When I first met Asena, her name meant sage, like the spice. Salvía Grimmdottír. She was the daughter of the chief and high priestess; oldest of seven children and only daughter. When I met her, her silvery hair had been long, her skin pale as a ghost, and her eyes were as bright as stars. Her fierceness was only matched by her kindness back then. Our first meeting was by a creek. I had been cleaning my weapon - more accurately, cleaning off the blood of her clansmen - when she appeared like an apparition.
She was magical then, and never once cared that I was the enemy. She saw the wound on my face and decided she had to help. So unlike the Asena I’d just spoken to, the one that that could not even find an ounce of care for her own life.
I didn’t think that my little stunt of getting her to kneel would give her inspiration to keep living, but I did hope that it would make her realize she wouldn’t be able to do this without me. After all, they didn’t even know where to start before I told them to look in the grimoires. They would have been dead in the water if it hadn’t been for me.
Her face, sweet and gentle as I remembered, had grown a dagger tongue. Her brain must’ve been mashed along the way.
I felt a familiar summoning spell, and I followed it.
This time, Rory was alone. Her cheeks were flaming red with embarrassment while she held her hands over the burning ashes. “I’ve heard stories of you since I was a kid,” she said quietly. “I heard you were kind and would guide souls across the Veil–”
“I am not kind,” I interrupted her. “I never have been.”
Rory’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Then why would you–”
“Because the nature of my job requires kindness that I wasn’t blessed with. I have faked it successfully for years, so I apologize if you feel betrayed to find out I am neither kind nor patient.”
“You made her kneel,” she spat out. “She may not be in her right mind since the accident but–”
“But nothing,” I snapped. “With what she is demanding, she needs to realize she must be in her right mind first. She cannot want death when she is death itself.” I sighed angrily, pinching my nose in an attempt to curb my anger. “She had once promised me that we would walk through the Veil together, but if she continues with her bullshit that won’t happen.”
“So, you’ll walk alone, big whoop. What’s so bad about that?”
My eyes flicked to her like a knife. “There are worse things than death,” I bit out. “Sit down, and let me give you a piece of the puzzle you so desperately want to solve.”
“I know you love her,” Rory blurted out. “It was all over your face–”
I glared at her, silencing her. “The part that you won’t find in the grimoires is this: I stopped the curse by taking on its burden entirely. I ended the cycle by making Asena my reaper so the Master could not make her his grim. I did so intentionally as revenge for something I’ve long forgotten, but when the Master found out, he ordered me to send Asena to the mortal world.”
Rory scrunched her nose up in confusion. “Why?” There was silence between us, our eyes locked as we both dared the other to speak. She finally snorted, breaking the silence. “Because she was your reaper?”
“Because this curse is not just tied to our blood, but to our very souls. Asena had to be born back into the Grimmdottír line, but she also had to be born so she could ascend.”
“I thought you said you weren’t kind,” Rory teased stiffly, picking up the grimoire using a levitation spell.
I looked away from her, my jaw clenched at her remark. I had to be more careful. I already had the Master exploiting my feelings for Asena and I didn’t need another.
Rory clicked her tongue loudly, making me look at her “She lost her parents that night,” Rory said firmly. “She found out her entire ‘family’ had tried to kill her as a child. Those wounds don’t just heal, Death. They fester and poison. You might think that she needs a strong hand to shake her out of this, but I disagree–”
“I am Death,” I snapped, effectively silencing her, feeling magic spilling from my fingertips with fury. “I am king of the dead and of the In Between. I can make her kneel if I wish. Especially if it reminds her of the dire situation we’re in. My Master, the god of death, wants to make Asena’s death a spectacle. And she’s more than happy to go along with it, so forgive me if I’m trying to drive the point home that she is just a pawn in the games of two higher beings. A pawn I never wanted her to be, but nonetheless she is.”
“What did she do to you?” Rory demanded, her eyes almost glowing with her own sated fury. “What makes you think that your…your violence will make her see the danger? The only danger she’ll soon be able to see is you.”
I hesitated. She viewed me as a danger? Well, of course she did. I all but assaulted her to get her attention, then made her kneel. Of course I was the danger. I had become a bigger threatthan the actual danger, which meant that as long as she was afraid of me, she would try to stay alive. I sighed. What a poor plan. “I’ll be her danger if it keeps her alive. But you cannot blame me for being angry for her passively suicidal tendencies while I have fought so hard for her to have a normal life.”
