Chapter 11 Grim
“Happy All Hallow’s Eve, Grim.”
I sighed inwardly as Flora drifted to stand in my periphery, bare toes peeking out over the roof ledge of the New York City high-rise.
I’d chosen to brood there after collecting a blue soul from one of its cubicles.
Hopefully they would find his vacated shell sooner rather than later, but then, the ones who worked late tended not to have many who would miss them quickly.
Seated on the edge, a hulking stone gargoyle on my left, my boots dangling toward the windows, I glared at the glittering streams of traffic below.
The sour stench of smog swirled with the far-off hints of food, the conglomeration of scents so different from Helena’s warm, citrusy, and faintly floral aroma. Oranges and honeysuckle, with just a hint of vanilla.
Shit. How the fuck did I know how she smelled?
Maybe I’d caught a whiff while holding her hostage in the library basement. Maybe her scent lingered in her apartment, too.
Disturbing that I could list the components. And maybe a little creepy.
Fuck, was I a creep?
“Quiet night for me, too,” said Flora. “Hope it lasts…”
Far below, horns honked, and sirens wailed, all while the wind rushed past us, sending Flora’s fiery tresses into a flurry while it tugged in vain at the hood I never allowed to come down.
“I have to ask,” she said. “Are you really not going to speak to Johann again?”
Shifting her cloth satchel into her lap, Flora took a seat beside me, her own legs kicking while she waited for me to answer. When I didn’t, she scrounged in her bag.
“Just left Wisconsin,” she said. “Lookit what I got him.”
With one delicate hand, Flora yanked forth an enormous wedge of fake yellow cheese. Grinning, the fairy popped the foam triangle onto her head, revealing the novelty to be another hat for Johann’s growing collection.
“I think he’s going to love it,” she said, “don’t you?”
I didn’t say anything. Not because it was in my plan to ignore Flora. Just as was the case with Johann, I didn’t know what to say to her.
The truth was… I needed help. At the same time, I didn’t know how to ask for it.
I wasn’t sure I truly wanted it, either.
Because, if I did ask for help, that meant Flora and Johann would get involved—become culpable, just like me. Flora might even have the capacity to collect the librarian’s—Helena’s—soul herself. Most adult souls proved too strong and cumbersome for her, but Helena’s might just go with the fairy.
Over the phone, Helena had said she could “feel” it was me. In a way, I could sense her spirit, too. I got the impression her soul, if handled properly and so long as it wasn’t disturbed, would be light and easily transferred, delicate like silk.
Though the idea of it leaving Helena’s lifeless body conjured a sick churning in my empty gut.
Maybe that was only because of what would happen after that.
I wouldn’t put it past Flora to make the delivery to Sir White personally and try to claim responsibility in an effort to take the heat off me.
The Few—they weren’t going to remove Flora from her role. Who would they get to fill it?
Still, Flora’s indispensability didn’t mean she wouldn’t still incur some kind of punishment for conspiring.
Aside from that, I didn’t want her to collect Helena’s soul. I was supposed to do it.
But then, the task wasn’t one I wanted to perform, either.
Flora sighed. “You’re not going to tell us, either of us, what’s really going on, are you?” Tilting her cheese-adorned head at me, she leaned forward to try to catch my uncatchable gaze.
“It’s complicated,” I admitted.
“Complicated,” Flora echoed. “Obviously, it’s got something to do with Cedric. And maybe, if I had to guess, that missing soul?”
Mm. Seemed Flora and Johann had conferred to compare some recent notes.
“You know,” Flora said, her voice tight and small, like she knew she was about to tread onto paper-thin ice.
“You might consider changing tactics with him. Cedric has his flaws. Guess you could say we all do. But Grim. Is there really any harm in allowing him to come with you a time or two? Who knows? Letting him see the grittier side of the job might make him realize it’s not for him after all—and then he’ll find something else to obsess about. ”
Anger surged inside me. Rage hadn’t done me any good with Johann, though, so I did my best to let it go.
Johann and Flora—they saw something in Cedric that I didn’t. Maybe if he wasn’t always so keen to usurp me, I’d find some tolerance for him.
“Would you say that if it was you who he was trying to sell out?” I challenged.
