Coreen’s memorial statue stood ten feet from Saul’s, done perfectly to scale in a gritty bronze. Grim had the sculptor pose her with one arm erected over her head. Light seeped from between the fingers of her raised hand, symbolizing the keen battle tactic she had used to help us defeat the demons before they took her.
Beyond the new statue, Craig Hogan pushed his way through the growing crowd and towards me. My chest tightened as I sucked in a surprised breath.
There were six reapers in my generation. According to most, Craig was the best of us. He still held the highest score ever seen on an L&L exam. After his apprenticeship, he became the youngest member to join the Lost Souls Unit. They’re responsible for collecting CNH souls that mysteriously leave their bodies before harvesting.
Craig’s squared jaw and buzzed head could terrify any soul into submission, but his tough guy look lost most of its effect once the constellation of gray freckles splattered across his nose and cheeks came into view. When he smiled at me, I almost forgot how much I resented his success.
There was a time when Craig could do no wrong. As long as he smiled the way he did, I was defenseless. We dated for a short while during our training. After he was assigned his apprenticeship under Coreen, he delivered to me a brief and mechanical speech explaining how there was no room for me in his ambitious future plans. I’m still convinced he was promised the position on the Lost Souls Unit under the condition that he ditch me.
Luckily, the heartache only lasted half as long as the relationship had, which wasn’t long. Two pairs of shoes and a latte later, I was over him. But that didn’t mean I felt like doing summersaults whenever I happened to bump into him.
“So are the rumors true?” He smiled, baring his perfectly straight, white teeth. I used to consider his smile his best asset. Now, knowing how insincere it was, I just wanted to smash his face in and watch him choke on all those pretty teeth. He moved closer, penetrating my personal space. I fought the urge to step back and held my ground, returning his fake smile with one of my own.
“Hello Craig.”
“I missed you at the ball,” he said.
“That’s funny. I didn’t miss you.”
Craig’s brow pinched, but his phony smile never faltered. “The word out on the street is that you were invited to the council dinner. Is that true?” He was still predictable as ever, never giving anyone the time of day unless they could somehow be useful to him. Helping him study for the exams was the last bit of help he would be getting from me.
“Craig, I’m here for Coreen’s memorial service, not an interview.” I turned my back to him and picked up a glass of club soda from the refreshments table.
I could still feel him standing behind me. His desperate annoyance crashed in waves against my back. When he spoke again, his breath hissed along my neck, tickling my ear. “Yes, Coreen,” he whispered, tilting his head over my shoulder. “How exactly did she die? You were with her, weren’t you?”
My insides shivered, remembering the softness of his voice in a more intimate setting. The jerk thought he still had me.
I turned around slowly, pacing myself so he wouldn’t see the disgust in my expression. His eyes rolled over me with some new wonder I hadn’t noticed before. He loomed in front of me and crept subtly closer until I snatched an abandoned program off the table and smacked it in the middle of his chest.
“Read for yourself.” I smiled and walked away from him and the growing crowd.
The ceremony wouldn’t begin for another twenty minutes, and I needed a break already. Now that the word was getting around about my new placement, I doubted Craig would be the last skeleton creeping out of my closet. I pulled the hood of my robe up to keep anyone else from recognizing me and found a quiet place to rest near a fountain on the other side of the park. The quiet didn’t last long.
“Congratulations on your promotion.” Jenni Fang spotted me as she entered the park.
I looked up and sighed. “Yeah, thanks.”
Jenni was Josie’s roommate. Rumors about her developing an underground association of reapers had been circulating for a while now, but in the few times I had been around her, she never mentioned anything about it. I assumed they were just rumors.
She stopped on the sidewalk and glanced towards the crowd, and then back to me, struggling to make a decision of some kind.
I laughed. “If you’re looking for gossip, you can count me out.”
“I’m not.” She frowned and then dashed behind the cover of the fountain before anyone noticed her. She sat down next to me on the concrete ledge and held her hand out to catch the spray coming off the copper angels behind us.
Jenni was a rarity among the reapers. If anyone could pass for human, it was her. Though her almond eyes were solid black, the Asian influence on her features complimented the ghastly flesh that marked her as a reaper. She was born less than a century before the Japanese invasion of Korea, proving the strength of Grim’s ties with the Fates. The Fates rarely made prophecies anymore, and if they did, it came with a hefty price. Grim was keeping them in business in more ways than one. It wasn’t mere coincidence that he knew the exact number of new reapers needed each century.
Jenni crossed her legs and wiped her hand off on the sleeve of her robe. She hadn’t spoke since joining me on the fountain, but that was no surprise. Harvesting mass quantities of souls in a war zone paid off. She found a way to apply every battle tactic she witnessed to her daily life, something Grim hadn’t counted on. But it made promotions easier for her to obtain. She was waiting for me to start the conversation, so I couldn’t accuse her of badgering me. Some might call it polite. I called it trickery, but it works.
“How’s the Mother Goose Unit working out for you?” I decided if I kept the focus on her, I might be safe.
