24

Everyone had already gotten back on the bus. Our team won.

Turns out, Max can handle everything on his own and teamwork be damned. While he wasn’t the most gentle or courteous hero, Jarmiel looked pleased having been “rescued” and able to go home all the same.

I returned just in time to soil the victory with my almost-getting-killed thing. Zak pulled Aiden and me aside but everyone pressed their faces against the bus windows. Could it have been one of them? None of them were purifiers, though.

After the bolt had quit hissing at the ground, we wrapped it tight in Aiden’s blue sash to bring with us, just to be safe. Zak fiddled with it. An unfamiliar tightening around his eyes took over and made me feel even worse.

“You didn’t see anything?” he asked us.

“I see several people. Unless, you’re certain none of them did it?” Aiden gave the bus a sly glance. He must revel in seem ing mysterious. Normally his vague answer would’ve irritated me too, but in this case, I felt like I needed to defend him.

“He pushed me out of the way. The bolt nicked him instead,” I said.

“Thanks. Aiden.” Zak added the vampire’s name with much effort. His eyes continued to drift away in thought. “Are you badly injured?”

“I’ll survive. Captain.” Aiden matched Zak’s delivery all too well. I couldn’t stop myself from cringing.

Zak took a deep breath before dismissing the awkwardness they’d created. “We’ll figure this out. It won’t happen again.”

The stare he gave Aiden wasn’t quite a glare, but maybe a challenge. “Hop on the bus. Jarmiel has some questions and Lisha can wrap your arm.”

“Yes, sir,” Aiden spoke through a bored sigh. I assumed that was the end of that, and followed after him.

“Not you.” Zak stopped me but waited until we were the only ones left outside. His golden-brown eyes met mine and drooped, making him appear more puppy than man. “You’re not in trouble, FYI. I’m in trouble. You almost got killed during a training exercise. Today was supposed to be fun.”

The bolt rested in his hands like a haunting reminder. I hadn’t been impaled or shot with anything before. Puncturing organs was a whole other level of pain that I wasn’t eager to experiment with, even if I could heal quickly.

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but anything contain ing high amounts of light energy is as deadly as it is lovely. I’m shocked no one noticed anything strange, unless—” he paused, “it really was one of them.”

As he confessed his thoughts, I saw the hurt on his face as if the bolt had aimed for his chest instead. I didn’t know Lisha’s team very well, so I could’ve easily blamed one of them. That didn’t feel right, either.

“So, what do we do, now?” I asked.

Zak stowed the bolt inside his belt loop and opened his arms to me. I took a step back. “Oh. I don’t need that right now, but thank you.”

“Huh? Oh. No, silly,” he said, sounding lighter and more like himself, “We’re flying.”

Flying?

I pointed desperately over his shoulder. “But the bus is right there .”

Why did no one ever want to take the damn bus?

Zak made a face. “It’s stuffy in there. Besides, we’ll be safest in the air.”

My heel hit the end of a root and I almost fell over trying to get away. I hadn’t even been on an airplane before. There was no way I was about to fly around carelessly on a pair of some one else’s wings! “How is a bus more dangerous than falling to death? Do you even have helmets?”

Zak quickly disguised his laughter as a coughing fit. Inappropriate, given the severity of our situation. “Would a helmet really save you if I dropped you?” I think Zak noticed my face turning green because he tossed his eyes upward. “I’m teasing. I haven’t dropped anyone.”

“Nope.” I whipped around, ready to take my chances with the assassin in the forest. A wing made of light appeared in front of me and blocked my path. As soon as I felt Zak’s arms crashing around me, I knew I was doomed. His wings pulsed and pulsed, making whooshing sounds as they carried us further up toward the clouds.

“Wait!” I grasped his forearms that cut across my stomach.

The wind pushed my head down. Individual trees turned into a sea of green and yellow. The velocity was so great that my legs felt like paper dancing in the wind. Same with my hair. My long, reddish-brown strands whipped at my cheeks.

Zak chuckled. “You okay?”

“Do I look okay?” We reached a level deemed high enough for Zak and our ascension slowed. I could see clouds getting close enough to touch. Amazing how much colder the air got while reaching for the sun.

“We’re trying to be discreet here,” he said, “Your screaming kinda ruins it.”

I wanted to glare at him but I was too afraid to move. When Zak shifted a bit, I dug my fingers deeper into his skin. It was hard to focus on impending doom when I had an angel breath ing on my neck.

