I was very stupid.
“We’ll sign the contract later,” Valentine nodded toward the Unseelie.
“Wait a minute, this isn’t…” But Crassus already had his hand on the hilt of his sword and was moving toward me. “You’re not gonna…” He pulled his sword out. “Crassus…” And the cold, sharp edge was now pressed against my throat.
I looked into his eyes, and he looked into mine. This man had followed me around the whole summer, and then the whole school year. He’d stood guard by my door. He’d slept on the hallway, right in front of my room. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Not even if he was paid a fair price.
The sword moved away from my throat, and I sighed in relief. Too soon. He hadn’t changed his mind, he’d just changed the place where he wanted to strike.
Crassus plunged the sword in my chest.
I opened my mouth to scream, and nothing came out.
The last thing I saw with my human eyes were his lips moving in a quiet whisper: “It’s the way of the Unseelie.”
* * *
Pain. Sharp. Unforgiving. Darkness. Light. A blade glowing red.
“It’s okay, honey,” the Grim Reaper said. “It’s your time to go.”
“N-no.”
I was only twenty years old. I was in love with four boys, and I’d only gotten to tell two of them. I hadn’t fulfilled the prophecy. No, that last part didn’t matter. There had never been a prophecy.
“N-no.”
I recognized my Grim Reaper. She was VDC. A beautiful sphinx with golden eyes and skin as black as the night. GC and Pazuzu had been assigned to her for practice.
“I’ll be gentle,” she whispered.
“Please, it’s not my time…”
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“Aww, I’m sorry, little one. It is.”
The blade pulled at my string of life, loosely coiled around my chest and shoulders. It gave in on the first tug. The next thing I knew, my soul was violently pushed out of my body. It rose for a few moments, up up up toward the sky, stopped to look at the walls of the Academy from above, then plunged into the earth.
I was going to Hell. Not a metaphor.
I was dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
As I descended toward the gates of Hell, my soul took the shape of who I used to be. It had been attached to my body for so long, that it was all it knew how to do – be Mila. My nonmaterial feet touched the ground. The more I walked, the more my destination seemed to move farther and farther away. The path turned narrow and dusty, and visions of a life once lived and lost started popping out here and there, showing me scenes in which I was the protagonist. Here was me on my first day of school, when I punched that kid who was laughing at my old, worn-out clothes in the face. There was me telling the Math teacher that she had a stick up her ass and needed a man to go in there and get it out. She’d failed me in a test, and I’d studied my ass off for it.
Me screaming in my mom’s face that she was useless. Me reassuring my desk mate in high school that she looked great, when in truth, that dress made her look like a potato. Then, there I was, making my scythe act up in Sariel’s grip at the Yule Ball in year one. Telling Lorna she was stupid if she believed he’d ever want her in year two…
I hadn’t been a good person. I hadn’t been evil, either, because most of the bad things I did were to take revenge on people who’d hurt me, but that meant nothing when it came to the final judgement. And this was it. This was my final judgement. Yep, I was going to Hell. And I deserved it, because when I was supposed to forgive and turn the other cheek, I cursed my life and everyone in it, and threw a punch instead.
Whatever. Heaven is boring anyway. And I like pain. Pain makes me feel alive. A part of me still couldn’t process that I was dead, apparently. I wondered what Circle of Hell I’d end up in. Visions were still dancing before me as I walked walked walked. When they’d be done, I’d reach the gates of Hell and find out.
There was me learning about the monster under the Academy and doing nothing about it. Doing nothing to stop evil was a sin, too. This particular vision lasted for a long time, and I had a feeling it was the one to decide my punishment.
I was getting to the end of the road. The gates were wide open before me. A few more steps…
Something grabbed me by the throat. My first instinct was to wrap my fingers around it and pull, but then I realized that I was nonmaterial, so I could just change my shape and escape. It didn’t work.