Grim Crush (Grimly Ever After) (19 page)

“I’m guessing she’s the one who dressed you?”

“Yeah. She knows a lot about humans. She studies them in her free time.”

“Well, you look beautiful.”

“Thanks.” Satisfied there were no immediate threats around, I focused on him. “So how’s my dancing?”

“Not bad. Other people shouldn’t be able to tell you’re not human.”

I matched his grin, rolling my eyes. “That’s a relief. If people knew I was a grim reaper, they’d be running for their lives.”

Shilah chuckled. “
I’m
not scared of you.”

“No, but someone does hate me, and she doesn’t even
know
me.”

“Lucy was just being…overprotective of me.”

“She’s jealous. I think she thought she could stake her claim on you tonight, but I’m getting in her way.”

“Well, now she knows I’m taken. So that’s one good thing about my impending death tonight. I get to have you here with me.” He kissed the top of my head.

I swallowed. If I failed tonight, this would be the last time I got to be with Shilah. I didn’t
want
to think like that, but maybe I had to, just in case.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, wishing I could hold on to him for eternity. He put his other arm around my waist too, and we continued swaying back and forth to the music. When I closed my eyes, it was like he and I were the only two people in the room. Like we were in our own little world. I was even able to block out his death aura.

We danced for about three songs, and then our peaceful trance was shattered by none other than Lucy.

“Can I have a dance, Shilah?” she asked.

He frowned. “Lucy, I don’t think–”

I interrupted him, “Yeah, you should dance with her. I have something else to do.” I would’ve rather walked through the fires of Hell than hand my boyfriend over to Lucy, but I needed to do a sweep of the room again. The Angel of Death was more of a threat than a jealous teenage girl.

Shilah must’ve known what I had to do, because he sighed and stepped away from me. “Fine. You won’t go far though, right?”

“No,” I replied, to which Lucy rolled her eyes in disgust. I knew she was thinking Shilah didn’t want to be far from me for romantic reasons, but if she knew the truth, she’d also want me to be near so I could save his life.

When I left Shilah, I checked his immediate surroundings. Everything appeared safe here, so I walked around the room, searching for anything that could harm him. I even sniffed the food and punch at the refreshment table for poison. You couldn’t put Death past anything.

As I was walking by the open double doors leading out of the ballroom, I spotted three uniformed men just outside, talking to a hotel employee. They were the humans known as police officers.

I froze, listening from the doorway.

“…we’re pretty sure he’s not here, but we’re gonna check just as a precaution, sir,” one of the cops was saying.

“Should we warn the students?” asked the employee.

“We don’t think that’s necessary,” said another cop. “We don’t want to cause a panic during this fun night for them. Besides, the escaped prisoner would be foolish to come to such a public place.”

I gasped, whipping around to search for Shilah through the crowd. He was still safe, now dancing with Clarissa.

I scanned the room for an escaped prisoner-looking guy. A prison break wasn’t too farfetched for Death to arrange. And now a dangerous man could be lurking around here…

I spotted a suspicious figure standing in a corner of the room near the stage. He wasn’t dressed up like everyone else, and his back was to the throng of students.

I headed toward him, squeezing past teens as I kept my eye on the guy. I was about twenty feet away from him when he turned and looked around the room. He definitely didn’t belong here. He looked to be in his upper thirties, wearing raggedy, filthy clothes.

Maybe he knew he was being watched, because he suddenly bolted out of a side door. I ran to follow him, almost falling again in my high heels. By the time I burst through the same door he had gone through, I saw him rounding the corner at the other end of a short corridor.

I sprinted after him as fast as my fancy shoes could carry me on the hard carpeted floor. The man strode down another hallway outside the ballroom, heading into the hotel lobby. I followed as he weaved around a family lugging suitcases. Finally, he ducked into an open elevator.

I slowed to a stop, panting. Well, if he was dangerous, he shouldn’t show up in the ballroom again anytime soon. Still, maybe I should alert the cops that I’d seen a suspicious-looking person.

I watched the light above the elevator to see that he’d stopped on the third floor, then I went back to where the policemen were. I was coming up behind them when one’s walkie-talkie started blaring. It mentioned the escaped prisoner being spotted on the highway in a stolen vehicle.

The officer radioed back, then he and his buddies jogged toward the hotel exit. I sighed in relief and headed back into the ballroom. The suspicious figure had been a false alarm.

This death thing was going to be a lot of work. It would be so much simpler if I knew what was actually going to happen.

I rubbed my forehead wearily and took another glance around the room. There still didn’t seem to be anything around that might cause Shilah’s death.

I wandered back onto the dance floor. Maybe nothing would happen till Shilah left the prom. He probably wouldn’t stay here till midnight. Maybe he’d be involved in a car accident on the way home. So perhaps I could relax a little and have some more fun.

I made my way over to the area where I’d last seen Shilah dancing. However, he wasn’t there.

