Rachel Hawkins - Grim

This is just a job. How is a rich person paying me not to kiss any worse than rich people paying me to kiss? It’s all about what can be bought. About using my talent to make money. I feel a swirling in my stomach, think about what the guy said about living, about making a living. He’s just a stupid hippie druggie. You have to make money. You have to survive.

I lean forward. I position my thumb so that my lips can brush it, can stay away from Elise’s skin. They’ll never catch it from where they’re standing. They’ll think I kissed her.

It’s just a job.

I plant my lips on my own thumb, Elise’s skin thick, cold, unkissed beneath it.

It feels like I’m the dead one. All I can think of is the deer in the game ranches, the ones that are fenced in. Of my dad. It isn’t fair, killing something that doesn’t have a chance.

Elise didn’t even have a chance. Her chance was bought for twenty thousand dollars.

I rise. Turn to face them.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I think she’s expired.”

A cry from the background. Their mouths drop. They quiver. Shake. They are a single creature in pain, hurt, fearful. Their eyes light upon me, fill with water.

“No, wait!”

“There has to be something else you can do!”

“Try again, just one more time!”

“Are you sure?”

“The company said six days was plenty of time!”

Their voices harmonize as I take a step toward the door, another, another, another. They need her. They miss her. These people must understand her. I wonder if they could understand me....

No. This is just a job. Just a job. Just a job.

My talent is just a job. I am just a job.

I look up. Elise Snow’s eyes rain down on me from the dozens and dozens of paintings. Blue eyes, blue like water, boring into me, asking me why.

“Please,” someone says, the guy who answered the door. He’s trembling. He’s crying. He looks broken. “Please try again. Just one more.”

I turn around, look at Elise’s body. Someone tucked her into the bed, folded the blankets neatly around her torso. Her hands were in her lap, I realize—I must have pulled one slightly astray when I took it. I wish I’d put it back.

“Please.”

I inhale. Twenty thousand dollars a year. For me, that might as well be a million. I think of the house in the woods, of not having to do this job, of getting rid of all those “Final Notice” envelopes. I think of everything money can do.

I think of all the things it can’t.

I turn, dash back to Elise’s side, slide to my knees. I brush her hair away from her face easily—it feels like feathers.

Lower my lips to hers and kiss her on the mouth, kiss her hard. Because she is not the Elise Snow that I hate. She’s the Elise Snow that I’ve never met. She’s the Elise Snow I’d like to know. That I’d like to join here in this weird warehouse. That I’d like to understand, to change with.

That I can save.

Who can save me.

I pull away, exhale. The room is silent, still, crackling.

Elise’s blue eyes flutter open.

She’s living.

We both are.

* * * * *

Rachel Hawkinswas born in Virginia and raised in Alabama. This means she uses words like y’all and fixin’ a lot, and considers anything under 60 degrees to be borderline Arctic. Before deciding to write books about kissing and fire (and sometimes kissing while on fire), Rachel taught high school English for three years, and is still capable of teaching you The Canterbury Tales if you’re into that kind of thing. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Hex Hall series.

Jeri Smith-Readyhas been writing fiction since the night she rescued a trapped fox in the wooded hills of central Maryland. The fox turned out to be a magic muse—the sparkly hat and vest should’ve tipped Jeri off—inspiring eleven published novels so far, including RT Reviewers’ Choice–winning fantasy Eyes of Crow, as well as the PRISM Award–winning Wicked Game and Shade. Her next novel, This Side of Salvation, a contemporary YA story about a boy whose parents disappear the night they believe the Rapture will happen, will be out in April 2014. Jeri lives with her husband and two cats in a house made of tea and chocolate—or so it seems sometimes. When not writing, she can be found, well, thinking about writing, or on Twitter. Find her on the web at www.jerismithready.com, or on Twitter, @jsmithready.

Malinda Lois the author of several young-adult novels, including most recently the sci-fi duology Adaptation and Inheritance. Her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel Huntress was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog. Her website is www.malindalo.com.

Jon Skovronhas been an actor, musician, lifeguard, Broadway theater ticket seller, warehouse grunt, technical writer and web developer. He has nine fingers, dislikes sweets and possesses a number of charming flaws. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and after traveling around awhile, he has settled, somewhat haphazardly, in the Washington, D.C., area, where he and his two sons can regularly be seen not fitting into the general government scene. Visit him at www.jonskovron.com.

Saundra Mitchellhas been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture-deliverer and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children and makes paper for fun. She is the author of Shadowed Summer, The Vespertine trilogy and Mistwalker , and the editor of Defy the Dark. She always picks truth; dare is too easy. Visit her online at www.saundramitchell.com.

Ellen Hopkinsis a poet and an award-winning author of ten New York Times bestselling young-adult novels in verse, plus two adult verse novels. She lives in Carson City, Nevada, where she has founded Ventana Sierra, a nonprofit housing and resource initiative for youth in need.

Tessa Grattonhas wanted to be a paleontologist or a wizard since she was seven. She was too impatient to hunt dinosaurs, but is still searching for someone to teach her magic. After traveling the world with her military family, she acquired a BA (and the important parts of an MA) in gender studies, and then settled down in Kansas with her partner, her cats and her mutant dog. She is the author of the Blood Journals series and the United States of Asgard series, both from Random House Children’s Books. Visit her at www.tessagratton.com.

Julie Kagawa,the New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Fey and Blood of Eden series, was born in Sacramento, California. But nothing exciting really happened to her there. So, at the age of nine, she and her family moved to Hawaii, which she soon discovered was inhabited by large carnivorous insects, colonies of house geckos and frequent hurricanes. Julie now lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where the frequency of shark attacks are at an all-time low. She lives with her husband, two obnoxious cats, one Australian shepherd who is too smart for his own good, and the latest addition, a hyperactive papillon.

Sonia Gensleris the author of The Revenant and The Dark Between. She grew up in a small Tennessee town and spent her early adulthood collecting impractical degrees from various Midwestern universities. A former high school English teacher, Sonia now writes full-time in Oklahoma and spends her summers in England.