Page 58 of Till Death

We made it all the way to Divine Magic without interruption. Which was a miracle, in my honest opinion. The fact that the building still stood and with only minimal damage?

Another miracle.

I didn’t put much stock in those, though. They didn’t last and they always came with strings attached.

When I glanced over, Tamara stared at the store with a smug smile.

“What are you so happy about?” I had to know.

“The wards are still holding. Damn, we’re good.” She didn’t bother hidingherlaughter. “My kid is a damned magical genius. She’s better than me and my twin combined, I’ll tell you that.”

“I think your sister might have a little more to do with that than you,” Lisa muttered.

Tamara paid her no mind. “The wards have held and everyone of importance is inside.”

“How can you tell?” I asked dryly. “Super hearing?”

“I always call it a sixth sense. And it’s helped me out well in this life. Well enough until I died, anyway.”

We knocked on the door and waited for the magic to recognize us. I was actually pretty shocked to see them holding as well. Those were some seriously powerful spells Arianna had worked for a witch of her age.

The moment they did recognize us, the lock clicked open and the door solidified, coming into focus. I pushed inside. “Honey, we’re home!”

The figures gathered in the main room swarmed us the second we stepped through the door.

Livinganddead.

I smiled at the lot of them as Lawrence rushed forward to take Kay from my arms.

“What happened? Where did you go?” He ran his hands over her face and shoulders to inspect her, to assure himself of her safety. “We had no idea what happened to you. You just disappeared.”

“Long story.” I huffed out a breath. “A story for later.”

He shot me a warm smile before grabbing me into the hug pile and despite how it hurt, I returned the gesture. “It’s good to see you too, Jade,” he muttered.

“How are you? How is everyone?”

Lawrence released me with a sigh. “Tired. Scared. But alive, and that’s the most important thing right now.”

It felt like forever since I’d seen them all. And together as well, with Sean and Arianna here as well.

Something inside of me loosened at the sight of them. Whole and in one piece. I watched Wyatt and Lisa reunite, Marla and Arianna were off to the side together, and—

“Shit.Simon?”

A familiar shaved head and slender shoulders came into view. “Hello again, Jade.”

Tears stung my eyes and the damn depth of happiness at seeing Simon’s skinny ass surprised me. But he was actually here, right now. On this plane and in the flesh so to speak. Looking pretty rough around the edges but otherwise whole. Stress had painted dark circles beneath his eyes and more lines around his eyes than the last time I’d seen him.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked Simon with a real and honest smile.

He didn’t take offense to the cursing. He knew me too well by this point. We’d been through enough for him to actually crack the barest hint of a smile at me, even.

“I could ask the same thing of you, but I know I won’t like the answer,” he said dryly. “I’m happy you’re here.”

Simon wasn’t exactly the hugging type, which was something we’d managed to bond over when I first started the reaping gig. Instead, I knocked him lightly on the bicep. “I might have used your nose a little bit ago when I was looking for someone.”

I’d never seen a better tracker than the Komodo dragon shifter. He definitely would have come in handy trying to find our way out of Hell. We might have even avoided a confrontation or two.

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