Chapter Twenty-One
Grym
Elliot released his legs, which had been wrapped around my waist, and slid down until his feet hit the floor.
Then he did something that pissed me off but made me proud at the same time.
He put himself between Ezul and me, with the clear, misguided intention of protecting me from a demon.
I didn’t mean to say he couldn’t protect me or that his humanness made him less than.
Elliot was a very capable person in many ways, but Ezul was one of the strongest demons in the entire Bureau.
That was why the higher-up admins put him in Human Resources.
He smiled at Elliot and would probably have patted him on the head if I had allowed him to touch Elliot at all. I’d break his fingers if he tried, and he damn well knew it. That was why he didn’t dare.
“I won’t hurt you or any beloveds.”
Elliot crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Ezul. He clearly didn’t believe him.
Joel chose that moment to enter the room. This time, he carried a bowl of what looked like macaroni and cheese, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Ezul. His spoon was halfway to his mouth, and he blinked as if trying to decide whether Ezul was real or something his imagination had conjured.
Joel stood beside Elliot and leaned into him. “What the hell is that thing?”
“I am not a thing, little human. But a demon. I’m working with the reapers to keep you safe.
” Ezul met my gaze when he spoke of me and my brothers.
“I’m with you, Grym. Donn knows about the beloveds.
” Ezul shook his head and drew his eyebrows together.
“I’m not the only sympathizer, but there are too few of us.
You must abandon everything to gather the beloveds.
I’ll hold Donn off for as long as I can, but. ..”
Morgana entered the room. She must have been listening to the conversation from her office, which was right off the living room.
She didn’t speak, but she met my gaze first and then Ossy’s before addressing Ezul. “Are you on our side, Ezul? Truly?”
“Yes. I swear it.”
“What of Phineas?” she asked. She’d sort of abandoned her assistant when they’d found Elliot. Not that she had much of a choice, but leaving him at the Bureau was essentially throwing him to the demons.
Ossy’s gaze pierced Ezul. “Is he in danger?”
“He’s not on Donn’s radar.”
“Who the hell is Donn?” Joel asked as he ate. For such a little thing, his eating habits were pretty nonstop.
“He’s the head of the Bureau,” Morgana explained.
But Ezul spoke at the same time. “The god of death.”
Elliot stepped back until his back hit my chest, then grabbed my hand and pulled it around him. I got the message and hugged him from behind.
“If you’re truly with us, you’ll get Phineas out of there,” Morgana said. It was a bold move, challenging a demon as formidable as Ezul.
But Ezul nodded. “It will be my first act of good faith, so you’ll trust me.”
“Why wouldn’t the reapers trust him?” Joel whispered the question to me, but of course Ezul heard.
Ezul turned to him. “Because I am Donn’s right-hand demon.”
Joel’s wheels were turning. “And Donn is the god of death, right?”
“Yes, little human.”
“Do you order anchovies on your pizza?” The sudden topic switch even surprised Ezul.
He drew his eyebrows together. “Uh, yes.”
“Like all the time or just sometimes?”
“Most of the time.”
Joel nodded and took a bite of his mac and cheese. He had barely finished chewing when he spoke again. “You seem the type.”
“A type of what, human?”
“Person. My name is Joel, and you haven’t once asked me what it is.
Instead, you call me little human, as if being small and human makes me less than.
You’re a control freak, but not drunk on power.
” Joel met Morgana’s gaze. “He’s here because he’s losing control of something.
Most likely, it’s the god he works for. How can you control a god?
Am I right? Saving the beloveds’ lives is completely secondary. ”
Ezul’s face turned a deep pink. The coloring looked unnatural on his too-white skin.
“You got all of that from a pizza topping?” Morgana was definitely impressed and a little amused.
“It’s his thing. He’s the pizza wizard,” Elliot said.
Miles peeked around Ossy. “He’s weirdly accurate.”
“I will not harm a beloved.” Ezul glared at Joel, then turned to Morgana. “You have my word.”
“I didn’t say you’d hurt us,” Joel said, turning to me. “I am a beloved, right?”
I nodded.
Joel turned to Ezul again. “I said you’re not here because you care about us.
You’re here because Donn, the god, is probably losing his shit all over that Bureau of yours, and you don’t know how to make him stop.
Like, he’s a god and shit, right? He probably disappears people for no good reason all the time, just because he’s an angry little man-child.
I guess I’m saying he’s acting like a spoiled brat of a god. ”
Ezul blinked at Joel. The corners of his mouth lifted into what was probably meant to be a smile, but Ezul just looked constipated. “He’s right. About all of it.”
Morgana met Ossy’s gaze. “Go with Ezul. Be careful, but please bring Phineas to me safely.”
Ossy’s tanned, chiseled jaw tightened with agitation. “No one will hurt him. They’ll have to go through me.”
Cael had been right. Something more was going on between Ossy and Phineas. “Is he your beloved, Os?”
“What? No...” Ossy frowned. “Maybe. But how did I not recognize it before now if he was?”
