I gripped the handle of the umbrella wanting to walk faster but could only smack the tip of the umbrella on the ground again. Each time louder than the last. I kept my balance and made my way toward where the God of Death was waiting for me. It's been two days since I last saw Grimm and while it's not the end of the world, I felt annoyed he hadn't come back. I mean, you would think he didn't want his wings for the way he carelessly disappeared.

Did he forget I could be killed at any moment?

I guess he remembered me since he decided to send me a message to meet him and here I am, going to him when should be coming to me. I smacked the tip of my umbrella again and was about to do it again when I saw the selfish God.

He stood underneath a leafless tree. Even when there was no sunlight, he still wanted to keep himself hidden. The branches hung like claws aching to swallow him and yet they could only embrace him. Grimm looked unbothered. His black clothes stood against his ghostly pale skin, his inked hair was pushed back, and his pitless eyes roamed the sidewalk watching each passing person.

But it wasn't until I stopped walking that I started paying attention to the way Grimm looked at everyone. His gaze sometimes would linger behind someone's back. Sometimes his eyes narrowed at someone. I knew he could see, hear, and talk to the dead but what did he see in the living, could see their death? Smell their death? Hear their death? Or was it all altogether?

I wanted to know his world.

I stepped out of the sidewalk, into the grass making my way to him. Grimm's head turned and the corner of his mouth lifted. He came out from the tree untouched and the tree sullen at his leave.

"Raven." He murmured.

Grimm's tall frame sulked over my body like the tree he stood underneath, his shadow looked like claws ready to draw and yet they moved back and forth hesitant to come near me. Instead, they caressed the outline of my shadow. He longed to capture my shadow, my soul.

"Where have you been?" I asked, keeping my gaze down pretending to look at my painted nails.

I can almost hear his mouth twitching with excitement. "Did you miss me?"

I swayed the umbrella under my palm. I did not miss him at all but his absent presence bothered me and he was talking to me as if all was forgiven and forgotten. Sticking to my feelings, I lifted the umbrella a bit and aimed directly at Grimm's polished shoes only for him to move his shoe away.

My umbrella met the pavement again.

I looked up to see Grimm's mischievous eyes. "Is this a taste test of what my immortal life will become when you haunt me? If so, I'm afraid you'll have to be quicker."

The urge to whack him with the umbrella crossed my mind. "Did I or did I not tell you not to go look for Dilara?" I said irritated.

He said back. "Ah, yes but I couldn't miss the opportunity to keep you by my side forever." My stomach imploded out of butterflies, they were flapping uselessly. I have let Grimm get away with his stupid flirtatious comments because I know they're for his amusement. I know what he tells me isn't real.

Death was real but not him, he was nothing but a shadow. Obscured and cloaked.

Grimm went on, "And I'm sure you received some answers about your father. We now know why someone attacked you."

Focusing on what Dilara said about my father and his family it was a lot to know. But one thing was clear, the council will be sending more witches and warlocks to kill me. My father might've been their target for years and still is but I was another De Luna. I had to be killed for whatever justified reason they came up with.

"I'm not going to let them kill you and you're not going to let them either." Grimm pulled me away from my thoughts. "Here you are, standing proud and tall showing them you cannot be killed. As well as trying to stab me with the pointed edge of an umbrella." He playfully scowled.

I bit the inside of my cheek, stopping the threatening smile that dared to escape. I wobbled the umbrella underneath my palm as I brought it to Grimm's attention.

"I'm standing because of this," I said.

He unexpectedly places his hand over mine, he completely engulfed it. He feels so soft like the brushes of a willow tree. The rush of cold wind stings my cheeks and I'm thankful for the wind for hiding my blush.

"We all need to get up from the ground somehow. My scythe, at first, was a cane to aid me when I lost my wings." His thumb runs across my knuckles but I noticed his jaw tightened. "But then I turned the cane into a scythe, what others first saw as weak became a symbol of fear because I, wingless Death, learned how to walk." He doesn't look at me so I look down at his shadows.

They're twisting, swirling, and morphing into two-dimensional shapes. The grass is transparent under the black mist, maybe this was as close as he could unveil himself. At first, his cane appeared then, it grew longer until it was standing above him and finally the curved blade was created. His scythe showed.

He hadn't moved his hand away from mine. I swallowed and gathered courage. "How did you lose your wings?" Grimm's shoulders rose. He didn't want to tell me but this was a chance to open up his heart.

He cradled my hand. "I never lost them. They were severed."

I was shocked and I tried my best not to show it. Whenever I thought about Grimm's wings, I thought there must've been an accident, something happened that wasn't supposed to happen. But it was more tragic, they cut his wings from him. Deliberately. I wonder who could have possibly been capable of cutting Death's wings? Who could have made him fall so hard?

I wanted to ask him these questions but he was stuck in the haze of a nightmare.

"You didn't deserve that," I said quietly.

I didn't need to haunt Grimm, his pain did it for him.

He lifted his head. "No one's ever said that to me."

I met his midnight eyes and frowned, that couldn't be true. Surely, Fate, his moth—I then remembered what he called her, his Creator. I didn't understand why Fate was being so cruel to Grimm. She created him, created his purpose, and created his wings. Why couldn't she create a new pair? And then suddenly I made sense of what I saw. The agony in his eyes, the words he said, and his persistence in wanting his wings back.

Fate was punishing Grimm. At least until now.

I know Grimm is not the kindest person or God but he has something inside of him, beating and bleeding for the loss of his wings. It's a wretched heart. I opened my mouth to say something, anything when I felt a drop of rain on the tip of my nose. Another falls on the top of my head. I felt a light touch on the tip of my nose.

I blinked. Grimm recovered his posture, his eyes turned to the hopeless bottom of an ocean. He nonchalantly lifts his lips again.

This time he moved his hand from mine. "It seems we're going to need this umbrella." He took the umbrella from my hand but held it, he unlatched the umbrella and topped it over us. Under his presence, he concealed the umbrella's shade of white and formed a looming black cloud as protection.

"Hold on to me." Grimm stuck his elbow out.

I didn't appear to look injured since my skirt and black tights hid the gauze wrapped around my thigh. I didn't have to touch him, I could walk. Just very slow. But as the raindrops hit the umbrella and trickled down, my hand looped itself around his arm. I pressed my body slightly leaning into his, I turned my head to face him but instead I met his lips.

I never paid attention to them but under this black umbrella they stood out. They were full and reddish like crushed pomegranate seeds, they stained his lips. I felt myself getting closer to him. Unwillingly I wonder if my lips touched his lips would they become redder or would they only taint my lips? If they touched, would his lips be able to get rid of the unnecessary fluttering in my stomach?

"Stop looking at me like that." My lost eyes met his midnight eyes. "Like what?" I whispered.

"Like I'm something you can eat." He indulges.

I don't know Grimm, I'm starving and I happen to like pomegranate seeds. Your lips are messily red and you're not supposed to be greedy with those hellish lips of yours. Let me have a taste.

What?

I blinked in surprise. What was I thinking? I would never think about him, especially so passionately. I think I'm getting sick. I shifted my body to start walking and he followed. My fingers were still curled around his arm. I could feel what he was hiding beneath his coat but I stopped myself from thinking anymore.

"Where are we going today?" I asked abruptly.

We walked together, at a matched pace.

Grimm said. "Somewhere morbid."

How delightful.