“Awful,” she groaned and shot me a bothered frown. “I’ve harvested too many soldiers. I’ve taken every class offered, but I still can’t seem to find my footing with children. I’m thinking about transferring to the Recovery Unit next year.”
The Mother Goose Unit specialized in harvesting child souls. Every now and then, if there’s an epidemic in the human realm, a few child souls find their way onto a freelance harvester’s docket, but not often. Child souls ranged from infants to fifteen-year-olds. Although the human realm rose the age of adulthood in most countries, Eternity’s independence gave the council the option of voting, and they chose to keep the adult age at fifteen. After fifteen, souls don’t listen as well, so they have to be moved individually. Child souls can be moved in classes of five to twenty, depending on a reaper’s experience and the ages of the children.
The Recovery Unit is the best of the best reapers. If a soul doesn’t escape its body but is somehow overlooked and buried before harvesting, or if a body ends up at the bottom of a lake, the Recovery Unit is a soul’s only hope. A reaper has to make contact with a body to harvest the soul. There’s numerous ways to recover a body, and lots of required classes and exams to get a license to do so.
“How many classes do you need?” I hooked the heels of my boots on the fountain edge and folded my arms over my knees.
“Six, but I’ve already read the text books. The only one that looks difficult is the Animator course. They just added it. They’re bringing in Professor Zombi from Vodun City, Summerland. There’s rumors that he’s one of the most likely candidates for the Summerland council spot after the Green Man, but it’s really too soon to tell.”
“Hmmm.” I nodded.
“I hear you’ll be returning to the academy next semester.” Her cheeks flushed, but she smiled, pleased that she had found a way to shift the focus to me. “You really lucked out, you know. My first apprentice was a handful, but Kevin, now there’s a true pupil. Coreen didn’t deserve him.”
“He deserves better than me.” I frowned and pulled at the hem of my robe.
“I don’t know,” she said, casting me a sideways glance before sliding the hood of her robe up over her long
hair. “I always thought you had more to offer than low-risk harvests. Stop by the apartment sometime. I’ll give you my notes for the mentor’s course.” She stood and gave me a quick nod before taking off towards the crowd.
“Lana?” Josie rounded the fountain on the opposite side just as Jenni left. “They’re getting ready to start. Grim looks like he’s about to bring on the apocalypse. We better get up there.” She looped her arm under mine and we made our way to the seats reserved for us in front of Coreen’s memorial.
“What did Jenni want?” Josie didn’t sound happy.
“She offered me her school notes for the academy.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders relaxed.
“Why? What’s wrong?” I pulled her arm back, forcing her to slow her pace. Grim saw us coming now and his temper deflated, leaving red blotches along his brow.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She sighed and we took our seats next to Kevin.
The sky shifted into a misty gray as the ceremony began. Almost two thirds of the reaper population was present, but they looked more grumpy than sad. Cutting work early today just meant more work for tomorrow. A handful of Coreen’s closer associates huddled together in the row ahead of us. Maalik sat with Ridwan and a few other angels in the row across from us. He gave me a soft smile and then turned his attentions to Grim as he began the memorial service.
“Thank you for joining us today.” Grim stood behind a concrete pulpit in a sharp, black suit. I had half expected him to don his formal robe again, but maybe it reminded him too much of his own vulnerability. Who knows, maybe it was still at the drycleaners.
“We are here today to honor and remember an elite reaper who is no longer with us.” His eyes watered and he stopped to clear his throat. “Coreen was a dear friend of mine, like her mentor before her.”
A soft grunt passed over my shoulder and froze my heart for a beat. I held my breath and tried to swallow the bile racing up my throat. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there, and in the seat behind me no less.
“Friend? Please. She slept her way to the top,” Seth whispered to whoever sat next to him.
I pretended like I hadn’t heard, and squeezed my hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
“And I wouldn’t be surprised if her mentor had too,” he added with a snicker. He had a lot of nerve. I ground my teeth together and blinked back a tear of rage. Saul had been a good reaper and a good mentor. He didn’t deserve a slug like Seth soiling his memory. But starting a brawl in the middle of Coreen’s memorial service was beyond stupid. I wasn’t about to go there.
I pressed my lips together and closed my eyes. I tried to forget Seth and focus on Grim’s speech, but my mind kept echoing Gabriel’s John Wayne impersonation, “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on.”
A good portion of the gods like to think they’re better than reapers, but the truth is, we’re all made the same. Whether the soul matter manifests into something spontaneously, or is manipulated by a powerful force, it’s still soul matter. None of us can escape the human influence. We still have the human desires for love and family, even though we’re expected to do without them and peacefully serve our so-called superiors.
We are the backbone of this world. Reapers, who are denied everything from positions of power to the ability to start a family. Eternity has never run so proficiently. Souls have never flowed in such orderly and vast numbers. Because of the work we do, Eternity has peacefully thrived for over a thousand years. And how do they thank us? No paid vacation, no retirement plan, no position on the council, and no respect.
“Congratulations on finding that soul.” I suppressed a yelp as Seth’s hand squeezed my shoulder.
“Thank you,” I answered without turning around.
