Page 98 of Death Trap

Much more dramatic than my invitation had been for Eli, but as long as it got the job done, I didn’t much care.

“Are we ready?” Eli asked, looking at me despite saying “we.”

I nodded.

Then, he held out his hand for me to take.

When I only stared at it, his fingers curled in. “Oh, right. Zero.”

Guess this situation was hard for both of us. Giving him a reassuring smile, I placed my hand over his fist, which opened up at my touch so I could slide my fingers in between his.

“If I’m really about to die…again, again, again, we’ll say we’re more at a half now.”

His grin radiated, reminding me just how perfectly handsome he was. Even for an angel.

“Go on,” Simon whispered, seeming sorry to disturb our moment. Honestly, for a second, I had forgotten he was there. “I’ll go in right behind you.”

Exchanging one last knowing look, Eli and I turned back to the spirit door. Then, hand in hand, we stepped through. Together.

We emerged on the other side of the spirit door only a few blocks from my apartment and a nearby transportation portal. We needed to make our way to one and get to Styx Corp. as soon as possible.

The three of us hurried down the street toward the harbor. As we got closer, I spotted the familiar curly hair and frilly outfit of a certain witch standing outside Cuzzin’s Pizzeria near my apartment building.

“Jade!” Marla shouted as we approached and rushed over.

Had she been waiting for me all this time?

She threw herself at me, squeezing my neck, as her feet dangled off the ground. “Thank goodness you made it out of there alive!”

She meant Hell, of course. She hadn’t known anything about my time in the Void. Good thing, too, because that would probably only freak her out more.

Unsure how to react to her unexpected hug, I lightly patted her back, took her arms that were hooked behind my head, and helped her down.

She glanced at Eli. “Elijah explained everything. And when he did, Ihadto tell him where you went off to. I didn’t have any other choice. I—”

“Marla, it’s okay,” I told her. “It’s actually a good thing you did. Eli and Simon helped pull us out.”

Her head cocked to the side, looking suddenly ill. “Us?”

Oh no. Should I tell Marla that I had met her sister in Hell and had accidently let her escape as a spirit in the living world?

I sighed. What was the point of lying about it? “I ran into Tamara in Purgatory.”

Her naturally large eyes widened to doll-like proportions, and she turned ghostly pale. No pun intended.

“My sister?” she croaked.

“Is that who ran off after we found you?” Eli asked, looking between the two of us.

“Wait, she’smissingnow?” Marla’s voice continued to climb to a near hysterical level. “You don’t know what this means, Jade. I warned you. Iwarnedyou.”

“Marla, it’s not as bad as you think.” I tried to counter her panic with a calmer tone. “She’s been stripped of her powers. She’s basically a human soul. And I think…she’s changed a bit. I mean, she helped get me out of one of Azrael’s traps when she could have just left me there and saved herself. From what you’ve told me, that doesn’t sound like something the old Tamara would do.”

She hesitated, brow wrinkling. “You’re right. It doesn’t.”

“Running into her was a complete accident. I thought she was you, and when I touched her, it snapped her out of the trance they put all souls in Purgatory in.”

Marla’s face softened as she touched my arm. Even after all our time spent together in the afterlife, she still didn’t seem to grasp my discomfort whenever she did stuff like that. Or maybe she did and didn’t care.

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