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“Do you have the map?” Yolanda asked.
I pulled a bunch of papers from under my mattress. It was the best hiding place I could think of. If I’d been as fancy as Morningstar, I would’ve built a secret hiding box in the floorboard. I wasn’t. Plus, if Morningstar were to drop by while I was gone and look for my secrets, that would be his first thought.
Yoli spread them on the floor and spent a few minutes arranging them, as if they formed a puzzle. Finally, she pointed at one of the parallel universes she’d discovered in her dream travels.
“Here. I’ve been to this one three times. The first two, I only saw myself, years older. The third time, last night, I saw you.”
“Me?” I leaned over the map. “It’s in the future.”
“Twenty years in the future, yes. You knew about me.”
My shoulders dropped. “My mom is in a dimension that’s not that far in time from ours.”
“I’m sorry. I haven’t found her yet.”
With a sigh, I moved away from the map and leaned against the side of the bed, my interest significantly diminished.
“You knew about me,” Yolanda continued, “so you were more than happy to talk to me.”
“What did I tell you?”
“Your father’s story.”
I straightened my back, leaning slightly forward. Okay, we were getting somewhere…
“Well? Why is he so crazy and vile?”
“He had a rough childhood.”
I huffed. “Cry me a river.”
“His mother is an archangel, and his father was human. They had an affair, and Valentine was the result. But after she gave birth to him, she returned to Heaven and married an archangel. Her new husband didn’t approve of a hybrid in the family, so they ended up sending him to his father, on Earth. Valentine’s father, it appears, was a rich and powerful clan leader in Scotland. So, as a boy, Valentine had everything he could wish for. Except his mother’s approval. He used to visit her and her new family in Heaven, but he always returned home feeling bitter and depressed. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t be good enough for her and her family of pure-blood archangels. Anyway, his father died when his time came, and all his worldly possessions were passed on to Valentine. Since he was supernatural, with wings on his back and all, he couldn’t take over his father’s position, so he sold most of his land and castles, and kept one castle for himself to hide in. When he received the invitation to apply to Grim Reaper Academy, he’d been hiding from both the human world and the supernatural world for decades.”
“Huh. So what? Because his mother didn’t like him, now he wants to ruin everyone’s lives?”
“She’s still alive, I think.”
“I have an archangel grandma. Awesome!”
“He thought that if he became a Grim Reaper, his heavenly family would appreciate him more, maybe even accept him. So, he did. He made something of himself.”
“Let me guess. It didn’t work out.”
“No. After all, he was just one of twenty-two Grim Reapers. And once his two-hundred-year career was over, he’d go back to being just some nephilim, like before. Maybe a nephilim teaching at the Academy, but nothing special.”
I scooted closer to Yoli. “And what did he do to become special? In this parallel dimension you traveled to…”
“Err… I don’t know.” She averted her gaze. “I woke up.”
We were both silent for a minute. For some reason, I had the odd feeling that she wasn’t telling me everything. But why would Yoli hide anything from me? It didn’t make any sense. You’re being paranoid again.
“You have to go back. Find me again and get the end of the story.”
“It doesn’t mean that your father from this universe will do the same thing. You said it yourself: dreams aren’t prophecies. Things don’t happen the same in the parallel universes.”
“Yes, but they do happen similarly. It would be something, at least. An idea, a clue, a lead. Better than nothing.”
“But it helps, right? Knowing his story. Where he came from, how he thinks…”
