Page 118 of Grim
Like any prize fighter worth his muster, Big D recovers and asserts his dominion over the moment and the mortal. His voice drops to a dangerously low volume, and the temperature in the room begins to fall. “You would do well to watch your words around me,” he murmurs, tone sharp. “Your days on Earth may be numbered, but your time in my realm is infinite. And I am not a man to be trifled with.”
Rue receives D’s warning words silently, though there is a noticeable strength to her spine as she stands toe to toe with Death himself.
With a deft sleight of hand, Big D brings his index and middle finger up, filling the space between him and Rue. In his hand, he now holds a green shrub with small yellow flowers clustered atop the leaves.
“Rue,” he whispers, leaning closer to her, eating up the space between them and slipping the herb directly between her breasts, which are tastefully displayed in her corseted top. The flowers obscure the diamond on the necklace I got her.
It takes every ounce of restraint I possess not to grab his hand and rip his wrist from his arm. Knowing the futility of any physical move against D on his home turf, I silently seethe. I know what he’s doing. He’s baiting me. Testing me. And I am not stupid enough to flinch in front of Daryl.
“For remembrance.” He finishes theHamletquote with nefarious undertones.
Rue does her best to hide the shaking that’s involuntarily creeping over her shoulders, but Big D’s presence looms large.
He takes a small step back, squares his shoulders, and addresses us both with his pitch-black eyes. “Enjoy the rest of the party, you two. I’ll see you for The Send-Off.”
Big D spies another attendant walking away with a tray of the drink he downed earlier. He stalks the server with the tray, leaving me and Rue frozen in his manic wake.
“What is The Send-Off?” Rue asks, her voice thin. “Isthat about me? Is there”—she swallows—“a ceremony?” The question cuts through the noise, laced with fear and the quake of uncertainty.
I shake my head slowly. “Thereisa ceremony,” I admit, my tone even and controlled. “But it has nothing to do with you, Rue.”
Her shoulders don’t relax, and I release a sigh.
“Rue,” I murmur, just for her, “you’re safe. You can relax. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She nods, barely. But the tension in her spine is steel.
I add, softer now, just above the music, “You can breathe now, Mayday. I’ve got you.” I look at her, hoping my nearness will serve as a reminder that I want to protect her.
She takes a steadying breath as her shoulders soften and asks again, “What is The Send-Off?”
I explain plainly, “After souls cross over, they’re meant to enter AfterLife Processing—ALP. It’s a bureaucratic purgatory, really. They get assigned roles, stations, purposes in the OtherWorld. Not everyone becomes a reaper, mind you. Most shuffle paperwork or hold down time loops or oversee spectral inventories.”
She blinks at me, the confusion evident.
“But sometimes,” I go on, slower now, “a soul can’t detach. Not fully. They leave their bodies behind, but not their grief. Or guilt. Or bitterness. And if they can’t release that weight, if they keep looking backward instead of forward, they fail onboarding.”
Her brow creases beneath her mask. “Fail onboarding?”
“They become unfit for eternal service.”
There’s a long pause, and I can almost feel her forehead wrinkle behind her mask.
“And?”
I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck. “In your language? They’re fired.”
She quirks a brow. “Fired?”
“Try not to think about it, Mayday,” I say, my tone deliberately lighter. “There’s nothing you can do about it anyway.Supra nostram potestatem.”
She scowls, the line of her jaw flexing under her mask. “I really don’t like it when you do that.”
“What?” I arch a brow. “Use the languages I spent years learning? Keep stories and cultures alive? Seems a bit shortsighted of you.”
“It would help if I knew what you were saying.”
“I said, it’s beyond our control. That’s it.” I cut my gaze toward the center of the ballroom, where the music is beginning to thin. “So, best to leave the machinations of the OtherWorld to the architects who built it. Keep your head down and survive the night.”
