Grim gone, p.8
Grim Gone, page 8
I held out my palm, allowing the sacred metal to unwind from my arm and elongate into a scythe. The metal was warm in my hands. It hummed as if it knew what was happening. As I walked toward Azrael, I couldn’t help but think of this as an execution.
But this was Azrael, and he was quite content with taking a life on a whim.
He was right. I wasn’t his daughter. Because even as a reaper, death seemed so wasteful.
Would my scythe kill Azrael when his had failed on me?
I stepped in front of Azrael, looking down at him as he braced himself against the life stones.
“Give me the stones,” I said. “We don’t have to end it like this.”
He glanced up at me, his eyes fierce. “This is not my end,” he ground out. “This is only the beginning. Before I take you down, I’ll kill everyone you love. Starting with everyone behind you and ending with your bitch mother and brother.”
Fury lit inside of me, fueling my hatred of him.
Blackness fell around me, shrouding me in darkness. I looked down at the smoke robe that cloaked me.
I caught my reflection on the blade. My eyes were as black as my robes.
How was this happening?
How had I become the one thing I hated more than anything else in the world? I was a carbon copy of Death. And yet, death was the one thing that would save us.
I slashed the scythe down at Azrael, but the scythe halted a hair away from him. So, the metal recognized his DNA in me. It wouldn’t work.
What was I to do now?
A laugh tore from Azrael as he continued his inner battle.
I let the metal wrap around my arm and crossed my arms. Were we doomed to fight for eternity?
Something tickled my mind. A memory. From long ago, beyond my own eighteen years.
Lucifer walked over and pulled a dagger from the air. “I was hoping not to use this,” he said. “But there are no other options.”
“What is it?”
“The mortal blade.”
I stared at him. “The one you told me to go look for? The one that I wasted months searching for only to be told it doesn’t exist?”
He grinned. “It can only be used once. I wasn’t sure I wanted to waste it on you. Don’t screw it up.”
“Why are you helping me?” I asked.
“Azrael and I had a deal. He has not fulfilled his end of it.”
Lucifer handed the blade to me. The crooked dagger was as light as a balloon, and yet I felt the weight in my soul.
Nothing about this felt right, and yet I knew it had to end this way.
Holding the dagger, I took a steadying breath. I stepped forward and stabbed down at Azrael. The knife sliced through his back. He crumpled to the ground as the snakes on his robe shook. One snapped at my foot right before it keeled over. Azrael’s robe faded from view, but his body remained.
Was Azrael truly dead? It felt like it was too good and horrible to be true.
“Where are the stones?” Kailin asked.
I knelt next to Azrael and touched his shoulder.
“They shouldn’t be held by Azrael anymore,” Kailin said. “Call to them. They might need you to find their way back.”
I did as she suggested and called to the stones. They were lost somewhere in the darkness.
A voice whispered to me, telling me to be careful. Azrael was coming. The view that I saw was chilling.
I had been set up.
Opening my eyes, I blinked at Lucifer in shock.
A slow smile grew on his face. “Humans are always so gullible. Did you really think I would side with you?”
“What’s going on?” Ranger asked.
“Azrael’s human form is dead,” I said. “But by killing his human form, I released him. He’s very much alive and in his celestial form.”
Lucifer laughed. “It was worth showing up here and pretending to be your ally just to see your face now.”
He shifted from the realm, his demons following his duplicitous butt.
I looked at Kailin. “Did you know this would happen?”
“No. I did not know. But I’m sorry to say Azrael will be unstoppable now.”
I had been afraid of Azrael in his human form. Just how much scarier would he be in his celestial state?
11
I saw the planet. It was blue and pink with puffs of white. Pretty. And then it was gone. Not even a speck of dust left. As if it had been swallowed by a black hole. Voices cried out. Voices that had been filled with life and terror.
Then nothing.
Something touched me. It shook me.
“Riley, wake up,” I heard someone say. My body shook again, and then I felt a sting on my cheek. “Wake up!”
I blinked my eyes open to find Ranger staring down at me.
“Did you just slap me?” I sat up on my couch and rubbed my cheek.
“You were having a nightmare or something. You were shaking and muttering.”
“I don’t think it was a dream, but it’s definitely a nightmare.”
“What do you mean?”
After a week of trying to find both Azrael and the stones, we were no closer to finding them. But there had been reports of Azrael wiping out entire civilizations.
“Has there been a report of a planet being wiped out?” I asked, remembering the dream. “Not just the people, but the planet, too.”
“I can ask if anyone has heard anything,” he said. “What did you see in your dream?”
“I think Azrael just destroyed a planet. There was nothing left. Not even dust.”
“Sounds like it's time to call a meeting.”
“A meeting won’t do anything.” I was tired of a week of meetings and planning. For what? We were no closer to Azrael. “I have to get to Azrael before he destroys again.”
