by Cara Wylde
I looked at the scythe in my hand. I propped it firmly on the ground, next to my right foot. It was taller than me, its handle exaggeratedly curved, its blade sharp, the top part of it covered in a long line of runes. It still sent a nice, soothing buzz through my arm. Now, the warm feeling had reached my shoulder, moved down into my chest, and was starting to nestle pleasantly in my heart and stomach. This scythe was mine. I could feel it. It adhered to me like a new limb that I’d never known I missed. And the blade… The beautiful, mighty blade. It was the first time when I could look at a blade and not feel that overwhelming mix of fear and temptation that was too much, too powerful to handle… that would make me want to throw myself over its edge and fall fall fall until I couldn’t feel a thing anymore. Not a thing.
“Congratulations, Mila Lazarov.” The professor who’d been watching me all this time stepped forward and clapped lightly. He was tall and handsome, with dark brown eyes and gray streaks in his once dark hair. He must have been in his fifties. “Welcome to Grim Reaper Academy. I’m Headmaster Mason Colin.”
Oh, the guy who I had to congratulate for the Academy going downhill. Instead, I simply said “thank you.”
CHAPTER FIVE
After they all saw me swing my scythe at the shimmering dust, the other candidates rushed to be done with the ghosts in front of them. Ghosts, copies, or whatever they were. I made a mental note to ask Klaus later what he saw. Apparently, the supernaturals didn’t like that the human had finished before them. I felt rather proud of myself.
The professors ushered us down a narrow path through the forest, toward the main building of the Academy. Klaus caught up with me. He was holding a scythe himself, and even though he still looked a bit shaken, he managed to muster a smile.
“You nailed it back there! See? Told you you’d be alright. Next time, do me a favor and trust me. No need for drama when you have me to tell you you’re gonna slay it.”
“Slay it. Hah!”
The irony wasn’t lost on me. Side by side, we walked through the gates of the Academy. Now that I felt a bit more confident and relaxed, I could take in the gothic architecture, with the tall, harmonious arches, long spires, and the gargoyles guarding the top balconies. The front court was wide and large, with a round fountain in the middle. A strange looking sculpture – an entanglement of snakes, tree trunks, and thick branches, – sprayed water through a dozen hidden nozzles. A few sleek, expensive cars were parked in the front of the stone stairs, but I was, apparently, the only one impressed. As we walked past them, all the other students ignored the vehicles and followed Headmaster Colin to the front door. I, on the other hand, had never seen such impressive cars in my life, and I stopped for a second to admire them. Klaus grabbed my arm and pulled me along.
“Stop staring,” he whispered.
“What? Why?”
“You’re attracting unwanted attention.”
I looked at those ahead and spotted the redhead from before giving me a menacing look. She’d been crying over her mystery box just an hour ago, but now she looked fine. More than fine. What had I ever done to her to deserve that level of scowling?
“Pandora. That’s her parents’ car. Some of the candidates’ families have come to see the sorting.”
“Pandora?” I snickered. “What kind of name is that?”
“You wouldn’t be laughing if you knew.”
“So, tell me.”
“She was named after a powerful, famous demoness. The original Pandora was her mother’s best friend. She disappeared a long time ago. To honor her memory, Lilith named her only daughter after her.”
“Lilith?! You mean… that Lilith?”
“Yeah, that Lilith.”
“And Pandora’s father is…” My eyes grew wider than saucers.
“Satan himself.”
“Wow!”
“But it’s no big deal. Satan has spawned so many children that trying to count them all would be an impossible task. See that guy?”
I looked where Klaus was pointing at, and not very subtly either. The guy he was showing me was tall, well-built, with perfectly smooth olive skin, unruly black hair, and eyes so green that I could distinguish their unique, dark color from where I was standing, at the bottom of the stairs. God, he was gorgeous! And even though he was wearing the same uniform as all the other students, it fit him perfectly. It didn’t only show off his ripped abs and bulky arms, but also his strong calves and what looked like… a rather generous package between his legs. I chewed on my lower lip, which was something that I did when I was either terrified or horny. One had to know me well to be able to tell the difference. Sometimes, when I was horny, I was also terrified by my own urges. So, yeah!
