Page 12 of Death Wish

“Does visiting me count as a mistake?” she asked.

I hadn’t considered that. I visited Kay whenever I could and hadn’t been reprimanded for it.

Not yet anyway.

Suddenly nervous, I moved toward the shop door. Should I leave? Had I really been that stupid to endanger Simon so quickly after Azrael’s threat? With all the rules and restrictions on reapers interacting with the living during their job, like with Dillion, interacting with Kay was probably pushing some kind of boundary I shouldn’t be pushing.

“Do you need to go?”

“I think so.”

“Will you be able to come back?”

Honestly, I didn’t know the answer to that. But I didn’t want to worry her, so I forced a smile and said, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. I just need to figure out some things, and I’ll be back.”

She didn’t say anything. It didn’t look like she was buying my story either.

“If any more haunts bother you while I’m gone, you have my permission to use my name as a threat. Oh, and ask Laurence about the location spell. We’ll set something up next time I stop in.”

“Okay,” she replied meekly. “I will.”

“This isn’t goodbye,” I told her, trying to convince myself of it as well. “I’ll come by again.”

She gave me a small wave, uncertainty tugging her lips into a frown.

As much as I wanted to stay, I glided through the shop door, hoping with everything inside me that I hadn’t just lied to my friend and was, in fact, coming back soon.

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