Death's Apprentice: A Grimm City Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

from speaking. And revealing the rest of the prophecy lodged in his addled brain. “When the tree springs to life and blooms for all the world to see…” He pressed his knotted hands against his chest. “That’s when the people will know that the day has come. The day of the final battle. That’s when the three of them and their army will face down the Devil and his demons. They’ll fight—and that battle will decide the future of us all.…”
    Another set of headlights, coming from one of the cross streets beyond, sent their harsh beam straight into the other man’s face. His eyes now shone with the piercing, inhuman blue of burning sulphur.
    The madman shrank back against the blackened trunk, terrified. The beam from the passing headlights disappeared. But the other man’s eyes remained lit up, bright as two intense flames.
    “Who…” The madman found his voice. “Who are you?”
    “Why don’t you ask your archangels?” The watching figure sneered at the madman’s terror.
    The figure stood up from the broken bench and walked forward, into the center of the abandoned garden square. The madman’s sight dropped to the man’s feet. He could see now that the figure’s left foot was misshapen and heavy, producing a dragging limp.
    “I know…” He looked up at the man’s sneering face. “I know who you are…”
    “As you said—” The Devil towered above the cowering lunatic. “I don’t like anyone coming here without my permission.”
    “I … I’ll go. Right now…”
    “And then to hear all this … this nonsense.” The Devil glared down at him, face tightening with rage. “Just as if I’d never had to listen to it before. I know all about your archangels, and your heroes, and their invincible army. I’ve been listening to that fairy tale for centuries. And you know something?” Eyes burning even fiercer, he leaned down toward the madman. “It’s never come true. And it never will.”
    The madman crouched down lower, but there was nowhere else to go.
    “But all the same, no one has ever been fool enough to come to my front door and talk about it to my face before.” The Devil squeezed his hand into a fist. “Not until now.”
    The Devil looked up from the quivering figure at his feet. He brought his gaze to the paper-winged toys dangling from the leafless tree. They burst into flames, spreading to the tinsel draped across the branches.
    Crying out in dismay, the madman sprang to his feet, trying to beat out the fire racing across the tree. The flames spiraled like luminescent serpents down its trunk, engulfing the candle stubs and action figures set out in the grass.
    The fire dwindled away in seconds, its purpose accomplished. The dead tree remained undamaged. But the ashes drifted from its branches, like black snow settling upon the shapeless blotches of melted plastic below.
    “You…” The madman turned his face, tears mingling with rain, toward the Devil standing behind him. From somewhere inside himself, amidst his disordered thoughts, he had found a spark of defiance. “You can destroy whatever you want—but you can’t destroy my hope. The things they told me, they’ll come true one day. And maybe that day will come sooner than you think.”
    One corner of the Devil’s mouth lifted in an ugly smile. “Somehow I doubt that. But even if it does, it still won’t come soon enough to save you.”
    He turned and gestured with an outflung hand toward the weeds choking the limits of the square. Rats, their eyes glistening like points of fire, rushed from their burrows, streaming across the matted grass.
    The rats swarmed over the madman, their claws scrabbling up along his legs, then across his chest. His screams were choked off by the yellow fangs sinking into his face. He fell, hands futilely tearing at the sleek, grey shapes blanketing him from sight.
    Only a few minutes passed before he stopped moving. His raw flesh, gnawed to the bones beneath, could be seen in the