Read Online Graveyard Shift by Angela Roquet - Free Book Online Page B

had been the bloodthirsty Kali, wearing a necklace of human skulls. Not the kind of goddess you forget. As Parvati, she was calm, collected, and a gentler image to behold, but not so gentle that her peers forgot what she could become.
    “Thank you. I am looking forward to serving my people and working with the council,” she cooed into the micr ophone before sitting down next to the Green Man. His green cheeks flushed pink as he gave her a timid smile.
    Holly Spirit, Heaven’s current representative, and Cindy Morningstar each had another fifty years left on the council. The Green Man, representing the faiths of Summe rland, and Kwan Yin, of the Buddhists, were halfway through their terms as well.
    Grim cleared his throat at the podium to address ev eryone one last time. “A toast.” He lifted his champagne flute. “To a superb Afterlife Council, and all the great works they will accomplish in the following century!” Everyone lifted their glasses and cheered.
    My night was getting worse and worse. Grim had i nvited me to the council dinner, and now Maalik would be there too. In three hundred years, I’d never had such a strange evening. Call me crazy, but something told me it was only going to get stranger.

 
     
    Chapter 9
     
    “Of all bad men,
    religious bad men are the worst.”
    -C.S. Lewis
     
    “Ms. Harvey, Ms. Galla, please follow me.” Coreen found us the second Grim finished the ceremony. Kevin Kraus followed her like a good little apprentice.
    Josie pecked Apollo on the cheek as she excused herself, and I gave Gabriel a weak smile. We rose from the table and fo llowed the senior reaper. Josie gave me a puzzled look as we entered the elevator off the roof, but I just shrugged.
    Grim hadn’t said anything about inviting other rea pers to the dinner, but I should have guessed Coreen would be coming too. If there was any honor to be had as a reaper, she would have a part of it. I didn’t want to think about what she might have done if she hadn’t been included. Grim probably didn’t want to think about it either.
    Why Josie and Kevin were with us was a mystery to me. Josie was as good as any reaper, but still an underpaid peon like myself and not even half a millennium old. And a brand-spanking-new apprentice like Kevin couldn’t have any business dining with the council.
    Coreen leaned against the elevator wall and frowned as we descended.
    “I’m sorry, where are we going?” Josie finally gathered enough nerve to ask.
    “You mean you didn’t even tell your own sailing partner?” Coreen sneered at me.
    “Tell me what?” Josie turned to me now.
    I stiffened. Hadn’t I just lectured her on keeping information from me? Crap. Coreen crossed her arms and quietly waited for me to explain.
    “Grim invited me to the council dinner.”
    “What?” Josie shrieked. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her face twisted in anger, but instead of lecturing me, she turned back to Coreen. “If Grim invited her, why am I here?”
    “It was a last minute decision.” The elevator pinged and the doors slid open, ending our conversation. Coreen strode out with Kevin. Josie and I followed.
    The dinner was being held on the seventy-third floor, two below Grim’s main office. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I had never been on the seventy-third floor before.
    Josie’s hand found mine and squeezed. I couldn’t tell if the e xpression on her face was more from excitement or fear. Coreen looked straight ahead, as if bored with the scenery. This was my first visit to the seventy-third floor, and probably my last. I was going to take it all in. Josie slowed her pace with me, and together we twisted every which direction we could.
    Dark crown molding lined the hall, anchored above fancy blue and black wallpaper with designs complicated enough to bring on a headache. I tried to focus on something else, like the narrow black tables set against the walls, hol ding candelabra and pieces of decaying old world