Page 27 of Death Wish

“I’ll lose him,” I blurted out. I couldn’t kill Cole, not yet anyway. Not when he knew so much about Xaver and could possibly know a way to save Kay. “When Azrael comes back, if he wants me to kill him then, I will. For now, I’ll lose him.”

Simon’s hands fell back to his sides. “Good.” He glanced at the alley’s entrance to make sure Cole wasn’t peeking around the corner. He wasn’t. “Remember what I said. Stick to your assignments and stay low. If I find out anything else, I’ll message your tablet or come find you. Okay?”

Was that sadness in his eyes? And worry? My heart clenched. Man, Simon was probably twice my age, and over the last year, I hadn’t seen him as anything other than my instructor, but now, seeing how concerned he was for me, I realized I was worried for him too. He had always been there for me when I needed him, especially when being a reaper was too hard for me.

There were so many things I wanted to tell him. I hadn’t mentioned the censor being on the fritz, or anything about the demons and haunts crossing over. I wanted to ask him if he knew anything about what Kay’s predicament could mean, too, but that would mean admitting I had been talking to a living supernatural for a year, and I wasn’t ready to do that yet.

Besides, I could predict his answer. Just like Azrael, Simon wouldn’t approve at all and would say the same thing he had about Cole. I would have to stop seeing her and completely disconnect from the living world, with the exception of my job, of course. I had been the one to break that rule from the beginning.

If Cole really did know someone who could save Kay, then I would meet them. It was best to leave Simon out of this. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like what had happened to Kay was my responsibility anyway. I was going to have to fix it.

Simon took out a piece of chalk from his breast pocket and turned to the brick wall. When the symbols were drawn, the ring glowed its familiar orange-red. Before stepping through, he looked at me one last time. “Stay safe, Jade.”

“You too,” I muttered.

He walked through the spirit door and disappeared. Then the glow extinguished as he smudged the chalk from the other side, sealing it closed. I made sure to scuff the chalk, too, with my boot—an extra precaution—before walking back to the sidewalk.

To my surprise, Cole was still standing at the corner, his arms wrapped around himself as the rain continued to pelt him.

As I got closer, he spotted me and smirked, and for a second, my heart fluttered awake again. There was something about him that made my body react without thought. Not only was he a half-demon with the ability to manipulate fire, he was a highly skilled mercenary with an arsenal of weapons that could actually hurt me. My gut was probably warning me that this was a bad idea. That could be why. Fear. Trepidation.

“All better now?” he said without a hint of annoyance that I had made him wait in the wind and rain without any real explanation.

“Yeah…” I replied, a little hesitant. Simon’s warning was a constant buzz in the back of my head, but I shook it away. “So you were saying you had another contact that could help us figure out what’s going on with Kay and how to save her?”

“I sure do. When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, you tend to make friends.”

“Let’s be clear—friends like Andre? Because he didn’t seem too excited about doing this favor for you.”

Cole shrugged. “He owed me. He didn’t have a choice, really. But no. This friend isn’t like Andre.”

We walked back across the street toward his Jeep. I took one more look at Red before hopping in the passenger seat, hoping I was making the right choice by ignoring Simon and putting myself deeper in this mess with the notorious and dangerous Cole Masters.

But I had to. For Kay. I owed it to her.

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