“Wyatt is an…interesting character,” he added. “But he knows his shit. So does Sean, as much as he tries to keep out of it.”
I swallowed hard, forcing whatever was fighting to creep up back down. “I don’t need an apology for him. I liked Wyatt. He’s a tough cookie, and I can respect that.”
“Then why do you look like you’re mad at me for some reason?”
“Resting bitch face syndrome?”
He snorted a laugh. “Is that really a thing?”
“I have been told I have an extreme case by others. I’m not the friendliest-looking person apparently, and I don’t mind it.”
“I thought that was just part of your badass reaper façade,” he said, and that sly smile of his returned.
Heat rose to my cheeks, and I looked away, scolding myself for such a schoolgirl reaction.
We sped past cars and some angry-looking drivers. One even flipped me the bird.
“I will admit I was a little pissed when I found out you were using me and my friend Kay’s predicament for yourself.”
“Ah, so that’s it.” He rubbed his chin. “I knew there was something bothering you.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter though. We both want the same thing. We will help each other get the things on the list for this cure and that’s it. Then we’ll go our separate ways.”
“What about you and this new ‘being alive’ thing?” he asked.
“Not sure.” And I really didn’t know what was going on with me or even how long it would last. “Who knows if this is all temporary.”
“Maybe this is you leveling up as a reaper or something. Special powers?”
I hadn’t thought about that. But the idea bubble was quickly popped when I realized no one else working for Styx Corp. had magical glowy fingers or could hop between dead and alive. Not even Simon, and he was Azrael’s shining star.
No, this was all new. And strange.
Of course it was happening to me.
“I don’t think so,” I said quickly. “Nothing special. It’s just my luck.”
I sighed, and Cole slid me a sideways glance. “Why don’t we pick up some food? Breakfast?”
Had I heard him right?
“Sausage, eggs, toast? Coffee?” he said, making sure I understood what he meant. “We have a few days before the solstice. Until then, we can work on the other parts of the cure on our end, get some sleep, and maybe visit your friend and make sure she’s okay.”
My stomach made the strangest sound at the mention of food, like a raptor waking from a long slumber. Cole’s brows arched.
Before heated embarrassment could crawl up my neck, I shrugged it off. “It’s been a while since I’ve eaten actual food.”
To my surprise, he laughed. “I could have guessed. How long?”
“A year.”
His eyes widened. “A year without coffee?” He snorted. “I wouldn’t have survived.”
“Food isn’t necessary when you’re dead,” I reminded him. “We have a few restaurants and bars in the afterlife, but it’s not the same. There’s no need to eat or drink. It’s more of a social thing.”
“Hmm… I don’t know how I feel about that. I love my breakfast foods. Can eat it any time of day.”
“I suggest you don’t die, then,” I said.
“Easier said than done.”
“Since you were on my assignment list for reaping, I would say so.”
He laughed again, smacking the steering wheel with each wheezy breath in. “You got me there.”
After a moment, he said, “So…breakfast? I know a pretty decent place downtown. It’s pretty hipster-y with its clientele, but if you can get past all the college kids and teens, the food is tasty. Portion sizes are huge, too.”
I was shaking my head no, but my stomach made another animalistic sound. “I was thinking about going back and seeing if there’s been any word there about what’s going on.” Which reminded me about my tablet. I pulled it out and tapped the dark screen. Still no notifications from Azrael or Styx or even Simon. Nothing. Not even an update to my reaping list. Cole Masters was the last name for my assignments and the only one without a little check mark next to it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain that one, but I’d figure it out once this entire thing with Kay was fixed. Just another thing for me to worry about later.
The weight of all my unanswered questions pushed against my shoulders. Things must have been still crazy at Styx Corp., and with no updates from Simon, the itch to return back to Styx and see what was up was overwhelming. I was completely cut off on this side of the portal. It was unnerving.
After clicking the screen off again, I slid the tablet in my back pocket.
“You’re going to go back?” Cole asked, glancing at me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Why would he care if I went back or not?
“I feel out of the loop. Maybe I can find out some more information about all these demon attacks and influx of haunts before the solstice. Maybe someone knows something about the box we found and the demon cure, too.”
His lips pressed into a hard line.
“What?” I asked.
“What if you can’t get back? You said it yourself you were breaking all kinds of rules by not reaping me and by being involved with the living like this. What if you get reprimanded or something and aren’t allowed to come back?”
He had a point. I hadn’t thought about that.
I guess I had been lucky Azrael hadn’t tried to contact me through the tablet. If he got ahold of me and didn’t like what I had been doing over on this side of the veil, worst case scenario was I could be Released. Then there was no coming back at all.
Cole was right. I couldn’t risk it. Without the cure, Kay was as good as dead, and I couldn’t do that to her. I had to stay in the living world, at least until Kay was safe. Then I could receive any consequences Azrael wanted to dish out to me. If and when he came back.
“I guess I’ll stay, then,” I said but then quickly added, “for now.”
He grinned. “Breakfast it is, then!”
