leaned forward to try to catch my uncatchable gaze.