Rory ground her teeth together with a loud click, her fingers glowing slightly.“My best friend is traumatized and you want to bring her back to life with what? More trauma? I will be damned if you even think I won’t try my luck against you.”
I smiled. “I would expect nothing less. But you have to understand that Asena Black is not fragile. Stop treating her that way.” Then I smirked. “Slap her more, she needs a good wake up call after what she’s put us through.”
“Fine, she’s been a cunt. But she’ll come around.”
“When? When the witches are on her doorstep? No, she needs to come around tonight. Besides, have you even read what I asked of you?”
Rory held up the grimoire slightly higher. “I’ve read even the Black family grimoire more than once, Grim,” she snapped dismissively. “I’m the daughter of the high priestess and expected to follow in her footsteps. I had to know all family grimoires, so tell me what you wanted me to read.”
“Didn’t you notice how the curse is mentioned in the beginning, disappears, and then it’s mentioned again near the end?”
“So? It’s a later entry.”
“A later entry written by someone who wasn’t even alive when the cursed walked the earth.”
Rory’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she looked down at the book once more. “This is written by multiple people?”
“So is the Grimm family grimoire. The first author was Freyja, mother of the last Grim.”
Her eyes flicked to mine from the pages of the grimoire, surprise and delight flashing in them. “Asena’s original mother,” she breathed.
“Going forward, assume the only parts that are true are the first author’s teachings.”
“Why hers?”
“Because she was the one that was alive during the clan wars.”
“That’s obvious.” She shifted her hair over her shoulder, staring down at the book. “Mercy killings…blessings of the gods… what kind of bullshit even is this?”
“The kind that offers something,” I replied, chewing on my thumb nervously. “It promises the witches that if they take out this necromancer then they’ll be granted the favor of the gods.”
Rory huffed loudly and slammed the book shut. “But ‘favor of the gods’ is vague as fuck and literally offers nothing except the gods might like you when you die.”
“The Master loves everyone, don’t let them lie to you. They’re like a puppy. If you’re being tortured, however, they love you even more.”
“I see. So, what you’re saying is I already have the favor of a god?”
“Uh huh.”
Rory flung it onto her bed, the grimoire landing softly beside her. “And the witches don’t even realize that, do they? Oh my god how stupid can they be? Willing to kill willy-nilly just so a god will pat them on the back like a baseball dad and say ‘great job son’ before shoving them to the Other Side.”
“Nailed it.”
She looked up at me, her eyes suddenly wide. “You have to tell Asena. She needs to hear this.”
I held up my hand and summoned the Black grimoire from beside Rory. “I can tell her, but will she listen?”
Rory opened her mouth to answer and then seemed to think better of it. “I honestly don’t know. I hope so.” She pointed her finger at me. “No more kneeling.”
“No promises,” I muttered as I transported out of the room and into Asena’s.
Dread filled me as soon as I entered the room because I knew I would only find more pain in Asena’s presence. Her abhorrent sniffling made me clear my throat to alert her to my presence.
Suddenly, a pillow slammed into my face and slid to the floor.
“What the fuck?” I seethed through my teeth. “You ask for my help and when I agree you question me and throw pillows at my face? And you actually have the nerve to continue to sniffle like a child in my presence?”
Asena aggressively wiped at her tears. “Fuck you.”
I muttered curses under my breath. “Do you think I enjoy trying to convince you that life is worth it? Because I don’t. Most people have some semblance of self preservation but you…oh you.” I lean back against the wall, my arms folding over my chest.
“I heard you, okay? I’ll fight the witches and try to survive,” she snapped, still wiping at her horribly persistent tears. “It’s not like they don’t deserve to die for their betrayals.”
My lip lifted in a sneer. “They deserve far worse than death.”
Her eyes snapped to mine in surprise. “I thought you were supposed to be kind?”
“So I’ve been told. I hate to break it to you, princess, but I’m the farthest thing from kind. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Don’t call me that.”
I held up my hand like I had a handful of cards. “Well, I have many others where that came from. I have Love, Your Highness, Darling, Dearest… take your pick.”
“You’re mocking me.”
“I would never dream of it,” I replied, taking special care to have every word dripping with sarcasm. “You act like you own the whole damn world so you might as well be called ‘Your Highness.’”
Her face pinched and her cheeks darkened as rage brought forth a shred of the ferocity I had once loved. “Like you would understand what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you love,” she growled. “I’ve been betrayed by my whole–”
I didn’t hear the rest. My own fury tuned her out as my hands turned to fists at my sides to keep from strangling her to end this misery.
