Page 32 of Death Match

Had I heard him right? I hadskippedit? How was that even possible? All I’d done was gone through the arch, like I was meant to. I hadn’t done anything screwy to cheat my way through. At least, not intentionally.

“Did I mess up somehow?” I asked. “Already?” I wouldn’t be surprised if I had.

“No, not at all. This is in your favor,” he said, which shocked the shit out of me. “If I was to guess, you skipped it because you’ve already completed the Trial in another way. At another time. And so, it brought you back to the center to find the next one.”

“Uh, how did I complete it already if this is my first time in the maze?” My head was starting to hurt, and annoyance prickled. None of this was making sense. I gestured around me to emphasize my point. “I’ve just started.”

Silence answered me.

I waited a few ticks, but when no one spoke again, I shouted, “Um, hello? Anyone home?”

“Michael is trying to get you answers, Jade. Give us a moment,” Eli replied in his normal, calm manner.

Get answers? From who?

I didn’t understand. Shouldn’t they know this? Okay, maybe not Eli, but Michael was supposed to be in charge of this circus, wasn’t he? I couldn’t be the first person to ever skip a Trial. Right?

This was insane. All of it. Absolutely insane.

What I wouldn’t give to have my boring afterlife back, with my shitty job, college dorm sized apartment, and not a care in the world.

I had wanted change, imperfection, and excitement. Like in the living world. With this angel business, I’d gotten that in spades.

Be careful what you wish for, huh? Boy, was I kicking myself now.

Finally, Michael’s disembodied voice returned. “Jade, you’ve ended up back at the maze’s center because, as I expected, you’ve already completed the first Trial.”

Oh?

But the real question was whether or not that was in my favor.

“And?” I pressed. “That’s good, right?”

“It is,” he replied, and although I couldn’t see him, I could hear the smile in his voice.

No way. Really? I mentally fist pumped the air. Things never worked out for me like that. I couldn’t believe this had. Even so, my curiosity about the whole thing didn’t ease any. I was probably pushing my luck, but I wanted to knowwhy.

“What was the first Trial anyway?” I asked. If Michael believed it was something I had already accomplished, then what could it be? Eating too much raw cookie dough? Because if that were the case, I could see how I’d beaten the Trial without trying. I always thought the amount of cookie dough I consumed in one sitting was impressive. And by impressive, I mean disgusting. If I wasn’t already dead, the salmonella poisoning would have gotten me a looooong time ago. True talk.

“It was about self-sacrifice,” Michael said plainly. “You know, giving up your life to save another.”

“And you’ve done that multiple times,” Eli’s voice added. “With Kay and Cole when you went up against Xaver. With me, Simon, and Marla with Azrael.”

Well, that was unexpected. But I guess I had willingly sacrificed myself a few times, hadn’t I?

I hadn’t even thought about it like that when it’d happened—like it had been anything special. I had just done what I’d thought was right in the moment. I’m sure anyone else could have come up with a smarter way to go about it if they thought through it some more. But me—I just leaped.

Could it really be that easy? Could I really just “skip” a Trial because of something that had happened in the past? Something I did under pressure, when I hadn’t been here, being judged?

“Jade, the maze has deemed your bravery, commitment, and compassion for your friends enough to satisfy the first Trial’s requirements,” Eli began, as if he could somehow read my self-doubting thoughts. Like always. “That is amazing. You should give yourself more credit.”

“But she won’t,” Michael said, “because that’s the way she is. Elijah is right, Jade. What you’ve accomplished here is no little feat.”

“Has this ever happened before?” I asked, suddenly uncomfortable with the spotlight shining brightly on me. “Where someone has beat a Trial before even starting?”

“No.” Michael’s response was crisp and short. “Never.”

“Then again, Jade is the first one out of all the Archangels to enter the Trials,” Eli replied. “So, it very well could happen again.”

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