Page 82 of Death Wish

I needed to get out of here. If I was really Cole’s job, I needed to get as far away from him as possible.

But God did I want to kick down that door and punch those two square in their faces.

It took everything in me to spin around and head back down the street. Kay stayed close at my side. Her silence told me she had heard the same thing I had but was too nice a person to bring it up right away, seeing how angry I was.

Even though I’d heard it with my own ears, I was having a hard time believing what had just been revealed. All this time—my job, my afterlife—had been a lie somehow? How long had Azrael been planning this? Had I been a part of some larger plot all along?

What was Azrael up to? I had a feeling it had something to do with the veil between worlds thinning before the solstice. But what did that have to do with me? Why was I such a risk to this plan?

So many questions. None with even a hint of an answer that I could think of. None of it made sense.

All I knew for sure now was that the entire moment in the alleyway with Cole had been staged. Which made sense in hindsight. It had felt off when I found him not on the verge of death but only knocked out.

Did Simon know about any of this?

I wanted desperately to say no. When I had met him on the street the other night, he had seemed genuinely confused and concerned. He hadn’t given off any hidden intentions.

But then again, neither had Azrael.

Who knew who else was part of this larger plot. I couldn’t trust anyone. Except Kay.

Poor Kay. She had been dragged into this because of me. Because of what I was.

I had felt responsible for this before. Now, I was sure everything that had happened to her was my fault.

We trudged downtown for a while in silence, until it dawned on me that I wasn’t sure where to go. Especially to keep Kay safe. We were running out of time. The solstice was two days away. It would be our only time to perform the cure.

Xaver, Azrael, Cole, Andre. Who weren’t we running from at this point? There was nowhere safe. Cole was going to be searching for me soon. We needed a place to lie low for a while. A place to regroup and make a plan.

But where?

“Is there any way we can stop at my place?” Kay peeped up from beside me. “I would kill for a shower and maybe some new clothes.”

I wanted to smack myself in the forehead. Of course. It was so easy for me to forget about living necessities. If Kay wanted something as simple as a shower and some new clothes after everything she’s been through, I could do that.

“We have to be quick though,” I said. “I don’t want to stay in one place for too long. For your safety.”

“Agreed.”

“Wait, before we go.” I reached into my back pocket for the small Styx Corp. tablet Azrael had given me on my first day of work. The green light flashed, telling me I had a message waiting for me. Anger coursed through my veins at the thought of him using it as a way to keep tabs on me all this time. A tracker or maybe an audio recorder.

Not anymore.

Gritting my teeth, I threw it onto the ground as hard as I could. The glass splintered, and the blinking green light died out. I stomped on it several times with the heel of my boot. That was more for my own self-satisfaction. Pieces of glass and plastic flew all over the sidewalk.

Only when it no longer looked like tablet did I feel a little better.

I kicked the remaining parts into a nearby sewer and grinned.

Fuck you, you son of a bitch.

When I looked up, I found Kay staring at me with worried eyes.

“You okay?” she asked.

I straightened myself up. “Better now, I think.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

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