Page 90 of Death Deals

Tell me about it.

A tense silence settled between us. In the distance, Sean pushed Arianna’s dislocated shoulder in, and she screamed in pain. After, though, she cradled her arm and thanked him as Kay came up to comfort her.

We were lucky all we were leaving that ordeal with were a few scrapes, bruises, and a busted shoulder. It could have been a lot worse.

Someone could have been killed.

“I’ll wait,” Cole said, breaking the stillness.

I glanced at him. “Wait for what?”

“For you to say thank you.”

I scoffed, hardly believing his words. “Thank you? For what?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he began. “Bringingeveryonehere, saving you from becoming a vampire’s next meal, knocking down those Halflings so you could kill the demon.”

He was joking, right? He had to be.

When his brows only rose, I huffed a laugh. “And what about freeing you from Monnie’s possession?”

“Which only caused more danger for everyone else.”

Rage spun around me but tangled with my tongue, leaving me speechless. He really knew how to make a girl regret saving him, and it’d only been a couple of hours. That had to be a new record or something.

His mouth opened as if he was about to tell me something more, but he clamped his lips shut a second later and shook his head.

“I need to make sure Sean gets home okay. We’re taking the next flight out of here,” he said instead. Then, he walked away, throwing his last words over his shoulders. “Have fun with the rest of Heaven’s bullshit.”

I watched as he approached Sean, grabbed him by the shirtfront, and half-dragged him down the street. Arianna stared after them in utter confusion.

I was just as puzzled and angry. Maybe even more.

What an absolute raging asshole.

“Forget the half-demon.”Eli’s voice reverberated in my head.“Maybe you see now that everyone isn’t worth saving.”

I whirled on him, closing the distance between us swiftly. Had he really just said that? Of course he had. This was Eli, after all.

“What?” he asked out loud, confusion creasing his forehead.

After everything we’d been through, he still didn’t get it. Maybe he never would. Unlike Archangels, Guardians rarely touched down on earth. They had no connection to the living. And that was the problem.

It was the one thing he couldn’t connect with me on, and unfortunately, it was one of the most important things to me.

“Jade?” Eli said with a frown. “Did I—”

I shook my head. “What you said was exactly what I needed to hear.”

He hesitated. “Oh… Good.”

He didn’t know it but in those few words, he had reaffirmed to me that choosing to step back from our relationship was the right thing. For the both of us.

Standing on the airstrip in front of Andre’s jet, I waited for Kay and Arianna to climb out of their car before walking over to them. The morning light spilled across the earth, painting the sky in beautiful shades of pink and gold.

As Arianna strolled around the car to my and Kay’s side, I asked her, “How’s that arm of yours?” Her arm had been put in a sling to reduce motion, and from the pout on her face, she wasn’t enjoying the limitation it brought.

“Fine,” she replied. “I’m just glad it didn’t have to be casted. I don’t want to match Laurence.”

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