Chapter Five
Grym
Istayed up all night searching the internet and a few books I’d collected over the years. I didn’t find much, which put me in a bad mood. The lack of sleep didn’t help.
I couldn’t find much about reapers having beloveds. There didn’t seem to be any accounts of it in recent times. There was some folklore surrounding one reaper’s beloved. It was before the Bureau came into existence.
The story went that one reaper found her beloved.
They bonded and had a loving relationship, but the beloved developed two abilities.
One was immortality. She lived for hundreds of years, happy and healthy, never getting sick.
The other was the ability to walk between realms. Donn, the god of death, didn’t like that, so the Soul Management Bureau was born and now I had a job reaping souls.
He sent a demon to murder the beloved. Instead, the demon killed the reaper as she tried to protect her beloved. The beloved cursed the Bureau, saying that when the beloveds came together, the Bureau would end. No god would be able to save the Bureau.
It seemed like a tall tale, except for Elliot Coyne’s existence.
Finding Elliot was the beginning of the end, if the lore was to be believed.
The lore became a prophecy. The prophecy was written somewhere, though I couldn’t find the original source, only something about it in the Bureaus’ digital archives.
I intended to ask Morgana, my boss, but I needed a break.
Coffee, breakfast, and a shower. In that order. And then I’d call her.
When Cael arrived at my house, the greeting he got was me rolling my eyes.
He just smirked. “Good morning to you, too, asshole.”
“Coffee.” I started to shut the door, but Ossy followed Cael. He grinned and walked into my house as if he owned it. “Good morning, sunshine. I called in reinforcements. You’re welcome.”
“I could have handled it.” I started to close the door again, but Tan, followed by Ordell, walked in. I gave up after that. “Fuck.”
I couldn’t handle all four of them together without enough sleep.
“Is anyone else coming?” I asked Cael.
Ossy answered. “All the brothers are coming, and the boss lady. Finding a beloved changes everything. You’ll need the family behind you.”
Gods, my brain couldn’t handle Ossy’s habit of calling us brothers.
“We’re co-workers.” My reply was automatic.
I’d said it enough over the years, but Ossy was right.
As much as I wanted to maintain a certain level of professionalism, the reaper department had become a sort of family.
A dysfunctional one where no one respected boundaries, yet we still cared about each other.
“We all share the same last name. You know, like brothers.” Ossy flipped me off.
“Do you have any idea how annoying you are before coffee?”
Ivar snorted. “Sit, Mr. Cranky Pants. I’ll make coffee and breakfast.”
I glared at him, then sat at the kitchen island next to Adriel. “I’m not even dressed yet.”
I wasn’t sure when Ivar and Adriel arrived.
Cael leaned against the counter, one ankle over the other, and raised his eyebrows as if he expected me to elaborate on my state of dress.
“Morgana will be here soon.” Cael frowned. “This is a big deal, Grym.”
“Morning coffee is just as important.” I couldn’t handle much else so early in the morning.
“If he’s your beloved—”
“He is. My soul recognized him right off.” My soul had never tried to connect with another person’s before seeing Elliot Coyne.
What the hell was I going to do with a beloved?
I wanted to move to Sector Two. Finding Elliot threw a wrench into my career plans.
Hell, it ruined my entire working life. I’d lose my job, which meant a one-way ticket to the afterlife.
I wasn’t sure what the Bureau would do to Elliot.
I might never see him again. He was scheduled to be ferried later that day.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad thing if we met in the afterlife instead of in the living realm.
Cael sighed. “Get dressed, Grym. Morgana will be here in...” Cael’s gaze fell on the clock on the microwave. “Any minute.”
The front door opened and then closed again—more reapers filed in. There were fifteen of us in total. There were a lot of people in my kitchen.
Morgana was the last to arrive. She wore a suit and carried a briefcase. She’d swept her blonde hair into a neat bun and wore glasses she didn’t need.
“If you’re right about finding your beloved—” she said, pulling items from her briefcase.
“I am.”
She nodded. “Then we’re in a heap of trouble.”
She pulled a leather-bound book from her bag and set it on the center island so we could all see it.
The book was old and worn, with strings binding the pages.
It had no title. I’d never seen such an old book before, but I knew where Morgana had gotten it.
The library at Bureau headquarters was a secure, climate-controlled room. Only certain people had the code.
“There’s folklore surrounding reapers and their beloveds. If it’s true, then it’s the Bureau’s downfall, right?” I asked. The boardroom or even the auditorium would have been a much better place for such an important discussion.
“Nothing we say here will go beyond the people in this room.” Morgana met each of our gazes. “Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.” We each said it almost at the same time.
She met my gaze. “To answer your question, yes, the beloveds threaten the Bureau’s existence. That’s because all beloveds can walk between realms, including the afterlife.”
I cursed. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. If the lore weren’t true, Morgana would have said so. It meant Elliot could be the beginning of the curse, now a prophecy.
“Like gods?” Ossy asked.
“Just like a god. Yes. They’ll even have immortality, though Donn’s demons can still kill them. The gods know he’s not getting his hands dirty.” She met my gaze. “Completing the bond will begin the prophecy.”
“The Bureau will try to stop it,” Cael said.
She met each of our gazes. “They’ll try to kill your beloveds. Even before you meet them. Elliot Coyne is in danger. You all will have a decision to make.” She met my gaze again. “Starting with you, Grym.”
I left the room.
Cael fell in step beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “There is a lot more you need to know, Grym.”
“What I need is to think.” The urge to protect Elliot was overwhelming, but was it the right thing to do? Perhaps I should just ferry him when his contract finally landed on my desk.
“Where are you going?” Morgana asked.
“To take a shower.” They would wait until I finished. A long shower would do me good.
“Make it quick, Grym,” Morgana said.
“I’ll take as long as I want, and you’ll not say a single thing about it for two reasons. First, it’s seven in the morning, which is too early to deal with all of you. Second, I’ve been up for twenty minutes, and I still haven’t had a fucking cup of coffee.” What did I have to do to get one?
Morgana sighed and waved her hand toward the staircase, as if dismissing me.
Despite my little rant, I didn’t linger. The longer I stood under the spray, the more my gut twisted, and a sense of urgency overtook me.