“Paz. He and Pandora are betrothed. He’s a spawn of Satan, too. Their parents arranged their marriage even before they could crawl out of their crib.”
“Wait, wait.” Klaus had suddenly rushed up the stairs because the other students were gathering around the Headmaster, and he didn’t want to miss anything. “Paz and Pandora are both Satan’s children and they are to be married?! You’re saying they’re half siblings, and they bang?”
“Oh, they don’t only bang each other. But, yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Fucked up.”
Klaus shrugged. “Not in our world.”
I stuck a finger in my mouth and made gagging noises, but I stopped quickly when I saw a girl and a guy staring at me. He had his arm over her shoulders, while he held his scythe in his other hand. They were both mind-bogglingly handsome. The day wasn’t over, and I already felt like the ugly duckling. Not that I didn’t like the way I looked, but these people were a thousand times more good-looking than me! It was like the best artists in the world had banded together to paint the most gorgeous girls and boys that the human imagination could come up with. The guy’s blond hair was rich and curly, and when he moved, it caught the sun and turned just the right shade of fiery red. It was as if it was constantly changing as it responded to the type of light that bathed it. His eyes were the same. Silver, then golden, brown, dark blue. It was as if the artist who had come up with the concept of him hadn’t been able to stick to one look, so he made his colors, shades, and hues shift with his every move.
At some point, I realized I’d been staring like a stupid person. I smacked my lips to make sure I hadn’t been salivating all over the front of my uniform and made to walk past him and his girl. Too late. He’d noticed me and my brazen gawking. He pushed the girl away and pranced toward me like a big cat who’d just spotted its prey. Before I knew it, his arm was over my shoulders, pulling me in. He smelled like dried herbs that had been left too long in the sun. Elderberry and lemongrass, maybe.
“How’s it going, normie? Like what you see?”
He wiggled his brows at me, and I decided to pretend I didn’t understand what he meant.
“The Academy looks incredible.”
He laughed out loud. “Yeah, sure. Boring. I’m GC, by the way. If you want to flick the bean later in your bed, I figured you should at least know what name to scream.”
He winked, and I felt sick to my stomach. I pushed him away and placed my scythe between us.
“You’ve got a mouth on you,” I said.
He stuck his tongue out and made a suggestive flicking motion. “And you have no idea what it’s capable of. I’ve never fucked a human, and you’re decent looking. I’m not that picky, anyway. As long as it has a mouth and a cunt, I’m down. Make sure you stop by my room later. Help me tick the fuck-a-normie box off my bucket list.”
“You’re disgusting.” I turned my back to him and looked for Klaus. He was a few steps ahead of me, and he’d heard the whole exchange. “Hey! You left me there with that jerk.”
He gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I’d rather stay out of Apis’s way.”
“Apis? He told me his name is GC. Like… what is that? What does it come from?”
“Golden Calf
Apis.”
“Golden what?! What the fuck?” The name sounded strangely familiar, though. I was pretty sure I’d heard my dad mention it when he’d tried to make me read the Bible. The Old Testament. Oh, fuck! The Old Testament! “Mind. Blown. He can’t be… But the Golden Calf was not a person.”
“False god. He was, err… is a false god. And he is a person. And a calf, too.”
I needed more details, but Headmaster Colin opened the huge, heavy doors, and we all followed him inside. We went past rows of doors that I could guess led to offices and classrooms, then stopped in front of another large set of doors that seemed to lead outside. When I saw the inner court, my heart almost stopped. It was magnificent! A large, perfect square with a cluster of gazebos in the middle, guarded by old trees and beds of flowers and bushes on the sides, peppered with benches, swings, and even a couple of hammocks here and there. Oh my God! I want to live here forever! But I had already met Sariel and GC, and Paz, or whatever his name was, didn’t look very friendly, either. Maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
“Pretty, huh?” Klaus was smiling from ear to ear. “Fuck, how much I prayed to get a letter of invitation! It’s a privilege to be here. Only twenty-two Reaper spots in the entire world, and one hundred accepted candidates.”
