Volk and Maribelle charged at them as Mr. Cede started to choke on his blood beneath her. Hazel got up and swung the bolt cutters, but Volk deflected her arm and slammed her into the wall. She crumpled to the floor and didn't move. At the same time, Maribelle threw a front kick into Grim, sending her sprawling and jumped on top of her. They wrestled for the knife, and Grim gave a token resistance, but she knew she had no chance to keep hold of it, so she let it go. Maribelle held it to her throat a moment later.

"What the fuck have you done?"

"You can't kill me," Grim said, very cognizant of how close the blade was to several major arteries.

"And why the hell not? Because I'll tell you, I won't lose sleep over it."

"I have his boon. You need me."

A sting of pain hit her as the lady slapped Grim. "Yeah? Do you have his contacts, too? His knowledge? People respected him; they wanted to do business with him. You'll end up in a government black op in a week. Do you know the type of monsters you would help create?"

Grim faltered for a second, she hadn’t accounted for all of that. Just having his power didn’t mean people would believe or trust her, but she couldn’t change her mind now, not that she would’ve. This had been the only way to save Hazel.

"I won't get caught," Grim said.

Maribelle's face twisted into something ugly as her eyes deadened, "I agree."

Oh fuck.

Grim squirmed as Maribelle raised the knife above her, her eyes locked onto her neck. Grim dug her heels into the floor, but she couldn’t get enough leverage to push her off. Her arm was trapped as well, pinned to the floor.

"Wait!" Grim shrieked.

Grim closed her eyes as Death came for her, powerless to stop it.

The sting of the knife never came, and after a moment, Grim opened her eyes, surprised to still be alive. A small trickle of blood fell from her neck to her collarbone as the knife shook, not allowed to pierce any further. Maribelle fought Volk's grip on her arm; he was strong enough to hold her back with only one hand but that didn't deter her. The knife vibrated with tension as the woman put all her strength into killing her.

Grim didn't dare breathe.

“We could use her,” Volk said.

"She killed Sam," Maribelle said, her voice almost breaking from emotion.

"I get that, I really do, and I'm not going to pretend like I knew him as well as you did, so if you want to do this. I won't stop you, but if you kill her, we’re back to square one, and I don’t think there’s anyone else who can help us.”

"She'll rat us out to the Witches," Maribelle argued.

She would, the second she got the chance.

"No, she won't. Because if she does, she’s going to go somewhere a lot worse than us. The pit would be a pleasant vacation compared to wherever she would end up."

That... was a good point.

Grim watched as Maribelle thought about it. She could see the gears spinning in her head, debating whether she should live or die. The look of anger and mourning on her face never got better, only uglier. Grim didn’t speak or move, aware of how any perceived slight could set her off.

Maribelle's hand grabbed her face before she could squirm away, evidently having decided on what she wanted to do. Her fingers dug into her cheeks until she could got a hold on her jaw. Once she did, her grip froze and it became impossible for her to move. The only thing she could see was Maribelle's face as she held her there. Maintaining eye contact as if trying to force Grim to remember her face, to remember how she looked, to lock it in her dreams at night and haunt her thoughts in the day.

She didn't say anything, but then again, she didn't need to. Grim got the message loud and clear, she had just hurt this woman unspeakably, and if she betrayed them, she wouldn't hesitate to do the same. No matter how long it took.

The woman removed the knife from her throat, satisfied or at least placated by whatever she had seen. When the knife got a safe distance away from her neck. Grim tried to slide away from her, and she allowed it. Letting her gain some distance to put her back to the wall. There was a slight draft in the window, and she leaned into the cold air as it brushed across her neck. She didn't try anything, just took the time she was given to recover. Hazel was still slumped out, so she activated [FRIENDLY SHADOW] again, and Hazel morphed back into her shadow. Somehow, she could feel it was damaged, and she wouldn't be able to use the skill again for some time.

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"So, we're letting me go?" Grim said.

"Yes," Volk said, much to Maribelle's disapproval. A small word Grim didn't hear had her calm down, and he continued. "You're going to go home, get treated for your injuries and wait for us to contact you. If anyone asks what happened to you, the injuries are from the gateworld. We’re going to need at least a week to sort out this mess, get rid of the body and decide what to do next. When we have that figured out, you’re going to help us.”

Grim chewed on her lip, "If I don't?"

"Like I said, you'll have worse problems than us."

Grim tried to think it through, but she was exhausted; her head still hurt from being hit, and she ached all over. She was at her limit and was ready to say anything to go home; she’d deal with the consequences later.

"Okay."