“I think Cedric is a big talker,” said Flora. “Says he wants your job, but he’s so keen on annoying you, I have to wonder if it’s your company he’s truly after. If you ask me, I think he secretly looks up to you. Must be lonely, too, if you think about it. Being immortal.”
Flora and Johann babied Cedric. They saw the best in him because they hadn’t provoked his worst.
I provoked it. But just, it seemed, by being.
Regardless, this wasn’t an argument I was going to win.
There was a battle with Cedric that I still had hopes of defeating him in.
For a long moment, I held my silence, letting it stretch on, biding my time so that I could phrase my next words as carefully as possible.
“I need a favor,” I told her.
“If you wear the cheese hat for one whole night,” she said, “anything.”
Slowly, I turned my glare her way—even if I couldn’t, in my current form, technically glare. Still, she would feel the heat of my stare.
“Flora, I’m serious.”
She shrugged. “So am I!”
“I’m not wearing that thing.”
She smiled at me. “Then I can’t make any promises I’m going to be of any use to you.”
“I need to know how to get into the realm of the White Basin without… going through the Basin. Being detected.”
Flora’s smile fell. She turned her gaze forward, eyes scouring the cityscape and the Hudson as it shimmered under the moonlight.
“Johann said he thought it might be you,” Flora whispered, the mirth gone from her sprightly voice. “With that confirmed, it’s not hard now to guess what Cedric’s up to, either. He’s trying to get you caught, isn’t he?”
Now did she see why I hated his ass so much?
“Do you know how to get into Sir White’s realm or not?” I asked.
“I don’t,” said Flora. “But… I think I can find out. I have… a friend who might know.”
“A friend,” I repeated. “This a friend who is going to want something in return for your help later?”
Flora smiled again, more mischievous than before as she resumed kicking her bare legs, the cold having no effect on her even though she wore a cream drop-sleeved blouse paired with a green calf-length frock. “I guess I’ll have to let you know and pass the bill along if so, huh?”
“I would be indebted to you, too,” I intoned.
Again, Flora’s smile fell. She blinked at me, taken aback, and then she removed the cheese hat.
“You’re not going to tell me about this soul, are you?” she asked.
“Nothing to tell.” I drew up my legs and then pushed to my feet.
“Well, that’s a big fat lie if I’ve ever heard one,” scoffed the fairy as she rose, too, having to take four steps for every two of mine to keep up with me as I trudged across the rooftop.
“And that’s even if you happen to believe it.
Answer me this, then. Has this bourach you’re in got anything to do with that glitter you’re still sporting? ”
I halted to glare back at Flora, who pointed at my robes. Spreading my arms, I peered down at myself, jaw jutting when I caught the faintest trace of a golden shimmer. I’d even used one of those damn sticky roller things. Did anything get this shit out?
“I’ve got to go,” I told her, the hem of my robes snapping in the breeze.
“Where?” she asked, gesturing next to the glowing hourglass on my belt. “I’d say you’ve already met the night’s quota, and as of late, you drop your souls off before going on your new mysterious midnight errand.”
I ground my teeth. “Didn’t realize you kept a flowchart on my habits.”
“Only when they change,” said Flora. “Which really hasn’t ever happened before, has it? And that alone suggests there’s cause to worry. And Grim, Johann and I, we are worried about you. By the way, before you come home to the Hallowed Halls, I should warn you that Cedric’s returned.”
“What?” I took a step toward her. “When?”
She blinked at me, startled by the growl in my tone.
“Just… a bit ago? When Johann asked him what happened, Cedric said it was between you and him. He asked if you were in, but Johann told him you were working, so he left. But not before telling me to, when I saw you, let you know he would be picking up that library hold.”
I braced a skeletal hand on my forehead. “Fuck.”
“Grim?” Flora asked, her expression darkening with a deeper concern even than before. “What is it? Does that mean something bad? He’s always after some book or another, so I didn’t think much about it.”
“What time is it?” I demanded.
“I-I don’t know,” blustered Flora. “Wee bit after nine? Why?”
I didn’t have time to explain.
Possibly I didn’t have time at all.
I dissolved to smoke anyway, heading first to the library since Helena worked Thursday nights.
I hadn’t felt the pull of her impending death, but I wouldn’t since any attack from Cedric wouldn’t be a fated event.
If I was lucky—if she was—I could still get to her before he did.