“How many people applied?”
“This year? Shit, I don’t know. I’ve heard there were at least three hundred. They send a lot of letters, but they only accept one hundred students every two hundred years. They like to have a large pool they can pick from.”
“And what happened to those who weren’t accepted today?”
“Oh, they were already sent home. Don’t worry about it.” He beamed at me. “You’re here. You’ve made it. You’re gonna be a badass Reaper.”
“Yeah, right.” I huffed. “There’s still enough time for me to fuck up.”
We crossed the court and headed toward the back wing of the building. The doors were open this time, and we poured into a grand dining hall. There were four long, wooden tables lined up, with equally long wooden benches on each side. Up ahead, at the front of the hall, there was another table that looked fancier, and that was currently half occupied by a few men and women. I immediately figured that must have been the professors’ table, and the people waiting were the parents who really wanted to see the sorting.
I sighed. I couldn’t think of my own parents. Not now, not ever. I’d run away from home a week ago and hadn’t even left a note. Not that I had anything to say to my father, but my mother would have probably appreciated an explanation. But I didn’t feel like explaining myself. She would have thought I was crazy, anyway. Leaving everything behind to go to a school that sounded like it was ripped out of a fantasy novel! Ridiculous. What kind of gullible person did that? What kind of weak-minded 18-year-old dropped high school and risked her chance at ever going to college for an imaginary institution that declared its mission was to prepare the next generation of Grim Reapers? Maybe it was better for my mom to think I’d run away from home, just like any other tortured, rebellious teenager, than live the rest of her life with the conviction that her daughter was cuckoo in the head.
The professors took their places at the front table, which was raised on a dais to make it clear that it was more special than the other tables in the dining hall, but the Headmaster remained among the students. He motioned for us to form a semicircle around him, then snapped his fingers and produced a scroll out of thin air and unrolled it ceremoniously. So, he’s a mage, too. Lotta mages around here. He proceeded to call out names, and I stood straighter, my heart picking up the pace every time he directed a student to the table of his or her cabal, and returned to the scroll to call the next name.
“Lorna Chiaramonte. Righteous Death.”
Lorna stepped forward, took her RDC badge from the Headmaster, shook his hand, and went to sit at her table, where her friends were waiting for her. How the hell is she righteous?!
“Klaus Severinus Hamelin. Merciful Death.”
“Told you,” Klaus winked at me.
I smiled and watched him walk away as my stomach twisted and my heart hammered with a passion. I moved my hands behind my back and crossed my fingers. Let it be Merciful Death. Let it be Merciful Death. Klaus is right. It’s in my name already. I didn’t want to end up in the Righteous Death Cabal with Lorna and her righteous bitches.
“Pandora Darkmoor. Neutral Death.”
How the fuck is the daughter of Lilith and Satan neutral?! Great, that crossed another cabal off my list. If looks could kill, the look the beautiful, redheaded Pandora gave me as she walked past me would have put me six feet under. She hates me already. Why? Because I saw her cry?
“Sariel Gracewing. Violent Death.”
Laughter bubbled in the back of my throat, threatening to spill through my lips. I snorted like the classy lady that I was, coughed, and covered my stupid mouth with my hands. Gracewing, though?! Gracewing?! No wonder he had a chip on his shoulder about gays. His name sounded gay as fuck. Archangel Sariel Gracewing, Protector of the Heavens. I bit my tongue hard. I couldn’t burst out in laugher. No. He’d kill me if I made fun of him. He gave me a scathing look as he walked past me, and I dared to flip him off. His perfect brows met right above that cute nose of his when he furrowed them so hard, I was afraid they might stay that way.
“GC Apis. Violent Death.”
