Where was I?
As I peered groggily around the huge room, I fought the impulse to assume.
My surroundings didn’t seem to fit the description of either heavenorhell, and if I wasn’t dead, that only left one place.
“Holy haunted bachelor pad,” I murmured, taking in the high, dark wood ceiling and the gallery balcony that chased the second floor of the square Gothic chamber, its railing made of black metal scrollwork.
A candlelit chandelier hovered overhead while matching sconces threw shadows across the crimson wallpaper and gleaming wood paneling. Small lamps sat atop end tables, adding more low light to the red-themed room that could have belonged to a vampire’s castle, or some huge manor house designed expressly for the use of some dark-agenda secret society.
Twisting, I peered behind the couch to find a desk laden with books and papers and decorated only with a Jack Skellington snow globe that sat on one corner.
Behind the desk hung an enormous, vertical, and silver-framed painting of a full silver moon suspended over dark ocean waters.
Three of the room’s four corners hosted a slim and open archway, each leading into a hall. A small metal spiral staircase occupied the fourth, more decorative metal scrollwork corkscrewing up to the matching balcony above.
Shadows and low light fought for dominance while that scent—his—lingered everywhere.
One thing this place lacked entirely, though, was windows.
I swung my bare feet off the couch and wiggled my sparkly toes, newly painted in “Pumpkin Patch” orange, against the plush oriental carpet. Someone had removed my shoes. They sat on the floor, half tucked under the coffee table where I’d be sure to find them. I reached to gather my purse and search for my phone, but I halted, my hand diverting to the note pinned beneath the bag.
Neat, tight, and black cursive handwriting adorned the plainwhite stationery that sported neither header nor monogram, just a slim black border.
Had to go to work. I’ll be back.
You’re safe here.
Grim
Except where washere?
“Well, it’s a good thing I have today off,” I murmured to myself as I dug through my purse, already aware I wouldn’t find my phone since I’d dropped it outside the library.
Had someone found it? God, did everyone think I’d had a breakdown before running off with the bookmobile?
There wasn’t any way to knowwhathad happened since the incident at the library, or even what time it was.
I was stuck here. And apparently at the mercy of the Grim Reaper himself.
But then, that part at least had been true well before now.
Should I be freaking out? I probablyshouldbe.
But… I still wasn’t afraid of him. Well, not completely.
He’d only protected me so far. Even if thatwasjust because of his job.
I frowned, my heart sinking all over again. Could be, when he came back, he’d talk me through the process of having my soul forcibly severed. And what came after. Whatever any of that looked like…
Maybe I had to sign something…
God, I wasn’t making any sense.
Blinking several times, I tried to rid myself of the lethargy that made my mind extra foggy. Dizziness had me rethinking trying to rise yet.
Then, the final moments before I’d passed out came rushing back to me, prompting me to press fingers to my sternum.
Grim had… done something to me, reached into me with that dark essence, touched and wound his smoky wisps around some inner part of me.