I walked around, looking at the people dancing and those sitting at the tables. I also checked by the refreshments. My panic level began rising as I scanned the dance floor again.

Shilah was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 28

My heart pounced into my throat. I’d only lost sight of him for two minutes! How could he have disappeared so fast?

I cursed at myself. I was so stupid. Two minutes were more than enough time for the Angel of Death to set something into motion. If he had, he must’ve been waiting for the exact moment when I was distracted long enough to make his move. I hadn’t even considered that he’d be watching Shilah and me, since he’s so busy and all. Dammit!

I quickly searched the room again, then ran over to a table where Clarissa and Lucy sat.

I slapped my palms down on the tablecloth, leaning forward. “Do you guys know where Shilah went?”

“We’re not his keeper,” Lucy snapped. “Can’t you keep up with your own boyfriend?”

“This is important! I need to find him.” I almost reached across the table to grab Lucy by the front of her dress, but restrained myself.

“He went to the bathroom,” Clarissa told me. “Some girl spilled punch on his shirt.”

“Where’s the bathroom?”

“Gosh, you can’t let him go off on his own for one minute?” Lucy butt in.

“Shut up, I’m not talking to you!” I yelled, sick of her attitude and not having the patience for any delay. My heart was already hammering with worry.

Lucy drew back in surprise at my outburst, regarding me like I’d gone insane. Clarissa lifted her eyebrows and replied, “Uh…the bathrooms are down the hallway behind those doors. Why–?”

“Thanks,” I blurted, spinning around and running across the ballroom in the direction she’d pointed. I weaved around tables, shoving some people out of my way, despite their protests.

Please let me be wrong about this, please let me be wrong
, I kept saying to myself as I went. If Shilah died, it would be all my fault. I shouldn’t have lied to him about when he was supposed die, and maybe he would’ve been more careful.

No matter how fast I was going, it felt like I was moving in slow motion. As I pushed through the ballroom doors and started running down a side hallway, I caught a whiff of something in the air here. It smelled horrible, kind of like…

…propane gas.

As soon as I thought the words, an ear-splitting explosion went off. Balls of flames rolled through the air toward me, the force of them knocking me flat on my back. The building shook, and parts of the hallway ceiling fell in pieces of smoldering plaster.

I heard screams from the ballroom behind me, and at the same time an alarm began blaring, ringing in my ears. Fire consumed the walls on either side of me, and black smoke suffused the air. A burning odor assaulted my nose.

Dazed, I blinked several times, groping along the floor to get my bearings. Bright orange flames roared all around me, but didn’t burn my invincible body. All I felt was extreme heat. The smoke made my eyes water and my lungs tingle, but I could still breathe.

When my disoriented brain made sense of what had happened, my chest tightened.

“Shilah!” I cried, staggering dizzily to my feet. Back behind me, people were running, evacuating from the building. They were too frantic to look this way and see a girl walking through fire. But if they had, I wouldn’t have cared. I only had one goal in mind.

Squinting through the smoke, I felt my way along the wall, going toward the source of the explosion. It seemed to have come from the kitchen. Death must’ve staged a gas leak.

After a while, my hands found a door. I looked up and fanned the air to see the panel on it–WOMEN, it read. The women’s bathroom.

I hurried to the next door beside it, where the men’s bathroom was located. During the explosion, a massive gold pillar had fallen sideways and was leaning against another, blocking the door.

“Shilah!” I shouted again, trying to get around the pillar.

“Xia!” I heard his faint voice cry from the other side of the door. He coughed. “I’m trapped! I can’t get out! What happened?”

“There was an explosion and part of the building fell across the door!” I strained myself against the metallic pillar. “I can’t move it!” If only reapers had super strength.

Shilah coughed again. “Xia, I can’t breathe! There’s a lot of smoke…”

“But there’s no fire in there, right? Try to find another way out! Is there a window?”

“Yeah, but it’s up high…”

“Try to reach it! I’m going to find a way to get to you!”

“But Xia–”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you, I promise! I’m not losing you!” Tears in my eyes, I pushed against the pillar some more, banging and kicking it in frustration. Thick smoke obscured most of it, but I could tell it was stuck pretty good. There was no way it was going to budge.

I paused for only a second to think, then I continued down the hall, darting around and leaping over flaming debris. I also morphed my high heels into flats as I went so I could move faster and easier.

I made my way to the end of the hallway and burst through the melted doors leading into the kitchen area. This whole room was up in flames, but luckily it seemed like no one had gotten caught in the explosion.

It took me longer than I would have liked to locate a door leading outside. Fire eagerly licked out of it once I’d stumbled through, and billows of smoke curled up into the night sky.

I ran along the outside wall until I found a window about two feet above my head. In it, I saw Shilah struggling to get it open. Naturally, it would be stuck.

The Angel of Death was winning so far.