“You can hide your face in my shoulder if you’re scared?” Zak offered.

“I want to go back.”

“Not an option right now.”

My angry scoff was remixed with my chattering teeth. He assisted me in maneuvering around while I tried not to cry or vomit. Whichever happened first. Our new position had me facing him. My arms and legs wrapped around his body like a baby animal clinging to their mother. I had to be careful not to touch his wings, so my arms fit around his neck. If Zak’s angelic body wasn’t inhumanly strong, I probably would’ve decapitated him.

“How about now?” he asked, “Feeling better?”

I laughed maniacally into his shoulder to avoid swearing. “No.”

“Are you really not going to look? That sucks because the view’s not so bad.” Zak tried to shake me but I burrowed even harder. “I promise you can close your eyes the rest of the way. Just one peek?”

“I’m starting to see why Jarmiel can’t stand you.”

Zak laughed harder than I’d ever heard before. His outburst startled me into ripping a small hole in his shirt with my nails. Oops. I refused to lift my head from the safety of his collar. No way I was going to open my eyes again. Who knew how high we were now? When would we run out of oxygen?

He moved his grip in order to cup my thighs. “There. I’m not letting go, ‘kay?”

That was enough to bring my face up.

I got lost in the muddy diamonds blinking back at me, re flecting more sunlight in their depths. His gentle expression and the evening sky was like a cup of hot cider, heating me up inside. I thought I’d grown used to his shenanigans but there he was, making me melt. If only I were allowed to have feelings for him, then I’d become a puddle and rain down.

I dared myself to look over his shoulder and saw the mountains we’d left behind. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, the world was washed with a pink haze. A city soon hummed with bustling noises below. Building windows became an orange spectacle of dancing lights. I wished the night would come, only so I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where my body would splat should I fall.

“I fly when I’m stressed,” Zak said, “Making your problems look smaller is liberating, I think.”

I glanced down and gulped.

Holy shit.

Still too high. I brought my legs higher around his torso, going full-on koala. He was my tree and like hell, I was letting go until he brought us back down. Was it shameful? Maybe. I was beyond caring.

“Think you can last twenty minutes?” Zak asked, “I’ll drop us off and we can walk the rest of the way.”

I nodded and returned my face to its hiding spot. He tipped forward and gravity beckoned me toward the earth. He continued speaking as we flew, probably to keep me at ease.

Eventually, I summoned the courage to ask more questions of my own. “Did you know something like this would happen?”

“I put more faith in my party than I should have, it seems,” he said, “Have you had trouble with anyone?”

“There is one guy…” Ew. I was about to tattle on someone with no real evidence to frame him. But, Zak only asked if I had trouble with anyone, and I had. “A purifier. Faris? I met him the other day. Doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

All things considered, I was amazed he’d been the only one to approach me with that manner of hostility. I didn’t want to blame him without proof but if we could start an investigation somewhere, it was better than nothing.

“Faris,” Zak spoke his name with familiarity. “He’s an excellent soldier but lacks basic people skills. Getting through a forest full of peacekeeper trainees, undetected, seems like him.”

“How can someone who uses light not like people?”

“Good intentions aren’t always good for everyone. A desire to be heroic can spark a light but will they be considered a hero to everyone? There has to be opposition before you can label someone a hero.”

Could light matter be so unbiased as to feed even the delusionally self-righteous?

What a frightful thought.

Finally, we tilted further down and increased in speed be fore gradually coming to a stop. Zak’s wings beat one last time, and my feet touched the ground. It was dramatic, I’ll admit, but I fell to my knees and grasped the freshly mowed grass between my fingers.

Zak was unimpressed. “Oh, it wasn’t that bad!”

I groaned before forcing myself back up. My stomach dis agreed with this movement and threatened to purge, but the need to not be absolutely disgusting in front of Zak kept the bile down.

The angel was kind enough to let me lean on him while my legs returned to a solid form and not jello. He patted me on the back, like he was taking his drunk friend home. “You’ll get used to it,” he said but my wary expression had him laughing again, “What’s with that face?”

***

I arrived home before anyone else.

Zak informed me to stay in the dorms. That was fine. I didn’t want to see Mallory for a while anyway. What wasn’t fine was having to wait for answers. Alone.

