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“I tried, believe me. My grandfather…”
I dragged in a painful breath. “Your grandfather is an asshole.” I threaded my fingers through my blue hair, pulled harshly, and to my horror, ended up with a clump of it in my hands, a bit of bloody flesh hanging from the roots. “Shit. You have me cornered.” I couldn’t wait a minute longer, let alone a day. If I didn’t go into the cavern, they’d get bored of waiting and just go away. Right? I couldn’t verify my theory when time wasn’t on my side, though. I’d waited long enough. Too long. “Fine.” I stomped past Francis. “But this doesn’t mean anything. This is just me buying myself another three or four months.”
“They won’t bother you again, I promise.”
“Hold your promises, Francis,” I growled. I was super pissed off at him. Usually, I was pissed off at GC or Pazuzu, who were experts at getting on my nerves. “I’m not sure I believe in them anymore.”
He followed me in silence. We reached the opening to the main cavern – tall and wide, filled with candles and people in black cloaks. GC, Pazuzu, and Sariel were waiting for us there.
“Well, let’s go in, shall we?”
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I exchanged a glance with Sariel and saw the sadness in his blue eyes. I briefly wondered if he’d assisted to one of these meetings before. But why would he? He wasn’t a revenant. Maybe only to support his friend… Does friendship even run this deep?
I made my way through the small crowd that had gathered around the well. Leopold and Francis Senior were there, at the front, holding candles and chanting something under their breath. When they saw me, Leopold offered me a smile, and Francis Senior simply nodded. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at them. At everyone. Roll my eyes at how stupid this whole thing was. Francis took the blindfolded girl from Sariel and brought her to me, then took a few steps back. He pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. By their standards, I was probably dressed inappropriately. Blue jeans, an old T-shirt, and a leather jacket. GC, Paz, and Sariel were dressed normally, too, but they’d retreated at the back of the cave, sensing they didn’t belong here. As if anyone would have ever wanted to belong here.
I looked over the people Francis had called “close family friends.” They all had their heads covered and eyes cast down. With dripping candles in their hands, they chanted the same mantra the two Saint-Germains were chanting. “Ya kadishtu n’gha.” They looked young under their hoods. As if the moment they’d entrusted their souls to Yig, the creature had made them invisible to Time.
I sighed and said the words, too. “Ya stell’bsna y’bthnk orr’e syha’h. Ya kadishtu n’gha.” I walked the girl to the well. Yig’s tentacles were reaching hungrily over the edge, spilling onto the floor, feeling their way around, searching for the prey. One of the slimy things found my left foot. I stood frozen in place, staring at the tentacle, waiting to see what it would do next. Would it recognize me as one of its children, or wrap itself around me and drag me down into the pit? For a second there, I hoped. “Not her,” Francis had yelled at the monster the fateful night I’d come down here for the first time. And the monster had listened to him.
“Not me,” I whispered now, my self-preservation stronger than the disgust for what I was about to do.
The tentacle retreated swiftly. With a sigh, I pushed the girl over the edge and said the words again. There was no reverence in my tone. Yig didn’t notice or didn’t care. The cultists were chanting louder now, their voices filling the cavern and echoing down the winding tunnels. It was a good thing Grim Reaper Academy was empty.
My strength was returning, which meant that the blood sacrifice had worked. I needed to get out of there. If I accepted to do it with all these people watching, it didn’t mean that I wanted to stick around and actually meet them. I was surrounded, though, and now the black hoods were falling, eyes seeking mine. They’d all stopped chanting.
“Mila Morningstar,” Leopold Saint-Germain said in a voice that betrayed… pride? “This is Mila Morningstar, and she is family now.” He wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to them… Parading me. “Soon, she will be the most fearsome Grim Reaper our world has ever seen.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re confusing me with someone else, old man.”
Leopold merely grinned. “If you take your father’s place, – and you will, – what do you think you’ll become?”
This was a waste of time. An old man who’d been alive for too many centuries, who was bored out of his mind, wanted to make a show of me because I was the most interesting thing that had happened to his family in forever. I didn’t have time, nor disposition for this. I made to walk past him. He caught me by the arm. When our eyes met, mine were burning with hatred, and his with unabashed curiosity.
“What will you do with all that power, Mila Morningstar?”
“You know what. I’ll take all of you lot down.”
He shook his head. “You won’t be concerned with us or with Yig anymore. Now, you feel like your life is defined by the Great Old One and the sacrifices you have to bring…”
“My life is not defined by anything,” I spat through gritted teeth.
“But once you become a Grim Reaper, you will be working directly for Death, and she will grant you immunity. For two hundred years, you won’t have to sacrifice a soul to keep what our Great Old One has given you.”
My eyebrows might have just disappeared into my blue, disheveled fringe at that point. He was right. Once I became a Grim Reaper, I’d be free of Yig. Two hundred years of freedom. Enough to find a way to get rid of him. I smiled at the old Saint-Germain – who didn’t look old at all, – and he released my arm. Everyone was looking at me, now. I met the gazes of those who were closer, nodded politely, then finally made my exit. GC, Paz, and Sariel followed me. Francis stayed with his family. Fine. I didn’t want him anywhere near me, anyway. For the time being.
“Are you okay?” GC asked me.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, love,” Paz tried.
I stopped in the middle of the beach. I was feeling better, my body having healed from the inside. I wasn’t cold anymore.
“You knew, didn’t you?” I looked the demon in the eyes.
“Francis said it was for the best. He couldn’t get rid of his family, so better now than later, when things get complicated.”
