Page 75 of The Reluctant Reaper
Amara nodded. “I concede that. It’s not damning on its own. But if I pull all the oddities together and consider what I know about you, all of you, and what you think you know about me, it’s plenty damning. But that’s not the worst of it. Is it?”
“Nope.” From Chernobog, who’d been leaning against the far wall, arms crossed over his chest, quiet as a grave marker. Just being around the big lug was intimidating; small wonder he did what he could to seem less terrifying. The dye job was downright adorable.What is that?Gray wondered.Nice’n Easy Boy Band Blond?
“It’s gotten away from you, hasn’t it?” Amara asked. “Whatever spell or poison or trick you colluded to pull. Whatever nonsense scheme you came up with. Death’s not getting better.That’swhat you’re all freaking out about. Not that Death is sick... but that he’s visibly decaying before our eyes.”
“Oh, but?—”
Amara ignored Penny’s timid interruption. “There was supposed to be a reveal, right? As if this was reality TV and not, you know... reality? Once I stepped up, Death was supposed to make a suspiciously miraculous recovery, I would have faced my fears and then I could leave with a calm acceptance of my future, blah-blah. Which carries its own problems—clearly none of you thought past Death’s recovery. And his miraculous recovery would have raised red flags, too.”
“You’re right,” Skye said, holding up her hands in what Gray had to assume was an uncharacteristic placating motion. “It was juvenile and insulting, and we?—”
“You fucking idiots.”
“Amara,” Skye continued, more than a little taken aback, “we never?—”
“Don’t you understand?” Gray asked. “Hilly always backs Death, so that’s not such a surprise. But your betrayal is the worst, Skye. Because Amara loves you. Because she thought you were friends.”
“No one hit your buzzer, new guy,” Penny said. “You shouldn’t be here, much less with our Amara. You’re not suited.”
“I’ll have you know, her eccentricities blend perfectly with my clinical insanity,” Gray snapped back. “And I’m notwithher. Not like that. Amara will back me up.”
“Goodbye,” Amara said, which wasn’t the backup Gray had been looking for.
Hilly’s head snapped up. “You’re?—”
“This is your scheme and your headache,” Amara replied. “Best of luck fixing what you put in motion. See you in another six years.”
Gray cleared his throat. “I guess that’s my cue to go pack. Thanks again for all the lefse.”
ChapterThirty-Eight
“Don’t go anywhere,” Amara ordered La Croix as they were leaving the room, and half an hour later, she snagged him by the sleeve and dragged him to the indoor cave.
“What in all the worlds?—”
“In.”
“Amara, what is?—”
“In, in.”
“Very well, don’tshove.” La Croix stumbled, caught himself, and nearly fell into Gray’s lap.
“What’s up, La Choy?” Gray held up a small tray. “Don’t worry, I brought snacks.”
“That is not what I was worrying about; thank you all the same.” La Croix glanced around the cave and shivered. “Shouldn’t you be packing?”
Gray’s response was muffled by a mouthful ofszarlotka. “’Course not. It was a bluff... myGod, these are good. Amara wouldn’t abandon this mess, no matter how much they deserve it.”
“Oh.” La Croix loomed over Gray, perhaps by accident, as he pondered. “I hadn’t considered that.”
“Have a seat,” Amara said, settling beside Gray. She couldn’t remember wanting a drink so badly in her life, which is why she didn’t dare fix herself one or five.
“No, Amara, thank you.”
“You can’t want to stand like that, all hunched over,” Gray pointed out. “What if we’re in here for an hour?”
“I shall cope. Everything in here is chilly and damp and I only just got this jacket back from the cleaners.”
