Page 68 of Death Trap

Ah, yes. Benjamin. I had to find him. So much was riding on the answers he held.

I kept walking. The flickering lights above my head only heightened my anxiety.

When I reached the endless purgatory line, I did my hardest to avoid the many blank, staring faces. But when I reached the very front, the woman stepping to the first spot in line caught my eye, and my heart dropped to my toes.

“Marla?” I halted.

Of course she didn’t react when I said her name, but I couldn’t help myself from reaching out and touching her shoulder to try and shake her out of the trance-like state all the souls were in. The moment my hand touched her arm, there was a violent zap that shot from Monnie’s ruby ring through my fingertip. As if she had stepped through the rainbow in theWizard of Oz, color flooded her overall grayish façade, and her gaze snapped awake, fully out of the trance.

But when she turned toward me with a questioning look on her face, I realized I had made a very real, very bad mistake. This wasn’t Marla.

This was Tamara. Marla’s twin and Arianna’s mother. Her and Marla’s faces were nearly identical—hence why confusing them had been so easy at first glance—but now that I was staring into her eyes, the differences were blaring. The most obvious was the sharpness hiding in her glare. The harshness, the distrust, the cunning. Not to mention that she wore a low-cut black shirt that rode off her shoulders and skin-tight leather pants, exposing much more than Marla would ever show.

Marla had been right. Tamara was an entirely different animal.

“Who are you?” she snapped at me before peering up and down the hallway, taking in the other souls standing mindless in line. “What is this?”

Oh shit. This was a problem. I had messed up royally.

“Answer me,” she demanded when I didn’t answer fast enough. The power in her voice made me jump, but before I could get a word out, she lifted her nose into the air and rubbed her lips together. “You’re using magic?”

She could sense the power in the necklace just from standing by me? I knew witches and sorcerers could usually spot their own kind because they could feel the magic radiating from them, but I’d never seen the skill in action.

When her gaze landed on my neck, I knew she had managed to sniff out Arianna’s charm.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “A perception charm…” she drawled. “Interesting.”

Wow, she was good.

“But why?” She examined me up and down, as if she were trying to see through the magic, to who I really was. I wondered what I looked like to her—what the necklace was making my appearance to be.

“You aren’t meant to be here, are you?”

I balked. Okay, she wastoogood. It was a little freaky.

“Let me ask you again,” Tamara started, the bite coming back to her tone. “Where am I and who are you? Why are these…”—her top lip turned up in disgust—“heathensall standing in line like that?”

Even though everything about Tamara screamed “Fear me,” I wasn’t about to let her intimidate me so easily. During my time reaping, I’d faced many people who thought their shit didn’t stink, so to speak, and that they deserved immediate respect. I knew how to deal with people like this. Bullies.

Shut them down. Show them they couldn’t overpower you.

“Surprise! You were standing in that very line a few seconds ago actually, and if it wasn’t for me, you’d still be there,” I said, matter-of-fact, and pointed to many waiting souls. “That’s purgatory. And you’re in Hell.”

“I’m in…” She paused, taking my harsh words in. But to my surprise, it only took her a couple of minutes before she mumbled to herself in acceptance. This ending wasn’t unexpected for her, it seemed.

“Then who are you?” she snapped back.

I clenched my jaw so hard, pain bounced between my temples. “I’m a reaper.”

“Like the grim reapers?”

A common question I got often. “Yes.”

Many different emotions crossed her face next. The most frequent was fury. She might have expected to be tossed in Hell after dying, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it. But then there was intrigue, distrust, and maybe even a little relief thrown in there as well. The last one more so when she glanced back at the many other souls standing in line. She knew that if I was telling her the truth, she was lucky. I had gotten her out of that endless nightmare.

“I can’t remember much after what I’m assuming was my death. I don’t recall a reaper bringing me here. Was it you?” she asked.

“Oh no. Not me,” I answered quickly. Interesting that she didn’t remember her reaper, crossing over, or being judged. My guess was that it had something to do with the souls sent to Hell. “We’ve never met before. But I do know your sister and your daughter.”

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