Page 5 of Death Match

“It’s okay,” he said.

I barely heard him over the roar of my thundering heartbeat in my ears. I knew I was nervous about this whole meeting Michael thing, but I hadn’t expected to bethisscared. And I wasn’t quite sure why.

Maybe it was because my last angel boss had tried to kill me.

Or maybe it was because meeting Michael was the first big step toward the Trials, and ultimately, the next part of my afterlife—becoming an Archangel and saving the living and nonliving world.

“You’re not going straight into the Trials, Jade.” Eli tried to calm me down with his soothing tone. “I am just introducing you to Michael. He’ll be able to answer any questions you have about the Trials or what being an Archangel entails. Or even about the pending war. With God gone, he’s been keeping everything running smoothly. He’s the one with the answers.”

“Right.” I swallowed roughly. His words should have eased my anxiety, but for some reason they only increased it. I did all I could to keep that panic off my face.

Straightening my shoulders, I drew in a deep breath. No more chickening out. I had to deal with it.

I had managed to work under Azrael and survived. Barely, but I’d done it. How bad could Michael be?

I mentally shook off the thought. Probably shouldn’t jinx it. I had bad luck like that.

With Eli by my side, I strode toward the revolving doors and went inside.

On the other side of the doors, the room stretched out so far in front of us, I couldn’t see where it ended. Even though the building appeared to be freakishly tall from the outside, the inside seemed to have all that in length. And like in Azrael’s office, there were no real walls, only windows, and I couldn’t help but think Heaven must have had a pretty insane Windex budget to keep all this glass smudge free all the time.

The skyline of New York City at dusk surrounded us, as if we were floating above the Big Apple in a giant, hovering spacecraft or something.

As a reaper, I’d visited the city before, but I’d never seen it from this angle. It was a breathtaking sight.

Besides the gorgeous view outside, the only other thing really worth looking at was a giant replica of the solar system, but unlike the usual “The sun is the largest and at the center of the universe,” the earth had been blown up to be the main focus. Floor to ceiling in height and spinning very slowly.

There was sparse furniture in this area. A chair here and there. A side table. But the building seemed to be completely empty, except for us, and eerily quiet.

It reminded me a bit of a deserted doctor’s waiting room—if you ignored the giant solar system, of course. Void of color and décor with an oppressive feeling, and the faint smell of hand sanitizer in the air.

Suddenly uncomfortable, goose bumps trailed up and down my arms.

Where were all the angels at?

“Um… This is…not what I expected,” I settled with, unsure how to express how the stillness made me feel. Isolated was probably a good word for it. Uneasy. But I couldn’t tell him either of those. Not when he was grinning like a fool while staring at the nothingness.

Was I missing something? Was he seeing something different than me? It was basically an empty room.

We walked up to the giant display of the world and stopped.

“So, where is everybody?” I asked, my voice low to match the silence.

Eli turned to me, confused at first by my words. Then, he sighed. “What do you see?”

“See?” I held my hands out and waved them around for emphasis. “Well, nothing. Not unless the cold and boring waiting room esthetic is your thing. The windowed view of New York is pretty cool, and the globe… Can’t miss that. But besides those… it’s pretty bare.”

He glanced out the windows to his left.

“Am I missing something here?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, his expression turning thoughtful. “You must be. I’m assuming you can’t see the true beauty of the building because you haven’t been granted access to it yet.”

“Granted access? Is there a password I need or something?”

He chuckled, looking at me again. “No, Jade. The Trials. Completing it will be your password.”

Ah. The fucking Trials again. Should have seen that coming.

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