Before leaving me to my own devices, Zak mentioned Lisha having leads pointing to one or more purifiers. I wasn’t sure if it was the relief I felt. Partly yes, because we were one step closer to finding them but I hadn’t considered that there could be more than one.

My aunt warned me for years that something like this would happen. I hadn’t been with EXO long and sure enough, someone already hated me enough to try killing me. That kind of hurt my feelings.

It was getting late and no one had returned yet. The emptiness in the building freaked me out. I wasn’t actually alone. Zak left a few guards outside, but a girl couldn’t help but feel paranoid.

I showered the grime and blood off my body, taking my sweet time and doing my best to put it all out of my mind. The snack stash in my room was running low. I should have asked Zak to fly by some burgers or something. He would have happily gone for it.

This sucks.

I licked peanut butter from a spoon and thumbed through a non-demonic book. Everyone else’s day had been ruined too. Being held up for questioning wasn’t one of my fondest memories, so I knew what they were in for.

I’d gotten so used to my solitude that the knock at my door puzzled me. They had to knock a second time to get me off my behind. “Gods…” I grumbled at myself and hurried to answer.

Guy towered over me in the doorway. When he noticed the peanut butter jar in my hand, he made a shallow snort. “Hey. You haven’t been starving all night have you?”

“I haven’t been allowed to leave, so kind of,” I said.

“As your buddy, officially assigned this time,” he added, “I can bring dinner back to your charming prison cell.”

“Wow. More prison jokes?” I playfully shoved his shoulder. Were we close enough to do that now? I watched for his reac tion but his eyes never left my hand. “I-In that case, you better bring back something good,” I said.

“Or what?”

I wasn’t prepared for his playful smirk. His head leaned into my room, making a physical challenge to his verbal one. My insides scrambled as my brain tried to process some witty retort. “I’ll tell Tori you want to watch her favorite movies together.”

His expression dropped.

“You wouldn’t.”

“The one with all the rich hotties consumed in their petty drama. What’s it called? Oh yeah. ‘Why I Hate My Life, vol. 2’.” I nodded. “ So good.”

“You truly are a devil.”

Guy backed off, but I caught a glimmer in his eye. “Give me ten minutes,” he said, “Don’t go anywhere. You know I’ll always find you.”

His last remark should have sent chills down my spine but my face felt hot. I put a stop to that before Guy returned, carrying three plastic bags full of something heavenly and delicious. He handed them to me like a delivery boy and turned to leave but I felt the urge to stop him. “Thank you. This is a lot, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t want to disappoint,” he said.

“We can share if you want?”

What was I doing? Inviting Death into my room for dinner, that’s what.

Was I nervous that he would say no or that he would say yes?

“You paid for it, you might as well have some,” I said.

Guy’s toothy smile made him appear bashful. “One bag is just dessert.”

“My threat really got to you, huh? Then I definitely can’t eat it all by myself.” I allowed him back into the room. A draft followed him in, making my exposed arms shiver. I was in a tank top so I grabbed the sweater hanging off my bed and hoped that he wouldn’t take offense.

We didn’t have a table so I set the food on my desk. “Do reapers eat?”

“Yes,” he said, and I heard him chuckle, “Well, I do.”

“Do you have to eat, is my real question.”

Guy had already gotten comfortable on my floor. His back rested against the bed while his legs stretched across the car pet. “While I’m here, I do. If I’m back home, eating is more of a hobby. The soul retains memories of your mortal life after you die; things like food and temperature. Senses in general. I think it’s a comfort for some to eat and feel human. It is for me.”

“What do you mean while you’re here?”

“I won’t be here forever,” he said, “Not like this. Neither will you or anyone. I didn’t mean much by it.”

Since we didn’t have chairs either, I joined him on the ground. My sweater kept me warm even though we were close to each other. I opened the bags and the pile of steamy, garlic noodles stunk up the room.

“Am I allowed to ask about the afterlife?” I asked and handed him a fork.

“You can ask and I’ll decide to answer or not.”

Cheeky bastard .

I twirled my fork into the noodles. “Fine. So your spirit passes on and you can pretend to enjoy food again? That’s weird but cool, I guess. Being a spirit sounded boring but this helps.”

“Boring?” he asked.

“Isn’t it?”

Guy lifted his brow. “What exactly about Tori seems boring to you?”

“But she can’t eat and she’s a spirit?”

