Page 70 of Death Trap

I strode past her and put both hands on the metal door, ready to push it open and enter the microphone room.

“Are you sure?” The cockiness in her tone mixed with my own uncertainty made me pause. “You have maybe a little more than a half hour before the perception spell wears off. That is, if it was even done correctly and the magic transferred through dimensions without losing power. You may very well have less than that. I have the magic you need to navigate through this place. All I ask is to go with you through the exit when the time comes. That’s all. Seems fair to me.”

Even though the word “No” hovered on my tongue, her words turned and turned in my head. She had a point. With her level three magic and knowledge of the darker corners down here, Tamara could be a real ally while looking for Benjamin. If we encountered any more Halflings, she could blast them to kingdom come. Maybe she even knew some kind of truth spell to get Benjamin to talk if he refused or the censor blocked him from giving me the answers I needed.

But to admit she was right… Could my ego handle it? Better yet, when it came time to fulfill my side of the deal, would I be able to deliver? If I took Marla’s warning seriously—and I did—Tamara most definitely needed to be in Hell. She would cause nothing else but havoc anywhere else.

Meeting Tamara’s gaze again, a devilish smile lifted one corner of her mouth. She knew she had won this battle and was loving every second of it.

Bitch.

Not being able to convince myself that rejecting her offer was truly the best way to go, I sighed heavily and gestured her to follow me.

Tamara might have been a witch, but it sure felt like I had just made another deal with a demon.

Maybe I had.

Letting Tamara come along didn’t mean I was going to let my guard down around her. Or trust her. Oh no, I wasn’tthatnaïve. I knew she would stab me in the back the moment she was in clear sight of the exit, or if we got to a crossroads where it came down to her or me.

I didn’t need to know her for very long to get the feeling that she saw herself as priority uno.

That was okay, because when the time came for us to make our getaway, I had no intentions of really bringing her with me. Lisa was a different story. She truly had been brought to Hell for some alternative motive that I was guessing had something to do with me giving her the demon cure box, which I didn’t remember doing. That was confirmed when Lisa’s spirit went through orientation again and ended up with Wyatt in the afterlife.

Tamara, on the other hand, belonged here for all the dark magic she’d participated in during her life. And I’m sure a handful of other things I didn’t know about but could make a fairly educated guess on.

As we walked through the metal door into the dark room with the lone microphone, she pushed past me to examine the vintage-looking thing on the slender stand.

“What’s this?” she asked, squinting at it, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She even flicked it with a pointed nail, causing the thing to whine loudly as it teetered off balance.

I quickly righted it back into position and threw her a glare. “Don’t touch anything, unless I tell you to,” I snapped. “Got it?”

She met my stare, unafraid and unamused by me. “I don’t take orders from anyone. Especially a five-foot-nothing grim reaper.”

My mouth opened to combat her instantly, but I clamped it shut. I wasn’t short by any means. With my boots on, I probably hit five-eight, five-nine. Heck, I was looking down at Tamara to talk to her now. But then I remembered the necklace around my throat and the perception charm placed upon it. The magic must have been obscuring my true height to her, so I let it go.

“In case you forgot, I’m the one who’s going to get you out of here, so if you don’t listen to me, I’ll just shove you back in that line back there and leave you to wait a few more decades until they finally find a suitable torture chamber for you to spend the rest of eternity in. How does that sound instead?” I even made sure to plaster on one of my full-faced grins.

She stepped away from the microphone as her answer, but she didn’t look happy about it in the slightest.

Leaning close to it, I spoke as clear as possible. “Benjamin Tanner.”

Like before, there was a rush of air as the walls raced past us in a blur of speed. When they finally stopped, we were standing in a hallway lined with doors that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Hundreds. No, thousands.

That’s right. I had to be more specific. We sure as shit didn’t have time to check every one of these doors.

I moved closer to the microphone again. “Benjamin Tanner…uh, the reaper?”

Again, the room spun. Even though we stood still, just watching the doors smear past us in their blinding speed made me dizzy. When everything around us settled, we were standing face to face with a door. Just one. A single white wooden door with the name plate Benjamin Tanner on the top.

“Is this it?” Tamara asked, coming to my side. “Is this what you came all the way for? A door?”

“Doors like this are what you were waiting in line for,” I said through gritted teeth. “And I guarantee you won’t like what’s behind yours when you get there.”

Tamara sucked in her cheeks, forcing herself to keep her mouth shut. I took that as my cue to face the door and grip the handle.

Before I could turn it, the weight of what was about to happen sat on me like a pair of brick-filled shoulder pads. I was about to meet Benjamin, the reaper who came before and the only person who knew about my life before I died. He had the answers I so desperately wanted—needed—and I was about to finally be able to ask him.

After all this time of drifting through my afterlife, wondering, imagining, hoping, I was going toknowwho I was.

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