I searched my surroundings, then sprinted back into the fiery kitchen. Just inside the door, an object that read FIRE EXTINGUISHER hung on the wall. I grabbed it, ironically not intending to use it to extinguish.

As I ran back outside, I also grabbed a green trash can standing along the wall and dragged it over to the bathroom window. I climbed on top of it, holding on to the windowsill to keep from toppling off.

“Get back!” I ordered Shilah, gesturing for him to get away from the window. He disappeared below it, and I grasped the fire extinguisher in both hands. With all my strength, I rammed its bottom into the window, shattering most of the glass. I used the extinguisher to break away the leftover broken shards so Shilah could fit through the small window, then threw it to the ground.

“Come on!” I yelled, reaching inside for him. He climbed up onto the edge of a bathroom sink and heaved himself onto the windowsill. I grabbed his hands, helping him jump down onto the trash can. Inside the bathroom, the ceiling hurtled down, fire consuming the spot where he’d just been.

Coughing, Shilah hopped off the trash can and helped me to the ground too. I began to ask if he was okay, when I heard more glass breaking from above.

I looked up to see sharp shards of glass from the upper windows raining down toward me. Toward Shilah.

“Look out!” I cried. I staggered back, pushing him behind me, but I forgot there was a steep hill of grass behind us. The glass shards barely missed us as they smashed into the ground, but then Shilah and I were falling backward.

We both cried out as we rolled and tumbled down the slope, unable to stop ourselves. My hair came loose, and grass tickled my arms and legs as I went.

We didn’t slow until we had reached the bottom and rolled into the middle of a road. My head spun and I was breathing hard by the time I came to a stop on my stomach.

I instantly looked up to find Shilah, and he was about five feet from me, further into the road. While he was clambering up onto his hands and knees, I saw the headlights of a car heading straight for him.

My hands shot out and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward me. The car clipped the coat of his tuxedo as he landed beside me on the shoulder of the road.

My chest heaving, I immediately sat up and looked around, wondering if Death had anything more to throw at Shilah. After three attempts on his life, I wasn’t sure I could keep this up much longer.

“Xia,” said a voice behind me.

I spun around and gasped. “Jayza–!” I tensed, ready to react if she tried to reap my boyfriend’s soul.

“You can relax,” Jayza quickly assured me. “I came to tell you–Shilah’s soul doesn’t need reaping anymore. I no longer sense his death. This has never happened before, so you must’ve saved him.”

I swiveled to look at him now sitting up beside me. His clothes and hair were disheveled and his tuxedo was filthy with grass stains. But I didn’t sense an aura of impending death around him anymore.

“Are you okay?” I asked, looking him over with concern.

Panting, Shilah nodded. I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“Thank goodness,” I murmured, squeezing him tight while relieved tears escaped down my cheeks. “You’re alive. I saved you.”

He held me too. I could feel how shaken he was from his close calls with death.

“I’m glad Shilah’s safe,” Jayza said, smiling.

I held him until he stopped trembling, then I got to my feet, helping him stand too. I kept holding on to his hand as I stared up the hill at the hotel, where black smoke was furling from the lower windows and into the starry sky. The hotel’s fire alarm still rang raucously in the night, and distant fire truck sirens wailed as they approached.

“Did anyone die?” I asked my best friend as she stood next to me, gazing at the hotel too.

“No,” Jayza answered. “There were some injured, but everyone evacuated safely. The sprinklers were blown out where the explosion happened, but the others in the rest of the building stopped the fire from reaching anyone.”

“Good.” I sighed. “The Angel of Death won’t be happy about this though.”

Shilah stared at me. “I thought you said I was safe until close to midnight. It was only around 9:30 when I went to the bathroom.”

I lowered my eyes to my feet. “I really had no clue when Death would strike. I lied so you wouldn’t worry all night. I shouldn’t have. I’m
so
sorry. I was supposed to be watching you every second, and maybe if I had–”

He squeezed my hand. “Death would’ve come after me eventually, so it’s not your fault. At least we got it over with. I’m safe…for now.”

I embraced him again, so happy I could be close to him without sensing death. “And you’re going to
stay
safe, until–”

A sudden blast of wind cut me short. Jayza, Shilah, and I turned to our right, where it seemed like the actual
air
was splitting in two, like the doors of an elevator opening. Only this was like a door to another dimension. Blinding white light erupted from the opening, and I had to squint my eyes to see what was occurring. Powerful gusts continued to blow, whipping my hair straight back from my head.

A dark figure emerged from the dimensional door, seeming to glide out rather than walk. The tall figure blocked most of the bright light, so I didn’t have to squint so hard.

When the stranger stopped a few feet from us, I gaped. It wore a black robe whose hem touched the ground, with wide sleeves so long that I couldn’t see its hands. The figure’s face was lost in the shadows of a large hood. However, the mere essence of this being told me who he was, even though this was my first time seeing him.

The Angel of Death.