Page 51 of The Reluctant Reaper
“I’m trying! There’s a lot going on. Okay, La Choy was there, too. He showed up late—sometime after Penny and Hank—and he bugged out right after. Which is why when your mom screamed the scream that could be heard for miles, he didn’t come. He was long gone by then. We know why Penny and Hank stayed put, but why didn’t La Choy stick around?”
“Good question. Remind me to hunt him down and ask him.”
“Is it because of you?”
“What? No. What?”
“You guys have some history. Don’t glare; anyone who’s been in a room with you two for longer than ninety seconds would pick up on that.”
“Pffftt.” Amara shrugged off all the La Croix nonsense. “He’s just a jackass. He’s always gotten on my nerves but, like all assholes, sees it as a challenge.”
“So you two never...”
“No. He’s an annoying, overprotective chauvinist, which is the nicest thing I can say about him. More important, he doesn’t like the winters here, so I can’t see him engineering a scheme to kill Death, get rid of my mother—which would be almost as difficult as doing away with Death—and then live in NoDak for the next several centuries. He’s from down South and bitches when the temp dips below sixty.”
“Wait, what? Why would La Croix have to kill your mom?”
“Do you really think Freyja Brunhilde would meekly accept the murder of her husband? Trust me, anyone who takes on Death would have to kill my mom, and I don’t see La Croix doing that. He adores her.”
“That’s a good point, though. If someone’s plan is to get Death out of the way, and they’re strong enough to do it, do they have similar plans for your mom?”
“Horrible thought,” Amara replied, more than a little taken aback. “One I should have had before. And all the more reason to figure out what the hell is going on. This is why we’re friends; you always think of stuff I should have but didn’t.”
“That and you keep me in Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. Scratch La Choy. What about Skye? She showed up late for breakfast. She even joked about it.”
Amara shook her head. “She was sparring with me. We were in each other’s company after breakfast, and she was right behind me when I ran to my father.”
“And Chernobog only comes at night.”
“Chernobog only comes at night.”
“Maybe you’re—nngh!—wrong.” Gray wriggled a bit, still trying to get comfortable. “Stupid stalactites or whatever the hell they are... why would death gods want to hurt or kill a death god? And if they did, how would they know it would work? And for what?”
“What do you mean?”
“Revenge? Expansion? A fucked-up version of ‘The Most Dangerous Game’? They’ve all got their own kingdoms, right? Sounds to me like taking on another chunk of territory would be nothing but a pain in the rectum. And, like we speculated, what happens to your mother?”
“Which brings us back to the beginning: No one in their right mind wants this job.” She chewed her lip and pondered.Maybe we’re making this more complicated than it has to be. Maybe there really is a simple explanation: It’s Death’s time and I’m just being paranoid.
Ohpleaselet it just be that I’m clinically paranoid...
“I can’t be the only person who feels like that,” she finished.
“No, but you sure stepped up.”
She rolled her eyes. “Stop it.”
“Nope. You were incredible today. It was completely awesome.”
“It wasn’t and I didn’t. Not really. I wasn’t being me. But it would have been much harder if you hadn’t insisted on inviting yourself along.”
“That’s what I do.”
It was. Most people wouldn’t have gone ononeReap, never mind half a dozen. For that matter, most people wouldn’t go out of their way to be besties with the Grim Reaper’s kid. But her situation was untenable. Gray wasn’t going to set his life aside to help her Reap indefinitely. And even if he wanted to, she wouldn’t allow it. And even if she allowed it, his time was running out.
Amara shivered a little and scooted closer. “We should have brought cardigans.”
“Naw, don’t need ’em.” Gray slung an arm around her shoulder and she leaned into his warmth. “Listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m with you until we figure it out, whether it takes days or months. You know I can work from anywhere. Having a programmer on-site wasn’t necessary even before the pandemic. I can find a work-around for your family’s lack of internet and hilarious reliance on fax machines.”
