Chapter 15 The Present #2
That makes my mouth dry. “How?”
“For starters,” Pain says, voice cooling, “when that Grim woman evaporated, someone had to take her post. But because everything was chaotic, two Grims were assigned to the same jurisdiction. They met. Compared experience. One recognized the wraith’s origin.
Realized there had to be someone in the human world who messed things up.
Didn’t take long for them to start looking for you. ”
I lift both hands. “Wait, no. Grims don’t talk. They don’t compare notes or compare experiences. That’s absurd.”
“These did.”
“And the crows?” I press. “They stalked me long before the wraith ever appeared.”
“Right,” he nods. “Because they congregate where the fabric thins. Back then they weren’t coordinated. Just circling the rip. Now they’re being directed.”
“Directed by those same Grim Reapers that realized I fucked up?”
“Exactly. They’ve mastered their powers. Now they’re using them against you.”
I taste metal. The crows hiss and shuffle along the glass.
“Their agenda…” I whisper.
“I don’t know what they want,” Pain says, mild as poison. “But whatever it is, giving in means signaling weakness. If one arrives, more will follow. We cannot give in.”
“But if they want something from us,” I say slowly, tasting each syllable, “what if we use it? We could bargain. They could help us.”
Pain’s gaze doesn’t flicker. “Is that really worth the risk?”
Silence crawls through the room and curls under the furniture. The crows answer with that ugly, syncopated tapping.
Cassian’s voice cuts through it. Flat. Sharp. “We hunt them.”
“You won’t see them unless they want you to,” Pain says. “That’s the point.”
Nathaniel folds his arms, the motion tidy and nervous. “We don’t know the rules of this. Grim Reapers are like people. They’re messy and contradictory. If one of them reaches out, maybe they want a talk, not war. Maybe it’s an invitation. Or a trap. Or an offer.”
“Or an opening,” Pain says slowly. “Or a way to get rid of us.”
My hands tighten into little white knots on my knees. “I want to answer,” I blurt. It comes out small and enormous at the same time. “I want to send a message.”
Pain narrows his eyes. “It might cause trouble.”
“I know,” I say. “But I’m done being powerless. Sitting still while they limit me is trouble enough. I want to take the chance. And I want revenge on Mark.”
Pain studies me, his jaw ticking twice as if he can’t stop it. Finally, he nods.
“If that’s your choice,” he mutters, “I just hope you’ll take responsibility afterward.”
“We will,” Cassian says. I glance at him. He meets my gaze, and the look in his eyes says we’re united in this. Whatever happens next, we’ll face it together.
My heart swells.
“Fine, then,” Pain mutters. “Skye, send the message.”
I blink at him.
Was that… an order?
“I mean, sure,” I say. “Let me just—what?—write a letter and throw it out the window? Maybe they’ll deem it worthy of carrying to their master or whatever.” I cross my arms. “I told you earlier, I don’t have the power. I need your help.”
He sighs. “No, you don’t.”
“What?”
“The last time I transferred power to you, I gave you enough to handle those bloody crows,” he says. “It’s in you. You just need to draw it out. Same way you do when you reap a soul and guide it to the afterlife.”
I blink.
Oookay… so he’s telling me I didn’t even need to call on him?
This little fucker.
Still, I shove the anger aside and close my eyes. I search for the power he mentioned, and to my surprise, it is there. Thin and threadlike, but there. I press my palm to my chest.
“Could you maybe… amplify it?” I ask, still facing the window. “I can feel it, but it’s so far away.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he grumbles. “Come here.”
I walk over and extend my hand. He doesn’t touch me. He doesn’t need to. The temperature dips, the hum in my chest tightens like storm pressure, and the light above the kitchenette thrums with a high whine. Then he pours into me.
At once, it feels right. The power inside me unfurls, an extension of my will, like a limb I can finally move.
And just like that, something changes.
The crows outside begin tapping on the window, but different this time.
There’s a pattern.
Beak. Beak. Beak. Pause. Beak.
The flock hiccups; a ripple runs wing to wing. The syncopated pecking stutters, then repeats.
Beak, beak, beak. Pause. Beak.
Talon jerks forward so fast the couch groans. “Well, that’s new.”
“What does it mean?” I ask Pain, eyes closed.
“I don’t know,” he mutters.
Helpful.
I do the only thing that feels right. I send a message, soft as breath, to that dark glow inside me.
Help me. Once you do, I’ll help you.
The press of crows at the windows loosens half an inch, like the sea drawing back before another wave. Their message subsides. It gets quiet.
I take a second to read their movement. Nothing new or ominous. So I decide there’s no better test than skin. I open my eyes and head for the door.
“Skye,” Cassian calls almost immediately. “Where are you going?”
“I have a hunch I need to check.”
I move fast. Before he can catch me I’m through the main door and out onto the black, crow-covered concrete. Habit tells me to brace for an assault; I cover my ears and squint, then… relax. The crows don’t attack. I can walk among them freely.
“It worked,” I breathe, letting my hands fall.
My arms hang loosely and my feet carry me further down the stairs and before long, I’m standing among them like a drop of oil in inky water, hundred eyes watching me.
“Well, fuck me,” Cassian says behind me. The others echo it; I hear Talon’s breath, half-laugh, half-relief.
I test the new boundary. I step, then another, waving my hands to watch their reaction. They slide aside as if I’m their new messiah.
“I’m starting to think there’s a lot to my power I never discovered before,” I murmur, turning so their wings blot the sun for a beat.
“You’re starting to be right, then,” Pain replies. “You’ve only ever scraped the surface.”
The crows ripple when he speaks. A shiver crawls down my spine. I know he’s right.
There’s more to being a Grim Reaper than I ever thought. And I’m guessing the other Grims worked this out long before me.
Well, whatever message they’ve been trying to peck into my glass, it will have to wait. Seems like there’s vengeance to extract now. There’s nothing stopping us anymore.
With nothing in my way, my heart set, and my men at my back, I will blacken the whole goddamn sky before I bring it down on my ex-husband’s head.
The victim he made is about to become a deadly revenant.
And that revenant is coming for his sanity.