Page 86 of Death Trap

Wow, thanks a lot, Marla.

“Wait, the censor didn’t block you from telling her?” I asked.

“No. It seems the censor has been lifted,” he replied.

“Azrael must think he has won,” Simon added.

The coffee maker bubbled and hissed as the machine started brewing. The rich scent of dark roast filled the cramped space.

As if I had just drunk that entire pot, my entire body began to shake. “So, you can tell me…everything.”

“I can,” Eli said.

I glanced at Simon. “Did he…”

He nodded with a weak smile. “Yes. He told me while we were looking for you.”

Was it possible for my bones to vibrate under my skin? Because I sure felt like they were. My teeth were even chattering.

Kay walked over with a cup of coffee in her hands. “Wait, they know what you are?”

Maybe I nodded. Maybe I didn’t. I couldn’t tell anymore.

Eli and Simon exchanged looks.

“Well, don’t just stand there, dammit,” I shouted, growing aggravated. I’d waited long enough, hadn’t I? “Out with it!”

Simon’s shoulders lifted and then fell, as if he were taking a relaxing breath. Then, in his calm tone, he said, “You’re an Archangel, Jade.”

The world seemed to freeze in that moment. No one moved. No one so much as blinked, yet every eye was trained on me, waiting for my reaction.

Something bubbled up from deep in my stomach, crawling up my esophagus until it sputtered out of me in the form of hysterical laughter. I couldn’t stop it either. It just continued to pour out, loud and uncontrollable. I even snorted a few times. My eyes teared, and I hunched over to grab my knees.

It was a good thing the baby couldn’t hear me because there was no doubt I would have woken him up.

“I’m sorry, but there is no way I heard you right. Did you say…?”

“Archangel. Yes, he did.” Eli stepped forward, a scowl on his face. “Jade, how could you find this funny? You are one of the holiest creatures in all existence, created especially by God to be Heaven’s warrior. To laugh is…is…”

I shook my head, the laughter still coming out in spurts. “There’s no way. No. Way.”

Glancing at Simon and Eli’s very serious faces, I waited for any sign of the joke. Any eyebrow twitch, any crack of a smile, something to tell me this was all a joke I was the butt of.

But I couldn’t find any hints of humor lingering under all that severity.

That was impossible.

What they said was impossible. There was absolutely no way I was any type of angel. They must have gotten it wrong.

“I knew you had to be some kind of angel when we first met,” Kay said, excited. She clutched her coffee close to her chest. “There has always been a certain golden glow around you when you’re in your spirit form.”

Yeah, and it was laughable then, and it’s still laughable now. Hilariously so.

“Don’t tell me you believe this nonsense,” I replied. “Come on, guys. We’re talking about me. Me, for fuck’s sake. Do I look like an angel to you? I certainly don’t sound like one, do I?”

As always, Eli twitched at my curse, but that only proved my point even more. I wasn’t like him. All proper, perfectly sculpted, reserved, and nonchalant about the living world. I would even go as far to say that we were complete opposites.

“You asked me when we met again what my mark was and why yours is similar,” he said and touched where his lay on his chest before pointing to mine. “Guardian. Archangel. We are both cut from a similar cloth.”

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