The diner was located in a small refurbished church, with tall, stained glass windows, pew booths, and a service counter where the altar would have been. As Cole had said, the place was crawling with young people. Only a few older patrons sat at the counter, chatting happily with the waitstaff there, but for the most part, the clientele were twenty-one years old at most.
It made me feel really old.
We sat in a booth by one of the stained glass windows. The light streaming in painted the table and wooden floor in beautiful patterns of ruby and violet. I couldn’t stop staring at the high ceilings, gold pillars, and angelic sculptures decorating the space.
A half-demon and a chaser of death in an old church? A blind man could see the irony there.
“Jade.” Cole’s voice snapped me back to the present. He stared at me over his menu. When I looked up, I noticed a young woman—our waitress, I assumed—waiting patiently with a pen and notepad in her hand.
“Do you know what you want?” he asked.
“Oh.” Truth be told, I hadn’t even picked up the plastic-covered menu. Hadn’t even glanced at it. Frazzled, I just said, “I’ll have whatever he’s having.”
“Are you sure about that? It’s a lot of food,” Cole said.
“Yeah, what the hell.” I handed the waitress my menu. “You bragged enough about this place. Might as well.”
“Thanks, Jill.” Cole winked at the girl as he handed her his menu.
She smiled before walking away.
I rolled my eyes. “You come here that much, huh?”
“More than an assassin probably should.”
The way he said it—so nonchalantly and no worry of being overheard by others—made my hair stand up on my arms.
He laughed. “We aren’t known for staying in one place for too long, if you can imagine why, but there’s just something about Fairport that always brings me bac
k. I’m not sure why.”
I could relate to that. I loved this unexciting city. Not quite sure why, either.
Glancing around the diner again, I lowered my voice, unlike him. “Aren’t you not supposed to be in here? A demon in a church? Why aren’t you bursting into flames?”
“That’s a myth.” He waved the comment off. “Although, I’ve never seen a fully corrupted Halfling or a full-blooded demon in one, so I’m not sure how it works for them.” After a second, he added, “Although, I probably should say that I don’t visit many churches either. Besides this one, of course. So, who knows.”
I sputtered a laugh.
“What?” he said, smiling. “The idea of me burning to death a funny thought to you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Ouch. And here I thought we were beginning to be friends.”
I paused, unsure how to respond. I wasn’t sure why, but the word ‘friends’ threw me for a loop. Maybe it was because the one friendship I had ended up in this mess. Not that I blamed myself for Kay’s attack, but I did feel like I could have done more to protect her from it.
Besides, Cole didn’t strike me as friendship material. More like “I’ll use you until I don’t need you anymore” type of person, and that was just from knowing him for a day. My assumptions could just be because of prejudices from his career choice, or even his bloodline. Or it could just be my gut telling me to beware. All were very possible.
“Speaking of friends…” he began slowly, calculating, as if he had set himself up this question all along. “I’ve been wondering why you’re doing all this for the Medium girl? This doesn’t have to do with you or the afterlife, really. So why get involved?”
I eyed him suspiciously. “As you said, she’s my friend.”
“Well, yeah, I got that, but I have friends I wouldn’t die for.”
“And I’m sure you have some you would.”
“She’s one of those, huh?”
I nodded.
He leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms, waiting for me to continue.
I sighed. “She was the first friend I made after my death. Even though interacting with the living is forbidden, and because of the censor, I couldn’t explain to her what I was but we clicked somehow. And when I was going through some real hard shit with my mind wipe and not knowing who I was in the beginning, she was there. She’s always been there.”
It was true. All of it. I had my fair share of breakdowns at the beginning of my reaper job. It had been hard for me to accept what had happened to me and what had been taken away, but having Kay to talk to had always been the lifeline I needed to keep me sane—that one thread, one remaining connection, I had to the living world. And I wasn’t ready to give that up yet. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready.
“She’s too nice for her own good, you know what I mean?” I said. Sometimes I even felt like I didn’t deserve her company.
“Oh yeah. I got that from her, too.”
“But in a good way,” I made sure to add. “You don’t find people like that every day.”
“I know what you mean.”
“We ended up making sort of an arrangement,” I said. “I help her get rid of any harassing haunts, and she helps me search for who I was when alive.”
“Why do you care so much about your life? That part is over with obviously. Might as well move on.”
Wow, he sounded a bit like Simon there for a second. He at least wouldn’t have been so blunt with his wording, but the idea was still the same.
I glanced out the stained-glass window, the tinted glass painted the street and sidewalks outside in beautiful shades of color.
“Sorry, did I hit on something I wasn’t supposed to?” Cole asked with genuine concern in his tone. “I didn’t mean—”
“No, no, you’re fine.” I rubbed my lips together, searching for the right answer to his question. “Honestly? I don’t know why I care so much… I want to move on. I do. It would make things so much easier for me, but I just can’t.”
The need to know who I really was before my death was like a constant ache in my chest I couldn’t shake. It was difficult to explain—even to myself sometimes—but without knowing, I couldn’t be whole.
