Grim Crush (Grimly Ever After) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Shilah’s hand actually grasped my wrist. His hand didn’t pass through me. A jolt traveled up my arm at his touch, and I could feel the warmth of his skin. I gasped.
    “What?” Shilah asked, confused by my reaction.
    I pulled out of his grip and walked around him. I kept my back to him as I stared hard at my wrist. I’d only ever been touched by another reaper, and usually I could feel nothing. No coldness, no warmth, no jolt.
    “What’s wrong?” Shilah walked up behind me. “Did I hurt you?”
    “N-no. I’m fine.” I massaged my wrist, and the feeling of his touch disappeared. I was glad because it had felt awkward, but at the same time I wanted to feel it again.
    “Then why did you–?”
    I spun back around to face him. “So, how are you today?” Humans were always asking each other that question, although I didn’t know the purpose of it. For me, I was using it as a distraction.
    “I’m…fine.” Shilah’s answer came out slow as he continued studying me. “And how are you?”
    “I’m good.” Okay, what else did humans usually say? “Uh…the weather’s nice today, isn’t it?”
    “Um…not really. It’s cloudy and very windy today.”
    “Oh.” I frowned. I needed to study humans more so I’d know how to properly converse with one.
    “Xia?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You don’t have to try so hard to be normal. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
    “Well…last time you said I was weird. Do you still think I’m weird?”
    Shilah nodded. “Yes. More than ever. You’re weird even when you try to be normal.”
    I narrowed my eyes, and Shilah laughed. After a moment, my face broke out into a grin, and then I was chuckling with him.
    “So, you decided to come back,” Shilah said when the laughter had died down.
    “Yeah. I like it here,” I answered, gazing around the scenic area.
    “Or you just missed me.” Shilah grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
    I rolled my eyes. “Yeah right. I didn’t even know if you’d be here.”
    “I come around here a lot. This is where I get away from my family. I was here yesterday, actually.”
    “Were you looking for me?”
    “No.” Shilah hesitated, then added, “Maybe.”
    I beamed. I don’t know why it made me happy to know he’d been looking for me. “It’s hard for me to come here as much as I want to. I don’t have a lot of free time.”
    “Why?”
    I opened my mouth, then closed it to think about how to answer that. Finally, I said, “It’s too hard to explain. I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “All right.” Shilah turned and headed toward a tree, where he sat on the grass with his back to its trunk.
    I went over and sat across from him, crossing my legs. “Does that make you mad?”
    Shilah shook his head. “You don’t have to tell me what you don’t want to. You don’t know me well, so I understand.”
    Well, that was a relief. I think I could actually like this boy, but I couldn’t keep seeing him. A reaper befriending the living would be…well, it wasn’t possible. The sooner I found out why he could see me, the better. “So, tell me more about your family and their obsession with death.”
    Shilah screwed up his face. “Are you sure you want to hear about that?”
    “Yes. Uh…back in Italy, where I’m from, my community studies death a lot. We learn not to be afraid of it and how to handle it. So I’m kind of fascinated by it.”
    Shilah rolled his eyes. “Oh, brother. My grandparents would love you.”
    “Can I meet them one day?” I wondered if his whole family could see me.
    “Maybe.” He paused, then said, “This obsession with death goes way back in my family. My ancestors tried all types of spiritual methods to try to manage death.”
    “Manage death? Ha, I’d like to see that.” A human controlling death. How amusing.
    “If you think that’s crazy, there were also rumors that they had special powers to talk to the dead or something.”
    “Really?” That sounded close to