I smiled and tucked a strand of blond hair behind her tiny ear.
“It does. Thank you. Just keep looking for my mother. I can’t explain it, but I feel like she holds the key to getting rid of him forever.”
Yoli nodded.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The truth was… Morningstar’s sappy story didn’t help me much. Sure, now I had the personality profile Headmaster Colin had asked me to put together. At least someone was happy. I could understand why he wanted to keep it all secret. Valentine Morningstar was ashamed of himself. He was ashamed that he was a hybrid, because his mother had taught him that he wasn’t good enough and he’d never be good enough, no matter what he did. Not even if he became the most powerful Grim Reaper the world had ever seen, which he now was. If she’d relented and given him her validation, then he wouldn’t have been walking around and scaring the shit out of people with crazy talk like: “The reign of Life and Death is nearing its end.” I was totally imitating his voice in my mind.
His heavenly family was not impressed. So, he was planning something big. Something not even his archangel mother would be able to ignore. But what was it? Except that it was going to be super bad for all of us, I was lost. And Yoli wasn’t giving me anything of substance. It didn’t help that the more I thought about her story, the more I felt like she was hiding something from me. Lying to me, even. I just needed her to find my mother already. Katia Angelov would know what to do. She’d been in love with him, and there was a fair chance that he might’ve told her about his plan. When they met, he was already in his third term of reaping. Whatever he was going to do, he’d been working on it way before I was born.
Time was running out. We were preparing for the final exams, graduation was upon us, and I still didn’t have the slightest idea about how I could retire my father and take his place as a Grim Reaper. Busy with studying and not failing tests, I ended up ignoring both Yolanda and my ex-boyfriends. I kept telling myself I’d have time for lustful love and sisterly love later. Most days, I felt like the executioner named Time had put a rope around my neck, and he was tightening it just a little bit every twenty-four hours. I was becoming restless. Soon, he’d pull the lever, the floor would disappear from under my feet, and I’d hang helplessly, my legs kicking.
What a dreadful image.
It was almost summer.
The Holy Chapel and the Unholy Chapel were the only places where I could breathe in peace, comb through my thoughts, turn within, and find specks of courage that helped me survive another day. On this particular evening, after Lite
rature with Professor Lovecraft, I felt like going to the Unholy Chapel. I walked up to the altar, looked upon the statue of the horned Devil, mockingly asked him what he thought about my dumping his son, then went to light candles for the two women who’d been my sacrifices in September and December. I wasn’t feeling very good, to be honest. I should have brought my third sacrifice to the Great Old One at least a month ago, if I were to keep up with my four-month-schedule, which was a stretch as it was. But since I wasn’t talking to Paz or the others, I didn’t have a good candidate to send down the well. Even if I were to try and find one, I wouldn’t know where to start. I guess I was in denial. At least, I wasn’t feeling as awful as the first two times, so maybe I could make it until graduation. Maybe.
But if you’re rotting, Mila, how will you have the strength to defeat Morningstar?
Didn’t I already know by now? If I were to defeat him, indeed, it wouldn’t be in battle. It wouldn’t be with scythes. How, then?
Maybe we can both do a Sudoku puzzle. But if my brain decomposes, he’ll beat me at that, too.
God, my future looked bleak!
I stepped out into the warm light of the sunset. The chapel’s second exit led into a clearing, deep in the forest. I remembered when Patty and I came here for the first time, and she showed me what she could do with her succubus powers. It was winter, and she’d made roses bloom.
A shuffle behind me. I rolled my eyes, expecting GC or Paz to pop out of nowhere and beg me to take them back.
“I told you to stop following me.” I turned around lazily, but when my eyes fell on my visitor, I froze in place. “You.”
Valentine Morningstar was pissed off. He usually looked grim and displeased with the whole wide world, but now he looked like he was about to murder me. For the second time.
I pulled the bell out of my pocket and called Corri. When the pixie appeared, I whispered to her: “My scythe.” She made it materialize out of nowhere. Must tell Mrs. Charon she needs to teach us how to summon our scythes. But that was stupid. Once Grim Reapers, we’d practically sleep in bed with them. As students, it was safer to leave them in our dorms when we didn’t specifically need them.
“I thought I taught you better.”
“What?”
He was fuming. I held my ground. Whatever he was talking about, one thing was for sure: he’d never taught me anything, good or bad.
“It’s very unladylike to poke your nose into things that are none of your business.”
“I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.” I kind of did, though.
He took a step toward me. Unwilling to let him intimidate me, I took a step toward him, too, scythe at the ready. Even knowing there would be no outcome, we could still fight.
“You wanted to know when and where I was born, who my parents are… You wanted to know why I became a Grim Reaper and why, after two hundred years, it wasn’t enough. You wanted to know why I never want to retire. Well, did you find your answers? Do you feel better now? Wiser?”
He swung his scythe at me, and I blocked him. We stayed like that, scythes crossed, for a minute. With a grunt, I pushed hard until he stepped back and took his position again. He laughed.
“What’s the matter? Is it that time of the month?”
I sneered at him. I was weak. My hip popped when I took a step sideways, and it didn’t sound good. I could feel my muscles struggling to keep up with the signals sent by my brain, and failing miserably. He had me.