I couldn’t be me.
“Hey, I get it,” Cole said after a long moment. “We all have our things. If anyone can understand chasing a seemingly impossible dream, it’s me.”
I traced the tabletop’s line pattern with my fingertip to avoid his gaze. “Yeah, guess so.”
We remained quiet until the food came. I was shocked by the heap of pancakes, sausage, and scrambled eggs on my plate. Cole didn’t even flinch. He started shoveling the food down the moment the plate touched the table. I, on the other hand, didn’t know where to begin. It’d been so long since I’d touched real food, but the smell of smoky pork and buttery pancakes was enough to make my stomach growl loudly. I might not be ready to eat real food, but my insides were saying something completely different.
I cut into a sausage link first and put a small chunk into my mouth. A rainbow of flavors exploded on my tongue, causing a flickering in my memory with every bite. Ravenous hunger hit me like a blow. I cut another piece and shoved it in my mouth before even swallowing the first. Again, that same tingle of familiarity signaled in my brain, still too far away to place but close enough to make me want more.
Another delicious bite, another dip into the past.
“Whoa there. Slow down,” Cole said. “You’re going to choke if you keep that up.”
He pushed the mug of black coffee toward me. “Why don’t you drink something to wash that down?”
After taking the cup, I chugged a big gulp of the burning, bitter liquid so fast, it scalded the back of my throat. I coughed, spitting some of it back up.
Cole handed me a napkin, and I took it and wiped up my shame.
“I probably should have mentioned it would be hot,” he said sheepishly. “Maybe you should try some cream and sugar, too.” He pushed the cream container and some sugar packets toward me.
I smiled, even though my cheeks were burning from embarrassment. “Thanks.”
“I told you the food was good here.”
The way he was staring at me, with his small side smile and his blue eyes sparkling as they searched my face, made my breath catch. Sure, I’d been hit on by my fair share of scumbags. Even in the afterlife, guys will try anything to get in your bed, and I’m ashamed to admit that it worked for some. But none of them ever looked at me the way Cole was looking at me now—like I was some prize he couldn’t wait to win. A goal, a challenge, something he had wanted to claim for a long time, and now that it was sitting in front of him, he’d do anything to get it. It made a shiver race down my spine.
The familiar blurrrinngg of a cell phone sounded. Cole whipped his out of his pocket and answered before it could ring again. “Sean, what’s up? Did you find out anything?”
I couldn’t hear Sean on the other end, but from the pleased look on Cole’s face, Sean was telling him things he wanted to hear.
He waved his hand to the passing waitress, Jill, and mimicked writing with a pen. She handed him the one from her apron pocket with a flirtatious smile, but he snatched it and began scribbling on a napkin without even noticing. She scowled and walked away.
“How confident are you that this is it?” Cole said to Sean. There was a moment’s silence. “That’s good enough for me.”
More words from Sean that I couldn’t hear, but I was assuming it had something to do with the things we were going to find. Wyatt and Sean must have found something else out during their research.
“Do you think Marla’s still open?” Cole’s lip turned up in disgust at her name. Another “friend” of his, I was guessing.
“No, no, don’t call her. I don’t want her to know I’m coming. She’ll never let me in.”
But then, he glanced up at me, and a slow, calculated grin lifted his lips. I could see the devious idea as i
t was forming in his mind.
“But…” he drawled, “she doesn’t know Jade.”
Oh no. What was he getting me into now?
Eyes glittering with the same mischief and determination as before, he hung up the phone.
My stomach flipped with uneasiness. Right then, I decided that I didn’t like that look after all.
Not in the slightest.
“What was that all about?” I asked, my nerves showing themselves in my shaky tone.
Cole was all grin. “Wyatt and Sean were able to find another object on the list. The air element. It’s a rare herb, almost extinct nowadays, with some kind of complicated name that translates into The Breath of Life. Seems easy enough.”
“Go on,” I pushed him, knowing there was more to the story that he wasn’t telling me.
At least he lowered his voice this time. We didn’t need the mess that would follow if a human overheard. “There is a magic oddities shop here downtown run by a witch named Marla.”
“Another friend of yours?” I mixed a sugar packet into my coffee and added a little of the cream. After a quick stir, I took another big gulp. Much better.
“Not even a little. She hates me.”
Hmm. I wondered why.
“The name of the shop is Divine Magic,” he said. “Have you ever been there?”
I shook my head, but remembered the little corner store a few streets over from Kay’s. “I’ve passed it many times, but I’ve never had any assignments there. The windows are always covered, like it’s closed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people going in or out of there.”
“Since it’s close to the solstice, she may be doing appointments only. It’s her busy season for the magical folk. The front of the shop is a front for tourists mostly. Candles, incense, fake relics, and earth stones. A wannabe’s dream. But for the real sorcerers and witches, the powerful and rare stuff is in the back under lock and key, and that stuff can get nasty.”
“And you think she carries this herb we need,” I added.
“If anyone has it in this state, it’s Marla. People travel all around to visit her shop. She’s made quite a living for herself.”
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