“I’m sure Grim will be promoting you to one of the specialty units, now that your assignment is finished.” He was fishing in the wrong pond, but I think he already knew that.
“Grim has enough on his mind right now. He’ll assign me to a unit when he knows I’m ready.” I shrugged, hoping to shake his hand away, but he only griped tighter.
“If only all reapers knew their place as well as you do.” He let his hand drop away and stood to leave.
Grim stuttered in the middle of his speech. When I looked up, his eyes cut into me with a grueling panic. I would not, would not be getting in the middle of all his political garbage. It was my job to find the replacement soul. That’s all. I was already making myself a target for Seth, thanks to Horus. I had a demon to assassinate for Warren, and I still needed to find a replacement soul for Khadija. If the pleading look on Grim’s face meant what I thought it did, I already knew the answer. Hell no. But it could wait until morning.
Chapter 23
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it with religious conviction.”
-Blaise Pascal
“Hell no.”
“Excuse me?” Grim squeezed his hands into fists until his knuckles turned so white they looked like they might pop off.
I stood behind one of his uncomfortable guest chairs, sparing my back from the decorative torture device, and glared at my boss while my guts hardened into a throbbing ball. If I had been any other reaper, he would have terminated me on the spot.
“You heard me. I’m in over my head as it is. So is Khadija. She trusts me to find the replacement, and I won’t be wasting time going after a phony soul so you can trap Seth. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m only a reaper.”
“I own you. You’ll do what I tell you to do.” Grim slammed his fists down hard on his desk, sending an avalanche of paperwork over the edge.
“I’m the only one who can find the replacement. How do you expect me to do that if you get me killed first?” I rolled my tongue against the inside of my cheek. My mouth had gone dry like my body was trying to override my brain to stop me from blurting out anything else fatally stupid.
“What do you suggest we do? How else can we stop Seth without risking the soul?” he snorted and pushed his chair around to glower out the window at the dusty morning clouds.
Samhain, better known in the human realm as Halloween, was only days away. Zibel, part-time teller at Bank of Eternity, part-time Limbo weather consultant, must have been bumped a few extra coin from one of the goddesses. Or else he was just practicing for the big night. A sticky fog hung over Limbo City, thick enough to mistake dawn for dusk.
I closed my eyes and shuddered, feeling the gloom seep through the window and sink into the heart of me. “Let’s look at what we know, Grim. There’s obviously someone working from the inside. Who all had access to our pickup locations?”
“Well.” Grim sighed and rolled back around to his desk. “Besides you and the team, there’s me, Horus, and the Fates.”
“No one else on the team knows the truth about the soul. Horus is too desperate for the souls you bought him with, and last time I checked, the Fates’ factory was doing just fine.”
“Where’s that leave us?”
“I know, I know. But the demon attacks are growing consistently more advanced. Caim actually sent Harpies after us the last time. I’m not sure what we would have done if Horus hadn’t been there. Caim may be confined to the sea, but if Seth has an inside contact, sooner or later he’ll get tired of taking the burn for his lackeys. He’ll slip up and show up, and then we’ll have him. But if Seth knows we’re going after a fake, and I’m sure he will, I doubt his contact will risk exposure with another attack. We really don’t have time to waste on an elaborate trap anyway.”
“Fine, but if the next soul doesn’t get us anywhere, we do it my way. I hope you know what you’re doing.” Grim shook his head and shoved a black folder at me, knocking another stack of files off his desk and into a depressing heap on the floor. “And Gabriel can’t come with you.”
“Why not?” I snatched up the folder and frowned at him.
Grim folded his arms and huff
ed, giving me one of his you-should-know-better scowls. “Peter suspended him. Something to do with his recently questionable behavior. He’s been consorting with nephilim, demons-“
“Reapers?” I spat at him.
“Booze.” Grim laced his fingers together and rubbed a thumb against his chin. “What did you really expect would happen?”
“Last time I checked, it wasn’t any of Peter’s business who the archangels socialized with.”
“That’s the Board of Heavenly Hosts problem, not mine. I have enough to worry about. Like that soul.” He nodded at the folder in my hands.
I sighed and opened the folder. “Hell no.”
Grim’s brow dropped in a menacing line. “Lose the catty attitude. You may think you’ve got me by the balls because you know my secret, but don’t forget, you have a secret too. And I have more,” he paused and rolled his eyes up with a grin, “creative ways of handling my problems than you do.”
I tore my eyes away from him and snapped the folder shut before it slipped from my moist fingers. Creative, huh? I’d show him creative.
Chapter 24
“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.
It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
-Isaac Asimov
Winston Gale sat cross-legged in his hospital bed, furiously clicking away on a handheld electronic game. His brow crinkled, wrinkling up the pale skin of his shaved head. The IV poking out of his arm jerked violently, threatening to pull free with each attack he administered.
Something unnerved me about collecting child souls. I didn’t have to often. Most of them were handled by the Mother Goose Unit, but every now and then, one ended up on my docket. Winston groaned in defeat and discarded his game in the lap of his paper gown. Then he paused and looked me directly in the eye. I froze.
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