“And how are you going to find him and stop him?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s why I’m calling a meeting.” He was about to leave and then stopped. “Just curious. When you were in the demon realm, did you see my body?”
“I saw tons of bodies. Would your body be there?”
He shrugged. “Lucifer loves his human shish kabobs. Thought I might be on one of his spikes.”
I shivered. “Now that’s a place I wouldn’t mind if Azrael destroyed.”
“Don’t say that. My body might still be there.”
“It’s probably decayed and nasty. Not to mention with a giant hole running through the torso.”
“I still want it back.” And with that last statement, he flipped his long blond hair over his shoulder and left.
I knew he missed his body, but saving his old one from the dark lands seemed extreme.
Standing, I made my way to the bathroom. A shower would wake me up and a fresh set of clothes would be heavenly. And by the time I was done, hopefully, Ranger would round up enough people for another pointless meeting.
While I had felt better when the Oracle had first bonded with me, I now felt more lost than ever. Whatever pieces it had unlocked inside of me had closed again. It was as if the stones were wilting like flowers in a drought. And if they were wilting with me, just how would they survive Azrael?
It was later in the day when I stood in the elders’ council chambers. Twenty elders stared at me from their spot around the circle. I wasn’t sure why they were called elders. Only a few sported long white beards. The rest barely looked older than Lawson. Being here again brought back memories of the elders locking me away in a spider infested dungeon.
There was contempt in their eyes but more in mine.
What was it about me that made these men hate me so?
I glanced over at Lawson who stood beside me. “Do we really have to be here?”
“Yes,” he said. “They can help us pinpoint Azrael’s location.”
“I find this news disturbing,” an elder said after having heard my account of what I had seen. “There have been reports of colonies being wiped out, but an entire planet reduced to nothing? Even before Life cursed Azrael into human form, Azrael had never wiped out a planet.”
“We don’t know that,” someone else said. “None of us were alive then.”
“He’s going to destroy everything,” a man with a trimmed beard said. “There’s no stopping him.”
I listened as each one aired their concern.
“Can I have the floor for a moment?” I asked.
The astonished glares I received for having disturbed them were nearly comical. But I was done waiting. I didn’t have time for them to debate the situation or their animosity toward me.
“You may speak once the council reaches a decision,” an elder with a pancake-flat hat said. He seemed to be the leader since they still hadn’t found Buzzarly. He was as taciturn and ornery as Buzzarly.
“There is no decision to be made,” I said, ignoring the deepening glares. I didn’t have time to wonder what was twirling in their pea brains. “I told you what I saw. It was not a dream. It was real. The stones are connecting with me and showing me what Azrael is doing.”
“But why would they connect with you?” the elder asked. “You haven’t even been a reaper for a year yet.”
This was getting old.
“I have life stones in me. They can communicate with each other a little. My sole focus is on getting the four stones from Azrael.”
I still had yet to find the orange stone. It was unaccounted for and there was no helpful information on it in the library. So far, my attempts to reach out to it was unsuccessful.
“The council will decide what your sole focus will be,” the elder said, dismissing me.
I turned to Lawson. “I’m done here. They can’t help me. They can barely make a single decision without each elder dissecting it.”
“I know they are a little much to handle,” Lawson whispered. “This is their process whether or not you like it.”
“I don’t like it. It sucks.”
“Riley,” he said gently, as if pandering to a toddler.
“Don’t start,” I said. “I don’t belong in this world. I never have. Let the elders talk until they are satisfied, but I can’t wait for them for another second.”
“Riley, don’t go,” he said.
I turned and pushed through the gleaming wooden door and out to the overly long hallway. I passed the guards stationed at the gateway. Once on the grounds, I shifted back to the dead zone. I headed straight to the library.
More than once, the dead zone library let me down with its lack of knowledge, but I hoped this time it would give me the information I needed.
As I sat at the worn table in the center of the library, I asked, “Librarian, do you have maps of all the galaxies?”
“Only of the galaxies that have been recorded.”
“How many have been unrecorded?”
“Unknown.”
“If I draw a picture of a planet, would you be able to tell me where it’s located?”
“Hand drawing will not produce an accurate—”
“We’ll try it,” I said, cutting him off. I didn’t need him to tell me it was a long shot. I already knew that.
I grabbed a piece of yellowed parchment from the wonky stack of books close to the table. However, I didn’t have a pen.
“Hang on,” I said.
“Hang on is a colloquial term used in—”
Before he could finish his sentence, I hurried to my pod and returned with a pen and also paper that didn’t look as though it was going to disinegrate.
I sat down at the table and drew the best version of the planet I could, which wasn’t good because I never got the hang of drawing in art class. Still, I tried. It was better doing this than waiting for the elders to hash out every reason I wasn’t worthy of their help.
I set the pen down and looked at my drawing. It sucked.
“Librarian, can you see my drawing?” I asked.
