Page 132 of Grim

Then, with something like realization creeping in at the edges of his tone, he says “So, that’s why they don’t like you.”

I blink. “Who?”

He gestures vaguely. “Them. The suits and the strings. It’s not just your feelings for Kane that have their knickers in a twist. It’s this. What you did. Quite a mess you’ve created for yourself and the Doc.”

“Yeah, well, life is messy sometimes.”

“You mean love.” Asher purrs the sentence.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Didn’t need to, Rue.” He smirks, taking me in as he returns to standing.

“Don’t get smug,” I say, not bothering to wipe the tears from my cheeks. “I didn’t break any rules on purpose. I didn’t even know it was possible. I just made space for his story, then provided some comfort in the form of someone else’s story.”

“Yeah, well …” He clears his throat, scratches the side of his nose. “Funny, isn’t it? The whole machine built to keep souls contained. And all it took to rattle the order of it all was a tattered bunny and a young woman willing to listen.”

I glance at him. He’s staring straight ahead, jaw tight. I can’t tell if he’s impressed or unnerved.

“But this, what you just did, changes everything. For everyone.”

“Doesn’t change anything for me. All it’s done is make me an enemy of Fate and Time and a burden to those around me.”

“For an empath, you sure do manage to find the energy to feel sorry for yourself. You have a gift, Rue. A power I’ve certainly never heard of before.”

“All I do is listen.”

“And it would seem there’s more power in that simple act than you will ever know.”

“Well, my window for receiving stories in this world is drawing swiftly to a close. So, lotta good it’s done to discover this gift so late.”

“Never know what the future might hold. And it mattered to that one soul, didn’t it? That ain’t nothing, Rue.”

“You going soft on me, Asher?”

“Don’t tell Kane,” my reluctant reaper deadpans. “Or anyone else for that matter. I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Your decency is safe with me, Ash. I won’t do anything to dissuade anyone from thinking you’re a shit.”

“Thank you,” he concludes with a smile, then shakes his head in disbelief. “If only Mercy could see this. She would be beaming.”

“Tell me more about her. Her sisters were so vague at the ball.”

“That’s because no one is meant to speak of her.” Asher saunters to the chair, where he sits smoothly, crossing his legs in one fluid motion.

“She was banished after a huge fight with her sisters. Fate and Time always loathed her inefficiency and hated how revered she was by those on Earth. They were jealous of her, plain and simple. And jealousy makes us behave in the most peculiar ways.” He voices this last sentence with the weight of personal knowledge in his tone.

He continues when I don’t respond, “The Weavers felt that Mercy’s emotional outbursts kept leading to complications—adjustments of timelines, reversals of fortune, change. And we all know that Fate and Time are anathema to change. So, instead of making room for the complexities of human experiences and working with Mercy to create a compassionate tapestry of time, they sent her to the Moonless Mountains, forever lost to the world.”

“The Moonless Mountains?”

“Yes.” Asher’s expression darkens as he describes this place. “They exist on the outer edge of the OtherWorld. A place so dark it renders its inhabitants immobile. One wrong step, and the jagged edges of its rocky slopes can swallow you whole. Once someone is brought to the mountains, they are presumed lostforever. Destined to become rooted in rock, a part of the cold, dark landscape for all time.”

“Something kind of beautiful about the idea of a Mercy flower.”

“Yes, well, something rather ugly about a world without Mercy, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would,” I agree softly.