Page 7 of Death Match

Had Eli said something to him about my discomfort? He must have.

And I’m sorry, but was his skin glowing? I had to blink a few times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. I wasn’t. A golden hue clung to his skin, letting me know (if I hadn’t already) that he wasn’t human. He wasn’t even a normal spirit or supernatural. He was an angel. One of the first ever created.

Like Azrael.

I forced that comparison right out of my head. I really had to stop thinking Michael was going to be just like my old boss. I hadn’t even given him a chance yet.

When I peered over at Eli, he had straightened his spine and held his head high, like a soldier ready to take command from a higher-up. But Michael walked right over to him and placed his hand on his shoulder, admiration reflecting in his gaze as he gave Eli a firm pat. Eli softened instantly and smiled.

“Good work, Elijah,” Michael said. “You brought her home.”

Eli replied by dipping his head in a bowing motion.

From the looks of it, they had a pretty decent mentor/mentee relationship. I mean, it was no me and Simon, but it was decent.

Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad.

“I’m sure she didn’t make it easy for you.” Michael chuckled, and his pale eyes danced with amusement as they finally rested on me. “But that was to be expected. Am I right? Jade?”

I stammered, unable to find my words right then as his gaze bore into me, locking me in a vise. At the same time, that same déjà vu feeling rocketed through me, telling me two things. One being that I’d seen these eyes before. IknewMichael. Very well, actually. But wasn’t that what Eli had told me before? He’d worked with me before and had given me my angel mark? And that he was the one in charge of all the Guardians and Archangels and Heaven now that God was gone?

And two, that those piercing gray-blue orbs might appear friendly and welcoming, but Michael… Michael had seen some shit.

Or had he?

It sounded crazy, I knew, but as his gaze flicked over me and then over my shoulder, I realized something else. Those eyes were struggling to focus on one specific thing.

Michael was blind.

I gasped. Obnoxiously loud, too.

“Even though I may not be able to see you in the traditional way, I can in others,” Michael said, confirming my suspicions and freaking me out a bit. Eli had said he couldn’t read my mind until after the Trials, right?

“And I can also assure you my hearing is quite good, too,” he continued with a short laugh.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, my face burning with embarrassment. He hadn’t heard my thoughts. He’d just heard my gasp.

Mother f-er. Way to go, Jade.

I turned a hard glare on Eli, hoping my aggravation and humiliation could somehow transfer through my look. Like how he could have warned me that our boss was blind. It would have been helpful.

Talk about a shitty first impression.

Well, I guess it was a shitty second first impression since we’d met before. But still.

“No need to be angry with him,” Michael said lightheartedly, as if he could see everything as well as I could. “Azrael trapping you in the reaper cycle and erasing your memories was unexpected for us all. And extremely clever on his part. We are still adjusting. I’m sure Elijah has told you already, but like with him, this isn’t our first time meeting.”

I nodded but then realized he probably couldn’t see that either. “He did,” I said immediately, and then internally scolded myself again. Why was I being so weird with this? Maybe it was because it had taken me so off guard. Either way, I needed to stop being awkward about it. Michael and Eli obviously didn’t see it as a handicap in any way, so I wouldn’t either.

“But whenever I try to remember, all I get is a little…tickle of something in the back of my mind, but nothing solid to hold on to,” I explained. When my words reached my own ears, though, I realized just how stupid that sounded.

Michael, however, just smiled. “Good. That means there’s something there. Azrael wasn’t able to clear out your memories completely. And I’m sure he tried.”

Oh, I’m sure he did.

Thinking about Azrael again and all the underhanded things he had been doing against me made my blood boil. He had orchestrated this entire nefarious plot to keep me out of his way from taking over the afterlife and riding the tail of the apocalypse to kinghood. Killed me off to trap me in the reaper cycle, erase centuries of memories, kept a watchful eye over me as I went about my mindless reaper tasks, sent Halflings after me whenever I crossed into the living world, hired Cole to distract me… Oh, and let’s not forget locking me in Hell and tossing away the key.

He’d almost had me for good, too. But by some miracle, I survived all his tricks.And—I’m proud to say—kicked his ass in the end. Now, he could stare at nothingness in the Void for the rest of eternity thanks to me.

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