Chapter 19 Grim
At this point, I could stop pretending that a way to unfuck myself was going to magically appear. Which was why I took Helena home.
To my home.
“Crivvens!” cried Flora when I entered the Basins from the hall, her voice echoing in the cavernous chamber. “What in the name of the wee hours of Allhallowmas do you think you’re doing, Grim?”
“Grim’s home,” said Pluto, who once again rested on his perch. “He caught a bird.”
I didn’t reply. I just moved in silence toward my statue, carrying Helena’s slumbering form to the only place in this realm or any other that I knew for certain Cedric, once he again reanimated, could not get to.
“Are you off your ever-lovin’ bone head?” Flora yelled, and the quick scamper of bare feet forewarned me of her sudden appearance in my path.
“Pretty bird!” announced Pluto with a flap of his great wings, his voice, like Flora’s, echoing in the enormous chamber.
“Who is that?” the fairy demanded, arms spread wide, like that could really stop me—like she could. “And what in the dancing devils is she doing here?”
I had my back to Johann. He’d looked up from his scribbling when I’d come in, and his face had hardened with concern. And possibly condemnation. He hadn’t said anything, though. Yet.
“Move,” I told Flora.
“Like hell, you crabbit,” she snapped, crossing her arms. “Is this what the row with Cedric is about? A lass?”
“Cedric’s dead,” I said. “I killed him.”
“Deadric Cedric,” said Pluto. “Lost his headric.”
“Again?” cried Flora, throwing her arms up and letting them flop to her sides in exasperation. “Oy, I can’t believe this! Where’d you put his soul this time?”
“His scar will cry,” added Pluto, “though no one knows why.”
“Left it. Now kindly move the fuck out of my way before he comes back.”
In the restaurant, I hadn’t had time to mess with Cedric’s soul. Not with the police surrounding the place—Helena couldn’t be seen. Neither could I.
Aside from that, I’d just wanted to get out of there. I’d wanted to get her out of there.
Flora blinked in shock. She tilted her head at me, miffed, perplexed, and still, I could tell, horrified over Helena’s presence here.
Humans—living humans—weren’t allowed in the Hallowed Halls. No one was, aside from us. And, of course, The Few.
I seldom cursed directly at Flora, either. In her vicinity? Yes. At her… Rarely.
But I needed her to not interfere with me. Not tonight.
“Grim, are you daft—?” Flora started, but much to my surprise, Johann interrupted.
“Let him pass, Flora,” said the old man.
“If it’s all the same to you, Johann, I’d like answers out of him fir—”
“I said, let him pass.”
Flora frowned and peered up at me. Then she quirked a brow. “She’s the soul, isn’t she?”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t have to. The answer was obvious. Flora was just digging, trying to find out what had driven me to this desperate move. She and Johann knew me better than anyone—and as well as anyone could. Both understood I wasn’t the desperate sort.
Yet here I was. Nailing my own coffin shut and inviting them to a front-row viewing of my soon-to-be-flaming pyre.
“Flora,” grunted Johann, an uncharacteristic note of warning in his weathered voice.
Finally, with a scowl, Flora made peace with the fact that she wasn’t going to get anything out of me, and doing as Johann instructed, she stepped aside.
Johann wasn’t exactly the “boss” of the Hallowed Halls—we didn’t have one of those. But out of the four of us, he presented as the oldest. He was the wisest. And the authority his perceived seniority instilled in him was one we all respected—and heeded.
Most of the time at least.
I hadn’t lately. I’d betrayed his trust, too. Flora’s as well. So maybe the only reason Johann wasn’t giving me shit about this forbidden act was because he’d already given up on me. Knew my time was limited now, just as Cedric had said.
Maybe he even wanted Cedric to take my place.
I didn’t blame Johann for that stance. Couldn’t.
Didn’t mean his indifference didn’t sting.
I carried Helena to my statue, into the designated hand of which I called forth my scythe. The weapon materialized out of the ether, triggering the mechanisms that revealed the descending spiral staircase to my underground quarters.
“I found out the way,” Flora called to me—words that had me pausing halfway down the secret passage and glancing back to her.
By “the way” she must mean she’d done what I’d requested and found an alternate route into the realm of the White Basin—one that bypassed the Basin itself.
“I appreciate your efforts,” I told her, “but… it’s too late now. I’ll talk to White myself when he comes.”
“Too late?” said Flora, her small shoulders dropping, voice sinking with an unexpected sadness. “Because of that dunderhead Cedric?”
“Flora,” called Johann. “Leave Grim to his business and come here. I wish to speak to you.”
Flora opened her mouth to say something back to Johann, but then, thinking better of it, she snapped her teeth shut and started reluctantly away.
Then, with Helena cradled in my dead arms, I descended the corkscrew stairs into the pure and all-encompassing blackness of my abode.