Ezul raised his hand as if he were in class. “I may have an idea.”
Ossy just frowned. “The big boss man had something to do with it, didn’t he?”
“I believe he has ways to block you from your beloveds when you’re in his realm.”
Joel shrugged. “He is Donnie Death, the god of the underworld, after all.”
Ezul smiled for real at Joel the second time. Perhaps Joel had grown on him. He had an endearing quality. “Exactly.”
Ossy grabbed a cloak from the hook by the front door, then turned to Ezul. “Are we doing this or what?”
Ezul nodded, then turned into a shadow again.
“Holy fucking shit!” Miles and Joel said in unison.
Ossy and Ezul disappeared as if the air had swallowed them.
I met Morgana’s gaze. “Donn’s gathering the demons.”
She nodded. “Ezul all but confirmed it.”
“How much sway does Donn have over the hellhounds?”
“If he can convince Gwynn to join him, he’ll have them, too.”
Gwynn was the head of the hounds and didn’t always follow orders, especially not from Donn. Those two had a hate-hate relationship. But she’d proven time and again that she’d do anything for the right price.
“We can’t win against the hellhounds.”
“We can’t win against an army of demons, either, Grym.” She glanced at Elliot, then addressed me again. “If we can appeal to Aengus.”
Aengus was the god of love and, to reapers, very untouchable, but I understood her angle.
The only problem was that asking the god of love for help meant they’d have to request an audience while in his realm.
And he wasn’t known for his fighting ability.
But he’d had a beloved at one point, and perhaps the reapers finding their beloveds was his doing.
If so, then they needed him to follow through. “This is his doing, isn’t it?”
Morgana shrugged. “I’m unsure. The book containing the prophecy came from his realm.”
“I thought you said Cael gave it to you.”
Morgana’s gaze bore a hole straight through me. “He did.”
“Only gods can walk between realms.” Did that mean Cael was a god?
Morgana nodded toward Elliot. “And beloveds.”
“Is Cael a god or a beloved?” If he were one and in Aengus’s realm, he must be kin to Aengus. Hope bloomed in my chest where Cael was concerned. Perhaps Cael was only one step ahead of us and hadn’t abandoned us after all.
“It’s his story to tell, Grym.”
“He’s not here.”
Instead of answering the question, Morgana made her way to Elliot. She smiled at him. “It’s time for you to learn to walk between realms.”
“What about us?” Miles crosses his arms over his chest. “If we’re beloveds, we should learn, too.”
“In time, you will. But your time isn’t now.”
“Why Elliot?”
“Because he is bonded with Grym.” Morgana held out her hand to Elliot. When he took it, I released him from my hold. “It’s up to you, Elliot Coyne.”
Elliot gave a nervous giggle and turned, widening his eyes at me. “No pressure.”
I tried to smile or give him some sign that I was the calm one between us. He needed reassurance. I knew that, but I couldn’t keep the pain in my chest at bay. I was sure it showed in my expression.
I followed them outside, grabbing a cloak from the hook as I went.
Joel and Miles followed me.
Morgana held out her hand for the cloak, and I handed it to her with a frown. I wasn’t happy about not showing Elliot what to do myself, but Morgana was the boss.
“You’re needed here, Grym.” She glanced at Joel and Miles. “Protection for all the beloveds in our care, not just Elliot.”
“Of course.” I was better able to keep them safe than she was, simply because I wasn’t rusty with my reaper skills. She’d been behind a desk too long. Fieldwork kept all the gears oiled.
I stepped up to Elliot and pulled him into a hug. “Get in, talk to Aengus, and come back to me.”
Elliot pulled out of my hold. “Wait. What the fuck am I supposed to do?” He turned to Morgana. “You want me to talk a god into starting a war with another god.”
Morgana winced. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Perhaps a polite discussion is all that’s needed. Aengus might have started this whole thing, after all.”
Elliot opened his mouth, then shut it again. He shook his head and headed for the barn.
“Where are you going, Elliot Coyne?” Morgana yelled after him.
“Not into another realm. I know that much.”
“Sounds like you’re the only one who can,” Joel said around a bite of pasta and cheese. “I’m not getting eaten by a hellhound, dude. That sounds like an unpleasant way to go.”
“They don’t eat people,” I whispered.
“Do you want him to go talk to this god of love or not, man?” Joel shook his head.
“No, I don’t, actually.” But it was the only way.
Elliot stopped in his tracks. When he turned around, his gaze fell on me. I could see him weighing the odds in his head. “What happens to you if you die?”
“If Donn gets his way, you mean?”
“What happens to us, Grym?”
“We get sent to Tech Duinn.”
“Together?”
“We’d never find each other there. Donn will make it impossible.
” I’d never been there, but I’d heard stories about people being sent there.
I’d only ever met one person Donn had sent there and allowed to come back.
She’d described it as so dark she was afraid to move and as feeling as though something were hunting her.
Elliot nodded, then met Morgana’s gaze. “Show me what to do.”
Morgana sighed in relief, and then they got to work.