When her mouth finally stopped moving, I flexed my hands. “Your betrayal of your so-called family pales in comparison to the betrayals I have experienced, My Lady,” I told her. “You think you know betrayal and pain, but it has incompacitated you and numbed you. You don’t know pain and betrayal until you’ve had to play nice with the same person who stabbed you in the back. You, quite frankly, have never experienced the kind of pain and betrayal that would lead you to ever understand my pain. So shut up and get used to the pain.”
“Hey!” she shouted, throwing the blankets off her. “I will not be spoken to like that!” She crossed the room to me, her anger like fire in her cheeks while she glared up at me. “You might be death but I… but I… I am your successor!”
I stared down at her expectantly. “Is that supposed to mean something to any immortal? You’re human until you ascend. Besides, I called you princess to make you feel special but you rejected it. So, Your Majesty, I inquire again, is being my successor supposed to mean you’ve earned my respect? Quite frankly, general manners does more for gaining my respect.”
She looked like she was going to have steam coming out of her ears. She was so angry as she continued to stare up at me, her neck craning to see me. “You piece of sh-”
I stepped forward, forcing her backwards. “My dear, I humbly suggest you consider who you’re insulting. I am the one you summoned for help, I am the one who awoke you from your ignorance, and I am the one who is trying to keep you from being murdered by your ‘family,’ so before you spit out that bad word, maybe consider the question of this book.” I held up the Black grimoire. I’d hidden it in my pocket which was bigger on the inside than it appeared. “While you were mourning your…” I glanced around the dreary room and grimaced; “humanity…life…whatever, Rory was already reading your family’s grimoire and realizing just how deep of shit we’re in.”
“Excuse me if I want to take a single second of time to try to release my emotions like a healthy person,” she sneered at me, putting her hands on her hips. “Some of us aren’t robots.”
“I have an eternity to process my feelings, I can deal with it later. So can you.” I shoved the books into her hands. “So wipe your tears, sit your ass down, and accept that you need to read your family’s grimoire.top wasting my time.”
She looked at me and batted her eyes. “But you have an eternity.”
I cursed under my breath. “Read the damn book.”
When I first met Asena, her name meant sage, like the spice. Salvía Grimmdottír. She was the daughter of the chief and high priestess; oldest of seven children and only daughter. When I met her, her silvery hair had been long, her skin pale as a ghost, and her eyes were as bright as stars. Her fierceness was only matched by her kindness back then. Our first meeting was by a creek. I had been cleaning my weapon - more accurately, cleaning off the blood of her clansmen - when she appeared like an apparition.
She was magical then, and never once cared that I was the enemy. She saw the wound on my face and decided she had to help. So unlike the Asena I’d just spoken to, the one that that could not even find an ounce of care for her own life.
I didn’t think that my little stunt of getting her to kneel would give her inspiration to keep living, but I did hope that it would make her realize she wouldn’t be able to do this without me. After all, they didn’t even know where to start before I told them to look in the grimoires. They would have been dead in the water if it hadn’t been for me.
Her face, sweet and gentle as I remembered, had grown a dagger tongue. Her brain must’ve been mashed along the way.
I felt a familiar summoning spell, and I followed it.
This time, Rory was alone. Her cheeks were flaming red with embarrassment while she held her hands over the burning ashes. “I’ve heard stories of you since I was a kid,” she said quietly. “I heard you were kind and would guide souls across the Veil–”
“I am not kind,” I interrupted her. “I never have been.”
Rory’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Then why would you–”
“Because the nature of my job requires kindness that I wasn’t blessed with. I have faked it successfully for years, so I apologize if you feel betrayed to find out I am neither kind nor patient.”
“You made her kneel,” she spat out. “She may not be in her right mind since the accident but–”
“But nothing,” I snapped. “With what she is demanding, she needs to realize she must be in her right mind first. She cannot want death when she is death itself.” I sighed angrily, pinching my nose in an attempt to curb my anger. “She had once promised me that we would walk through the Veil together, but if she continues with her bullshit that won’t happen.”
“So, you’ll walk alone, big whoop. What’s so bad about that?”
My eyes flicked to her like a knife. “There are worse things than death,” I bit out. “Sit down, and let me give you a piece of the puzzle you so desperately want to solve.”
