Read Online Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet - Free Book Online

wearing a black silk kimono spotted with gray orchids.
    Horus and Wosyet joined Lady Meng, while Coreen took her place on the other side of Maalik. We still had one empty chair, probably reserved for an appre ntice. Coreen loved having apprentices and took one every century. This would be her ninth.
    “Good evening gods, goddesses, devils, angels, d emons, and reapers! Welcome to the one thousand and three hundredth Oracle Ball!” Grim’s thunderous voice carried out over the rooftop. Applause broke and the band chimed in the background to gather everyone’s attention again.
    “Let us begin the evening by intr oducing the eleventh generation of reapers and assigning their apprenticeships.”
    Six timid reapers appeared on stage, two females and four males. They each wore the traditional cowl and had black hair, like all reapers do.
    One of the males stepped forward first. He had too full a mouth for his narrow chin, giving him a feminine look that was only amplified by his shaggy hair. He reminded me of the popular boy bands the human girls pined after.
    “Kevin Kraus,” Grim announced. “At the top of your class, you will be honored with the privilege of working under an excellent second generation reaper, Coreen Bendura!”
    Coreen stood and more applause sounded as Kevin left the stage to take his seat next to her. His adoring eyes never left his new mentor as Grim a nnounced and appointed the remaining reapers before moving on with the ceremony.
    “Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The five council representatives at the end of their hundred year terms will announce our newest members.” Grim bowed and took a seat in one of the black marble chairs b ehind him.
    The council consisted of ten me mbers, including Grim. It began with only five in the year 659. In 709, five more members were added. Every fifty years, roughly half of the council is replaced with new members. The available positions on the council are intended to represent the faiths with the most followers, but as it goes with most politics, that’s not always the case.
    The council representatives are e ssentially chosen by the secondary councils they belong to and eventually answer to during their term. The Board of Heavenly Hosts reign over the heavens of the Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Their counterpart, the Hell Committee, as I’m sure you can guess, rule the Abrahamic hells.
    The two Abrahamic councils used to function as one, the Abrahamic Elite. But their conflicting interests worried the rest of the gods, so they demanded the council be split up as a precaution. The two still work together on occasion, and even share their votes. For the past term, Heaven has had three members and Hell, only one. Three is the maximum number of representatives a seco ndary council is allowed to have on the Afterlife Council.
    The Zen Senate has three seats on the council as well. Two thirds of the senate is made up of deities from the Hindu faith, allowing them two of the positions on the main council. Their other seat is shared by the Buddhists and a handful of traditional Chinese faiths.
    The remaining secondary councils, the Summerland Society and the Sph inx Congress, only have one seat a piece on the council. Summerland Society is the more diverse of the two, consisting of deities from dozens of ancient religions that are seldom practiced anymore. While the Sphinx Congress is the most exclusive secondary council, allowing Egyptian deities only.
    Isis, the current representative for the Egyptian faith, came to the podium first. She wore a simple white gown , with her ebony hair pulled up in a cluster of braids. The traditional Egyptian makeup decorated her eyes, and a thick, silver ankh hung from a cord around her neck.
    “What a joy it has been, working with the Afterlife Council to ensure peace among our communities. I will miss it greatly, and I hope that the man taking my place will find it as equally