Rob Thurman - Grimrose path

Nothing was all there was to see now. Anna was gone.

"And you, you with your infinite ego, thought maybe you could do something about your little Anna's soul after all when Cronus showed up. What a damn lucky break for you. Well, rejoice, you did do something. Chances are your Rose is free and long gone from Hell." Eli leaned his elbow on my bed, head against the palm of his hand, bemused as he ran the plan back and forth through his brain, savoring it-an envious twist to the corner of his mouth, before he finally gave in. "Okay, darling, I have to say I raise a glass to balls the likes of which I've never seen, except on myself. But I am going to have to kill you for this, and you are not going to enjoy the process at all. You keep me on my toes, and I do like that, but the boss isn't happy. The boss and if it's you or me-fuck, sweetheart, you know that isn't even close."

"As if you could kill me," I scoffed, while thinking, oh, for the days when that was true. "I did tell you that Cronus rarely can be bothered to note humans exist. Why would he want to become one? Fall in love with one? You were so easy, sunshine; it's rather embarrassing for you." I gathered myself, made the effort, and managed to get part of me upright and resting on my elbows in a move I hoped looked easy and painless, although it was neither. "Besides," I said, tempting-and demons knew all about that, "if you did kill me, how would you find out what Cronus told me he wants? Truth this time. No Run for the Roses. Because he did tell me. I only told you what I wanted instead. Now that I have that, I have no problem telling you what Cronus wants with Hell and Lucifer."

"How very unlike you, telling the truth." He reached with his other hand and ran a finger through the white dust on my face. "An angel made of spun sugar. In other words, worthless and lacking in flavor. All right, Trixa, savior of Roses, tell me. What does Cronus want?" Eli didn't take back the death threat-death promise-and he knew very well I noticed that, but I told him anyway. Why not? There was nothing he could do with the information and it had a good chance of distracting him from me.

Armageddon ten thousand times over has a way of distracting nearly anyone.

I didn't think he could settle on me more heavily, but he did. "What," he asked, "does Cronus want?"

"All," I answered. No deception this time. It wasn't needed.

He narrowed his eyes as the dust he'd scattered from my face hung in the light around him, hundreds of microscopic snowflakes, because winter was coming. The end was coming and, like the obliviously playful grasshopper of the parable, we weren't ready for it. I don't know what happened to that grasshopper… if he died of hunger or the industrious ant who'd stored up food all summer took pity on him, but I did know Cronus, like winter, had no pity. We might not die, but there are so many worse things than dying, and if Cronus succeeded, death itself wouldn't be an escape from him. Nothing would.

"All?" Eli straightened, dropping his hand from tracing patterns on my cheek and leaning back slightly as if it gave him room to think. "You asked him what he wanted and the only thing he said was 'All'? Well? What does that mean? All. He's ripped off the wings of nearly a thousand demons, only one wing per demon if you were wondering, that's what it takes, and the most conversation the son of a bitch can muster up about his wholesale slaughter of my kind is 'all.' It's meaningless."

I gave him a look every teacher slips up at one time or another to bestow on her slowest student. "Eli, you can't mean that. You don't get it? You? I'm disappointed." I leaned toward him as he had leaned away. "Don't be Eli, wearing your fancy human suit. Be who you are. Be Eligos. You know of Cronus. He's a Titan. He gave birth to gods, but no one gave birth to him. He birthed himself out of the universe… out of the sky and the earth. They were said to be his father and mother; that's a myth. He created himself-the ultimate 'I think, therefore I am.' He was once locked in Tartarus, a paien hell, and he took it over. Then he took over the Elysian Fields, a paien heaven. And it wasn't enough. One hell and one heaven weren't enough to occupy him and he deserted them. He was bored. What do you think it would take to satisfy him? What could possibly do it?"

His jaw tightened. "All."

"Exactly." When I was sure that one hand would support me, I ran a hand through the mess of my hair to shake at least a pound of dust free. "Your Hell, your Heaven, every paien hell and heaven and all the thousands of ethereal worlds in between. And, last but not least, this world. The one we live in now. There will be nowhere to go to escape him. If he consumes Lucifer and Hell, one in the same that they are, and adds that energy to his, he'll have more power than anyone could possibly conceive. He will rule every place that there is a place. If you think your boss is tough now," I said, my voice hardening, "you wait until you see your new one in action. Lucifer might be fallen, you might be fallen, but you're sane. You do enormous evil, but you do it with logic and reason. You enjoy it. You need souls and you like to kill in your off-hours. It's disgusting, but there is a twisted motivation behind it. Cronus is nothing like you. Cronus is outside your frame of reference. He could move past you and nothing would happen, and then a second later he could look at you and drive you and everyone in the hemisphere instantly insane. Worse," I said with a sigh, "he very likely wouldn't know he'd done it. He's a giant and you're a 'tiny slow-moving caterpillar on the sidewalk' demon. Fuzzy and cute, but powerless. There's nothing you can do."

"What about that artifact you stole?" he said abruptly. "The one that made your sanctuary for paien against God and Lucifer?"

"Heaven and Hell it can stop. Cronus would crumple our shield like tissue paper and toss it over his shoulder. Do you think we'd all still be hanging around if that weren't the case?" I snorted. "We'd leave you all a nice sympathy card and be running for the hills."

"Then why free the Roses at all? If they're going to end up in places worse than Hell, places ruled by Cronus," he demanded, "what's the point?"

"In case I can stop him." I lay back down and covered a yawn with the back of my hand. Long nights, crashing through ceilings; it was taking its toll. And the pain. Humans were the most gossamer of snowflakes. Touch one and you damaged it without the slightest intent at all. "I said you couldn't do anything, gecko. I didn't say I couldn't." I being Leo and me and any others who might come up with an idea, but I didn't need to share glory when there was no glory to be had at the moment… and no glory sparkling anywhere in the distance. "It's time for a nap now. Explaining it all to your tediously slow iguana brain exhausts a girl. I'll bill you for the floor and ceiling. Oh, and the bedspread. That was my favorite."

I closed my eyes and hoped for the best and readied myself to go for my gun if the worst came instead. His weight shifted on me as he said, "You are such an utter bitch." Each word was a shadow given teeth and appetite.

"Say it with love, sugar. I'm your last hope after all." I gave another yawn, but kept one hand free to go for my gun or the knife in my boot.

"Actually, for me, sweetheart, that was as close as it comes." He laughed, almost startling me. "I do have to give it to you. I am going to kill you, sooner or later, and I don't like being a mark. You can take that to the Vegas bank and break it, but the Roses? You led me right down that primrose path there, and I'll never forget it. I'll never live it down either, but you know I'm a demon of my word when I say"-he placed his lips at my ear-"neither will you."

Then I was alone. His weight disappeared. The tingle of him in the air fizzled out, a lightbulb dying after one last spark and sputter. He had probably gone back to Hell to report or to find a few humans to eat to fortify him before giving that report. Me? What did I do? Exactly what I'd said.