“Yes. I see everything in the library.”
“Do you know where this planet is located?”
“No such planet is known.”
“Is it because of my drawing, or because a planet like this doesn’t exist on the maps?”
“Unknown.”
It was probably my drawing.
With a sigh, I leaned back, wondering if this was just one more way to waste my time. Azrael could be out in the universe, wiping out another planet right now.
“Librarian, do you know of any planets that have been destroyed?”
“Four million years ago—”
“Anything more current? Like last night?”
He was silent for a moment before saying, “There are reports of a planet that exploded in the NDM 4588 galaxy. Reason unknown.”
“Sounds like the planet I’m looking for. But would Azrael still be there?”
“Location unknown.”
“I wasn’t asking. I was wondering. But would you know where a celestial being might hang out?”
“There is no known location. However, it has been recorded that celestial beings prefer locations that can feed their large energy need.”
“Where might that be?”
“One spot with enough stars to produce adequate energy is the PLE 8038 galaxy.”
“Are there any planets in that galaxy?”
“There are fifty-two.”
“Do you have a map?”
I was expecting him to make me hunt down an old dusty scroll-like he did last time, but I was surprised when a map outline was highlighted on the table.
“Is this an interactive map?” I asked. “Can I zoom in?”
“Define ‘zoom in’?”
“Um. Well, kind of like taking a microscope to it to see more detail on certain areas.”
“Information is limited. However, by placing your finger on the area you want to see, it will enlarge that section.”
I placed my finger near a star on the far side of the map. Seven planets were close to it.
“Do you know if any of these planets are safe for humans?”
“Unknown.”
Of course.
Well, I guess there was no way of knowing until I shifted over. I just remember from school that if I landed on a planet not suitable for humans, a lot of bad things could happen. Burn, Freeze, float, gravity squish.
Still, if Azrael was in the galaxy, perhaps it would be easier to communicate with the stones if I was on a planet closer to them.
Dean appeared next to me.
“There’s a problem,” he said.
“Of course there’s a problem,” I said. “Azrael is killing people.”
“No, it’s your family. Ranger just went to check on them. They’re gone.”
I had a moment of panic, but then realized Azrael was causing issues on the other side of the universe. “Mom is probably running errands.”
“No. Like your house is destroyed. Your family is gone.”
I stood abruptly, knocking into the table. “Gone or dead?”
“Ranger didn’t find any bodies. But he’s pretty sure it’s the work of Azrael.”
So many scenarios ran amok in my mind and none of them were good.
“Did he say how recent this might have been?” I asked.
“No. I didn’t ask.”
Shifting, I stood on the sidewalk facing where my house had stood. It was nothing but a pile of singed toothpicks.
Someone was standing in the backyard. We locked gazes before he shifted from view. But I saw amber eyes and three pointy horns.
If a demon was here, this wasn’t the work of Azrael. It was the work of Lucifer.
“Lucifer!” I yelled. “Where are you? If this is your fault, I will kill you.”
“Will you?” he said from behind me.
I turned to glare at him. “Are you responsible for this?”
He gave a slight shrug. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
“Where is my family?”
“Safe for now.”
I summoned the metal into a scythe. Black smoke robes covered me. “I swear I will cut you down if you don’t tell me where they are.”
“I will. But not now. You’ll ruin the surprise otherwise.”
Lucifer’s surprises were never something to look forward to.
“I’m not up for your games.”
“You’ll like this one. I promise.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you. Tell me where my family is!”
“You’ll catch more flies with honey.”
He was a dead man!
I poised the blade, ready to strike.
Lucifer smiled at the scythe. “Finally ready to play, I see.”
“Tell me where my family is, or I will kill you.”
“Go ahead.” He stood with open arms, waiting for me to strike. He had no fear. Did he think I wouldn’t do it? Or did he think with his immortality that I couldn’t kill him?
“Why are you baiting me?” I asked, the scythe still at the ready.
“Because I want what I was promised by Azrael.”
“What were you promised?”
He stared at me for a moment. “Death.”
“You want to die?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Do I need a reason?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. I’m tired.”
“That’s it? I’m tired, too. I’m trying to save my ass along with everyone else’s.”
“You’ve been alive for eighteen years. You know nothing about being tired. And if you want your family back, you only have one choice.”
He did this just to die? It made no sense to me. None of it made sense. So much death in the world and yet he wanted it.
“If I kill you, what happens to the demons and the dark lands?”
“A new leader will emerge.”
“And what if this leader is worse than you?”
“Then kill it too.”
“You don’t care?”
“Why should I? It’s not like I had a say in the matter to begin with. Just like you don’t have a say in the matter of who you are.”
“So, why not quit? If you’re unhappy with your life, change it.”
He laughed. “Did you get that off a self-help poster at school? Don’t you think I already tried? I’m stuck with my fate, as are you.”