------------------------------------------------------

They dropped her off a couple of blocks from her house. Grim could tell Maribelle wasn't happy that they'd be working together but it seemed neither of them had much choice. Grim would have turned them in the first chance she got but she couldn't risk them telling anybody about her boons. She was in a risky spot where she had access to really powerful abilities but she herself wasn't very strong. Right now, she was probably one of the only people with an ability like [CEDE] in the whole of Eternity city and all it would take to kill or kidnap her was a gun.

She didn’t know how to feel about that.

Mari and Volk didn't seem to be completely awful, sure, kidnapping and stealing most people’s only chance at an ability is terrible but at least they weren't murderers.

Really? She shook her head. Was that the best she could do to rationalize working with them? They weren’t murderers? At the same time, how could she really judge? She'd just killed someone herself and it wasn’t like it was self defense. He was already unconscious when she drove a knife through his throat.

She felt like she should feel guilty about that, but despite replaying the events in her mind, it didn’t bother her, which bothered her more. She wasn’t a psychopath was she? She didn’t think she was one but who knows? Maybe she had a streak of playing with roadkill as a kid she didn’t remember, but at the same time, it wasn’t like she enjoyed killing either. She just had to.

Grim started walking faster, she didn’t want to get trapped in a doom spiral thinking about it.

Some passerby's gasped and stared at her as she passed them by. They didn't stop. She was on her street now, the lawns were maintained and the roads were clear of garbage. Her house was big and actually quite nice, it was painted white and had a red door with a welcome home floor mat. Her house was typical on this street, she didn't quite understand how Jin and Louis could afford it on their salaries but she'd never pried. Likely it was some government support.

She walked in the door and lifted it up so it didn't squeak. When she was inside, she rested her head on the solid wood of the door as she closed it, glad to be home.

She heard a gasp behind her.

"Grim, what the hell happened to you?" Louis said as he got up out of his chair. He was in his fifties with laugh lines etched as wrinkles on his face, with a grey beard and short hair swept to the side.

She cursed internally, of course he had waited up for her. If it was any other day he would have been asleep by now.

"Boon day was rough," Grim said, understating it a little.

Louis lifted her arm, examining the bandage. He frowned and eventually sighed, "Rough, yeah, you're gonna get yourself killed one of these days. Here, follow me."

"Really, I'm fine," Grim tried to protest, she really just wanted to go to bed.

Louis put both hands on her shoulders, "Cut the shit."

She did.

Louis didn't swear much, and she felt a pang of guilt for how worried he was. She still would have preferred to go to bed but she didn’t have the energy to fight him. Not today.

He led her into the kitchen and made her sit down in one of the nice oak chairs. Oak was rare these days and Jin would be pissed if she got any blood on it, but it didn't seem like Louis cared. It was part of a matched set in the kitchen with a table big enough to seat twelve. The room was large enough to accommodate the whole family and it felt weird with just the two of them. Not because of anything Louis did, it was just empty and she wasn't used to that.

The chandelier above sparkled in the light and she let herself get entranced by it as Louis worked on her arm, it hurt as he cleaned the wound but she barely felt it. She was lost in her head, a sullen trance as she recounted the days events and what she would've done differently.

It was quiet as he worked on bandaging her arm and Grim didn’t dare disturb it by speaking. It was… nice to let him help her, to be dotted on like when she was a little kid and she’d scrape her knee.

As she had grown up those moments had gotten few and far between. She’d always had to fight a little bit to get his attention, those moments where she could pretend he was actually her dad. There was too many kids in this house looking for that same thing and as she grew up she fought less and less for those moments. She didn’t blame him, her siblings needed it more than her and she could live with sacrificing her own happiness so they could have it. They weren’t as strong as her, they needed someone to look out for them.

Grim liked being alone better anyways, so it worked out.

"There, all done. It should be good for tonight but we'll have to change the bandage tomorrow... unless you're okay with going to the hospital."

Grim shook her head, "No."

"Didn't think so," Louis clapped his hand and smiled. "So, what'd you get?"

Grim froze and sputtered for a second as she tried process what she wanted to say. Mainly about how much she wanted to reveal, she was already putting them in danger by being here. If they knew about her boon and it got out somehow? She was already breaking the law by not getting her abilities registered and if the government found out what she could do? She’d probably get sent straight to the crater and with this many people under one roof, her secret getting out was almost inevitable.

She didn't like lying to Louis but in this case it was necessary, if not to protect her, than to protect him.

"[DEFT WEEDING]," She decided to say.

Disappointment colored Louis' face for half a second, before he covered it with a smile, "You can help me out in the garden then."

It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him look at her like that, with disappointment. He was good at hiding it, but Grim had been around him long enough to tell when she'd fucked up again. He had this idea in his head of what she could be, but she knew she could never live up to it. She'd tried and failed before.

"Yeah, sure, anytime," Grim stood up. "I'm going to go to bed now."

Louis hesitated then said, "Actually, there's something we need to talk about."