Page 101 of Death Trap

As everyone else filed inside, I shifted myself closest to the doors. I wanted to make sure that when they opened, the first person he saw was me. I wanted to see his face when he realized he’d failed at beating me. Again. And now, with my power hovering so close to the surface, I knew the truth about who I was. He couldn’t hide it from me anymore.

The gold doors closed, sealing us inside.

I’m coming for you, Azrael.

The doors opened slowly to reveal the giant office in the same ruined state as the lobby, with the expensive furniture toppled over, the rugs covered in dust, and everything in disarray. Outside the walls of windows, the sky was angry. Lightning exploded behind the black clouds. Wind whipped against the glass, and it was then I noticed some of the windows had spiderweb cracks running along them.

At the far end of the room, Azrael’s oversized desk chair was turned away from us, preventing us from seeing if he was in fact sitting there. But a warning raised the hair on the back of my neck, and my power continued to radiate off my skin, so I knew Azrael was near.

As we stepped out of the elevator, the chair leisurely turned around, and there was Azrael, fingers in the shape of a pyramid and resting against his chin. How many times had I walked into this room and found him just like this? As if he were contemplating what to do with me this time and enjoying every minute of it. This instance wasn’t any different.

When his gaze found me, surprise and annoyance flashed across his face, but they were fleeting and were quickly replaced with amusement. His smile stretched to unnatural proportions again, his forehead widened, and his ears shifted down.

A chill raced through me. There was no doubt about it. Azrael was turning into some kind of demon-like creature. He was growing uglier by the minute.

“Jade…” He tried to purr my name like he normally did, but it came out all wrong. His voice had changed, too, in his transformation. It was higher in pitch and gritty. Really hit the ear wrong.

“Damn, you’re one ugly son of a bitch,” I said, struggling to look at his morphed face.

As expected, he didn’t like that. Azrael leapt to his feet and slammed his hands onto the desk so hard, a small lamp fell off the corner and crashed onto the floor.

I guessed I’d hit a sore spot.

“It’s pretty bad. Have you looked in a mirror lately?” I sucked in a sharp breath and acted as if looking at him was bringing up my lunch. I covered my mouth and coughed a few times to really sell it. “It’s rough. Like a baboon’s ass crossed with a diseased naked mole rat or something.”

Even though his grin was gone, his cheeks were still spread wide. Stuck that way. And his ears were frozen in their odd placement near his neck.

There was no turning back. The changes were becoming permanent right before our eyes.

“How did you get out?” He shot the question at me, while trying to modify his tone to match his old one with no success. It still came out as a grating whine. “I made sure that room was sealed.”

“You underestimated her.” Simon stepped around me, spine rigid and his face showing no fear. “Just like you have from the beginning.”

Azrael’s gaze bounced off the three other faces, as if he hadn’t noticed them and was seeing them for the first time. Fury ignited in his eyes, the bright green color flashing to a demon red.

“What is this? A mutiny?” His laughter was forced.

Outside, thunder boomed so loud and so forceful, the building shook all around us, tossing more dust into the air.

“You don’t belong here anymore, Azrael,” Eli shouted at him. “You’re destroying everything you built by being here.”

“How dare you speak to me like that,Guardian,” Azrael said, spitting the last word like it disgusted him. “I am one of the Firsts. You are nothing more than a babysitter for…” He glanced at me. “You know what you are finally, don’t you?” His tone changed to calmer.

“No thanks to you,” I snapped. I still couldn’t believe he had orchestrated all of this. My death, my being thrown into the reaper cycle, the loss of my memories and who I was—all of it was because of him.

“Oh, Jade, do you want to kill me?” He laughed. For real this time, loud enough to be heard over the booming thunder just outside the windows.

I blamed my face for showing my hatred and giving away my motives. I narrowed my eyes on him as he walked around the desk, his hands clasped behind his back.

“I’m sorry, but that just can’t happen.” As he continued to get closer, Marla, Eli, and Simon grew tense beside me. “You’re not even an angel yet. You have no sword. You’re nothing but a reaper, a worker bee. Which reminds me…” He stopped at the overturned furniture in the center of the office where we had sat during our last innocent meeting together—when he had threatened to Release Simon for my shitty work ethic. When I still thought he was nothing more than my boss and not out to get me.

“How did you manage to come back onto this side of the veil? With Benjamin back, it should have been impossible.” He rubbed the side of his clean-shaven face. The skin there seemed grayer than it was minutes ago.

“Simon Released me,” I said.

“Now you’re just lying to me.” His body shook with his frustration. “You would then be obliterated. Cease to exist.”

No one said anything. His gaze searched us for a moment, trying to find what he deemed a real explanation.

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