“I know you love her,” Rory blurted out. “It was all over your face–”
I glared at her, silencing her. “The part that you won’t find in the grimoires is this: I stopped the curse by taking on its burden entirely. I ended the cycle by making Asena my reaper so the Master could not make her his grim. I did so intentionally as revenge for something I’ve long forgotten, but when the Master found out, he ordered me to send Asena to the mortal world.”
Rory scrunched her nose up in confusion. “Why?” There was silence between us, our eyes locked as we both dared the other to speak. She finally snorted, breaking the silence. “Because she was your reaper?”
“Because this curse is not just tied to our blood, but to our very souls. Asena had to be born back into the Grimmdottír line, but she also had to be born so she could ascend.”
“I thought you said you weren’t kind,” Rory teased stiffly, picking up the grimoire using a levitation spell.
I looked away from her, my jaw clenched at her remark. I had to be more careful. I already had the Master exploiting my feelings for Asena and I didn’t need another.
Rory clicked her tongue loudly, making me look at her “She lost her parents that night,” Rory said firmly. “She found out her entire ‘family’ had tried to kill her as a child. Those wounds don’t just heal, Death. They fester and poison. You might think that she needs a strong hand to shake her out of this, but I disagree–”
“I am Death,” I snapped, effectively silencing her, feeling magic spilling from my fingertips with fury. “I am king of the dead and of the In Between. I can make her kneel if I wish. Especially if it reminds her of the dire situation we’re in. My Master, the god of death, wants to make Asena’s death a spectacle. And she’s more than happy to go along with it, so forgive me if I’m trying to drive the point home that she is just a pawn in the games of two higher beings. A pawn I never wanted her to be, but nonetheless she is.”
“What did she do to you?” Rory demanded, her eyes almost glowing with her own sated fury. “What makes you think that your…your violence will make her see the danger? The only danger she’ll soon be able to see is you.”
I hesitated. She viewed me as a danger? Well, of course she did. I all but assaulted her to get her attention, then made her kneel. Of course I was the danger. I had become a bigger threatthan the actual danger, which meant that as long as she was afraid of me, she would try to stay alive. I sighed. What a poor plan. “I’ll be her danger if it keeps her alive. But you cannot blame me for being angry for her passively suicidal tendencies while I have fought so hard for her to have a normal life.”
Rory ground her teeth together with a loud click, her fingers glowing slightly.“My best friend is traumatized and you want to bring her back to life with what? More trauma? I will be damned if you even think I won’t try my luck against you.”
I smiled. “I would expect nothing less. But you have to understand that Asena Black is not fragile. Stop treating her that way.” Then I smirked. “Slap her more, she needs a good wake up call after what she’s put us through.”
“Fine, she’s been a cunt. But she’ll come around.”
“When? When the witches are on her doorstep? No, she needs to come around tonight. Besides, have you even read what I asked of you?”
Rory held up the grimoire slightly higher. “I’ve read even the Black family grimoire more than once, Grim,” she snapped dismissively. “I’m the daughter of the high priestess and expected to follow in her footsteps. I had to know all family grimoires, so tell me what you wanted me to read.”
“Didn’t you notice how the curse is mentioned in the beginning, disappears, and then it’s mentioned again near the end?”
“So? It’s a later entry.”
“A later entry written by someone who wasn’t even alive when the cursed walked the earth.”
Rory’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she looked down at the book once more. “This is written by multiple people?”
“So is the Grimm family grimoire. The first author was Freyja, mother of the last Grim.”
Her eyes flicked to mine from the pages of the grimoire, surprise and delight flashing in them. “Asena’s original mother,” she breathed.
“Going forward, assume the only parts that are true are the first author’s teachings.”
“Why hers?”
“Because she was the one that was alive during the clan wars.”
“That’s obvious.” She shifted her hair over her shoulder, staring down at the book. “Mercy killings…blessings of the gods… what kind of bullshit even is this?”
“The kind that offers something,” I replied, chewing on my thumb nervously. “It promises the witches that if they take out this necromancer then they’ll be granted the favor of the gods.”
Rory huffed loudly and slammed the book shut. “But ‘favor of the gods’ is vague as fuck and literally offers nothing except the gods might like you when you die.”
“The Master loves everyone, don’t let them lie to you. They’re like a puppy. If you’re being tortured, however, they love you even more.”
“I see. So, what you’re saying is I already have the favor of a god?”
“Uh huh.”
