Page 96 of Death Trap

Of course, nothing happened.

Instantly, I dropped my hands and scowled at him. What a waste of time. Not to mention I felt like a complete fool for even going through such a ridiculous thing. I needed to find arealway out. On my own.

When I turned on my heel, Hank gave another chuckle.

“See?” he said. “Was that too hard?”

I spun around again, ready to give the old man an earful, but in that second, I realized the scenery around me had changed.

No more whiteness. There was fog, and brick buildings, and cobblestone roads. The fishy smells of the harbor lingered in the early morning fog.

The tall windows of Oh! Kay’s Pastries stood in front of me.

I was back in Fairport.

“What the actual f—”

“Jade!”

Startled, I actually cried out in surprise, but then settled once I saw Simon and Eli racing toward me from the side entrance to Kay’s apartment.

No way.Askinghad actually worked? I just thought Hank was off his rocker.

Just then, the old man’s whisper tickled the inside of my eardrum. “You’re welcome.”

One try for it to work… That’s what Hank had said. And that was all I needed, really. I had no plans of going back to the Void anytime soon. That was for sure.

Hank, you cheeky bastard. Thank you.

Eli wrapped his large arms around me and pulled me in for a hug. “When you didn’t come back in the living room…” His voice weighed heavy with sorrow and fear. He kissed the top of my head before letting me go and stepping back. Clearing his throat, he said, “I apologize for that. Might be too much. We’re starting at zero again; I didn’t forget.”

Simon appeared at Eli’s side. “We were just about to look for a way to find you, maybe by asking your witch friend, but here you are.”

“How long was I gone?” I asked. Telling by the slight chill in the air and the lightening of the sky, I’d guess it was possibly around five a.m. But then that would mean…

“Hours. We didn’t want to bother your Medium friend anymore, so we left,” Simon said.

Man, Kay was probably panicking right now.

“What happened?” Eli asked. “You have to tell us everything.”

And I would, but first…

I glanced at Simon. “Am I still a reaper? How can I tell? I don’t want to touch someone and hope for the best.”

“There is an easier way,” he replied and pointed toward the watch on my wrist, the one he had given me for my assignments.

Confused by what he meant exactly, I tapped the screen to wake the device up.

The screen remained off.

I smacked it with my palm to get the damn thing to turn on, but no matter how hard I hit it, the face stayed black.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with this thing. It’s not working.”

A smile cracked Simon’s always serious façade. “That’s because you are no longer a reaper, Jade. You did it.”

Holy crow. It worked?

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