Of course, that was the all-boys cabal. It made sense that all the assholes would be in it. Thank God I didn’t have to worry about being sorted into the VDC. For once, my vagina was proving to be my savior. So far, it had only given me grief, what will all the irregular bleeding it did every month, and the throng of trash suitors it attracted. GC blew me a kiss. When I rolled my eyes at him, he just blew me another one and grabbed his crotch.
I looked around me. How was it possible that no one had noticed that? No, I was pretty sure Headmaster Colin had seen it, but he was too busy with his scroll. Meh. Probably GC’s beefy family was in the audience, and he didn’t want to make a scene.
“Sheba Hellflame. Righteous Death.”
The blond girl with sparkling green eyes and endless legs joined Lorna. Her name made me guess she could only be a demoness.
“Pazuzu Heremus. Violent Death.”
Oh, so Paz came from Pazuzu. I shuddered. I’d heard of Pazuzu, the demon of the wind, the one who brought famine and locusts when mortals got on his nerves. Was Paz that Pazuzu? Better not think about it.
“Francis Saint-Germain. Violent Death.”
Oh, oh, oh. I’ll be damned. Big names, big names. I was but a poor mortal, but I had heard of these guys. Well, not about Sariel. He was just some random archangel, from what I could tell. But GC Apis?! The false fucking god himself? The one the peeps in the Old Testament worshipped when Moses was late to his own party? Nah. I still couldn’t believe it. Maybe he was just the son or the grandson of the original false god. That sounded more like it. And Pazuzu?! There were movies about him! Francis Saint-Germain. Could he be related to the infamous Comte de Saint-Germain? The one who was thought to be a vampire and an alchemist? I studied him as quickly and as inconspicuously as I could. He had brown hair and clear green eyes, was tall, but not as ripped as the three jerks he joined at the table. In fact, I doubted he was an asshole. He didn’t look like one. He was probably the most normal-looking person in the hall, except for me. He shot me a glance, and I blushed. There was nothing cruel or unpleasant in that glance. On the contrary. He seemed rather… curious about me?
“Mila Lazarov. Violent Death.”
What now? What? I had been so distracted by Francis Saint-Germain that I’d heard Headmaster Colin wrong. I didn’t react.
“Mila Lazarov.” The Headmaster craned his neck to find me among the other students. I was in the back, thinking I’d draw the least attention there. “Mila Lazarov, please step forward and claim your Violent Death badge.”
I gulped. Shit. I’d heard him right. That was, ind
eed, my name. But the cabal… No. Klaus had told me no girl had ever been sorted in the VDC.
“I’m sorry, you must have gotten that wrong,” I said in a small, barely audible voice.
“Speak up, young lady. We can’t hear you.”
Yeah. That… that was the idea. I dragged in a breath and took a step forward, like he’d asked me to. The other students moved out of my way, and I hated them for it. I was out in the open now, dead silence had literally fallen over the entire hall, and everyone was looking at me. I cleared my throat and smiled apologetically.
“I… I’m sorry, sir. I mean, Headmaster Colin. Sir. You’re wrong.”
“Your name is not Mila Lazarov?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop saying my name! There are over one hundred people here. I don’t want all of them to know me.
“It is, of course. But I can’t be in the Violent Death Cabal.” I pointed at the scroll he was holding. “Maybe you… err… you skipped a line? Or read the line before…? It happens.” I giggled awkwardly.
The Headmaster blinked, readjusted his glasses, and looked again. I could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t going to say something different than the first two times. Well, at least he was humoring me by checking.
“No, young lady. It says here, and the test is never wrong. You’re in the Violent Death Cabal. Here is your badge. Please join the others now, so we can move on and have dinner sometime this evening.”
“Oooh.” My desperation was evident in my voice, behavior, movements… everything. I reached out and took the badge from him, all the while using my scythe as a crutch. I was afraid I’d faint from so much stress and, frankly, sheer terror. When I wrapped my fingers around my VDC badge, the dining hall broke into an uproar.
I’m never going to be a Grim Reaper. I’m going to be Grim Reaper meat.”