Page 102 of Death Trap

“But no one’s ever survived Release. Ever. It’s the end of everything. Time, space, the physical, and the spiritual.”

“Like I said before.” Simon spoke slowly, his calmness seeming threatening now. “You underestimated Jade. You did before and you still do now.”

Azrael clamped his mouth shut, the muscle by his ear jumping from him grinding his teeth.

“It seems I have…” he drawled. “A mistake I won’t be making again.” Azrael turned his attention fully to me and sighed. “I guess this is it, Jade. I’m afraid our little dance has to finally come to an end.”

A dance? Really?

Rage pushed forward, sparking more of my power to life. The white light illuminated the darkened room, a beacon in the dusty air.

“Yes, it does,” I bit back.

“I admit, I’m going to miss it.” As he spoke, the tiny hairs on my arms stood up straight. A warning. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

Azrael made the most subtle of movements, just a slight dip of his chin. It was a miracle I even noticed it, but I ducked just as a terrible screeching sound came from above and something leapt for us from the shadowy corners of the room.

Marla screamed, and when I whipped around, I saw the massive jaws of a Halfling clamped around one of her arms. Her face had gone deathly pale as she punched the thing repeatedly in the head to make it let go. It only bit down harder. That’s when I heard the crack of bone and saw the blood dripping off its fangs.

But that couldn’t be. We were in the afterlife. Not Hell. There shouldn’t be wounds or blood here. Pain was only temporary.

The horror on Marla’s face told me otherwise. The last time she’d faced these creatures, a herd of them had broken into her shop and tore her open, leaving her alone to die. That’s how Cole and I found her, and then I helped her spirit cross over after fighting the Halflings that had stayed behind.

The space in front of Eli shimmered slightly, and his spear appeared. He grasped it and plunged it into the Halfling’s side in one swift move. White light erupted from the wound, and the creature squealed, releasing Marla at the same time.

She clutched her bleeding arm, her hand hanging limp.

“Are you okay?” Eli asked in a rush as more shadows started to move and gain shape around us.

She only nodded.

When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Simon struggling with two Halflings that were somehow connected at the side to form one massive, absolutely terrifying beast. They had him pinned to the floor. Claws raked across his chest, turning his robes to shreds of fabric.

Reacting first, I threw out my hands to unleash my light at the thing, but nothing happened. I cursed.

I didn’t have full control over the power yet. But knowing it definitely worked through touch, I ran over and slapped my hand on the Halfling’s back. White light exploded, blanketing the room briefly. When it settled, the Siamese-twin monster was gone.

I helped Simon to his feet.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“We’re not out of it yet,” I replied, pointing at six more Halflings that jumped from the highest dark corners of the room. How long had they been hiding there, completely still and undetectable?

No wonder my power was going kooky.

“And it seems Azrael being here is not only screwing with the weather and structure of this plane. It’s changing the very nature of the afterlife.” I pointed to Marla’s arm. Blood still bubbled up from the puncture wounds, and pain lingered on her face. “We can bleed and get hurt here now.”

“And that means?” she croaked.

“We can die,” Eli answered for me.

I turned toward Azrael. He was standing in the same place, watching the scene while leaning against a turned-over chair. The pleased grin on his face was sickening.

He knew he was in a weakened state. Heknew.So of course he’d brought backup. How he’d found a group of Halflings to command was a question I didn’t have time to wonder about. All I really needed to know was that they were coming at us. And there was still Azrael to get to.

If we could bleed, get hurt, and die in Styx Corp. now, so could he.

And he was the one I wanted to kill.

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