Rory flung it onto her bed, the grimoire landing softly beside her. “And the witches don’t even realize that, do they? Oh my god how stupid can they be? Willing to kill willy-nilly just so a god will pat them on the back like a baseball dad and say ‘great job son’ before shoving them to the Other Side.”
“Nailed it.”
She looked up at me, her eyes suddenly wide. “You have to tell Asena. She needs to hear this.”
I held up my hand and summoned the Black grimoire from beside Rory. “I can tell her, but will she listen?”
Rory opened her mouth to answer and then seemed to think better of it. “I honestly don’t know. I hope so.” She pointed her finger at me. “No more kneeling.”
“No promises,” I muttered as I transported out of the room and into Asena’s.
Dread filled me as soon as I entered the room because I knew I would only find more pain in Asena’s presence. Her abhorrent sniffling made me clear my throat to alert her to my presence.
Suddenly, a pillow slammed into my face and slid to the floor.
“What the fuck?” I seethed through my teeth. “You ask for my help and when I agree you question me and throw pillows at my face? And you actually have the nerve to continue to sniffle like a child in my presence?”
Asena aggressively wiped at her tears. “Fuck you.”
I muttered curses under my breath. “Do you think I enjoy trying to convince you that life is worth it? Because I don’t. Most people have some semblance of self preservation but you…oh you.” I lean back against the wall, my arms folding over my chest.
“I heard you, okay? I’ll fight the witches and try to survive,” she snapped, still wiping at her horribly persistent tears. “It’s not like they don’t deserve to die for their betrayals.”
My lip lifted in a sneer. “They deserve far worse than death.”
Her eyes snapped to mine in surprise. “I thought you were supposed to be kind?”
“So I’ve been told. I hate to break it to you, princess, but I’m the farthest thing from kind. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
“Don’t call me that.”
I held up my hand like I had a handful of cards. “Well, I have many others where that came from. I have Love, Your Highness, Darling, Dearest… take your pick.”
“You’re mocking me.”
“I would never dream of it,” I replied, taking special care to have every word dripping with sarcasm. “You act like you own the whole damn world so you might as well be called ‘Your Highness.’”
Her face pinched and her cheeks darkened as rage brought forth a shred of the ferocity I had once loved. “Like you would understand what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you love,” she growled. “I’ve been betrayed by my whole–”
I didn’t hear the rest. My own fury tuned her out as my hands turned to fists at my sides to keep from strangling her to end this misery.
When her mouth finally stopped moving, I flexed my hands. “Your betrayal of your so-called family pales in comparison to the betrayals I have experienced, My Lady,” I told her. “You think you know betrayal and pain, but it has incompacitated you and numbed you. You don’t know pain and betrayal until you’ve had to play nice with the same person who stabbed you in the back. You, quite frankly, have never experienced the kind of pain and betrayal that would lead you to ever understand my pain. So shut up and get used to the pain.”
“Hey!” she shouted, throwing the blankets off her. “I will not be spoken to like that!” She crossed the room to me, her anger like fire in her cheeks while she glared up at me. “You might be death but I… but I… I am your successor!”
I stared down at her expectantly. “Is that supposed to mean something to any immortal? You’re human until you ascend. Besides, I called you princess to make you feel special but you rejected it. So, Your Majesty, I inquire again, is being my successor supposed to mean you’ve earned my respect? Quite frankly, general manners does more for gaining my respect.”
She looked like she was going to have steam coming out of her ears. She was so angry as she continued to stare up at me, her neck craning to see me. “You piece of sh-”
I stepped forward, forcing her backwards. “My dear, I humbly suggest you consider who you’re insulting. I am the one you summoned for help, I am the one who awoke you from your ignorance, and I am the one who is trying to keep you from being murdered by your ‘family,’ so before you spit out that bad word, maybe consider the question of this book.” I held up the Black grimoire. I’d hidden it in my pocket which was bigger on the inside than it appeared. “While you were mourning your…” I glanced around the dreary room and grimaced; “humanity…life…whatever, Rory was already reading your family’s grimoire and realizing just how deep of shit we’re in.”
“Excuse me if I want to take a single second of time to try to release my emotions like a healthy person,” she sneered at me, putting her hands on her hips. “Some of us aren’t robots.”
“I have an eternity to process my feelings, I can deal with it later. So can you.” I shoved the books into her hands. “So wipe your tears, sit your ass down, and accept that you need to read your family’s grimoire.top wasting my time.”
She looked at me and batted her eyes. “But you have an eternity.”
I cursed under my breath. “Read the damn book.”
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