“If she crosses over, she can. The limitations between realms are difficult to explain.” There it was again. His face hardened, or was he sad? It was hard to tell. Either way, his mind went somewhere else whenever Tori was brought up.

“Why won’t she? Not that I’m in a rush, she’s like my only friend.” My attention was quickly pulled toward the contents of his mystery, dessert bag. “Who even bakes cakes this size?”

“It’s a secret,” Guy answered to one or both of those questions.

The single slice of chocolate divinity outshined any of my past birthday cakes in both presentation and flavor. I’d only stolen a taste of the frosting but the creamy, richness was fit for the gods. “ Mm … Is this because you feel bad for me or did you really not want to watch Tori’s movies?”

“I might’ve felt bad.” Guy ran a hand through his thick hair. His eyes never left his shoes while he spoke. “To answer your question about Tori, though, she was born sick. I visited her in the hospital most of her life. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong, just that her body wasn’t going to allow her to do much more than sit like a vegetable. I pitied her too, I guess.”

His voice fell and I thought he was getting emotional, but he took his fork and poked the container that had seasoned chicken. While I waited for him, I imagined the Tori I knew; young and full of life. Ironic that she lived the most in death.

“The day finally came. I told her many times I’d be the one to help her. She seemed fine at first, but then…” He let out a long, harsh breath. “She fought me. There was no life left, but her fear was painful to watch. She begged me not to. She wanted to ‘live like other girls.’ I’d wrangled many spirits before, but I was stupid and got attached. I kept her spirit tethered to mine, allowing her a mirage of life. Tori thinks she’s happy but she needs to move on.”

There was a pain in Guy’s voice that he tried to cover up by sounding annoyed. I was at a loss for words. After a moment of staring down at my hands pressed in my lap, I said, “I didn’t know. Is the situation permanent?”

“No, but she shuts down whenever I bring it up.”

“I imagine that topic is difficult. And the bear?”

His lips twitched. “From the hospital gift store. I got it for her.”

Her item of emotional value that her spirit gravitated to. It was the bear Guy bought her?

“She must care about you a lot,” I said, feeling my heart break.

“I care about her too but not in that way.”

Had he meant romantically? That hadn’t been what I meant exactly but I couldn’t imagine being trapped in time while some one I loved continued to move on. “Is that a reaper thing too? No attachments?” I asked.

“Not a rule, no. But it’s complicated.” He finally brought his head up and held my gaze. Why did it feel like he was addressing something else entirely? I thought he’d say more but he retreated to the previous topic. “It’s also dangerous for her. Without a body, she’s susceptible to demons or cultists in black market trading.”

“Is that why you’re keeping an eye on me?” I pushed down the hurt from that one with a bite of cake. It wasn’t like he was blaming me specifically, but how did he really feel about me being a demon? If I fed on Tori’s energy when she didn’t even have a body, would she just disappear?

Guy had every right to worry for her.

“It’s one reason,” he said.

I focused on the carpet while battling my disappointment. “Why did you stop me? You could’ve easily let me go.”

He leaned his head to one side and scrunched his brow. “I was doing my job.”

“A job that isn’t really yours. I don’t think Death headquarters told you to.”

“Zak asked me to secure you and I did… You’re stabbing the box.” Guy lifted my hand that had been murdering the noodle container. “Am I upsetting you?”

“Is there something else? I don’t have any answers about myself and I keep hoping someone else does.” I was practically begging him with my eyes. He was a reaper, the closest being to the World Soul. They knew the ins and outs of death and of Heaven and Hell.

Guy took his time leaving my hand and then cracked his knuckles. Not all at once, though. He took each finger, one by one. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack. “There’s a chance someone knows something,” he said, “But he could get in trouble for telling you. Especially if he’s wrong.”

Was he seriously talking about himself in the third person? “I won’t tell anyone.”

“You should really go to Zak about this.”

“I’m asking you.”

His legs squirmed. He probably regretted dinner with me but I had to keep pressing. Aiden’s poisonous words about EXO and the angels filled the spaces of doubt in my mind. I wanted to question everything. Zak too. I didn’t love that.

Guy began with a heavy sigh, “There was a rumor once. Not even a rumor. Just whispers in the underworld. A being of both Hell’s night and Heaven’s light would be born from the World Soul.”

I frowned, gave up on my noodles, and set the fork down. “The World Soul is a god. Why would it need to create something like that?”

He ran his tongue over the innermost section of his bottom lip. “To have something that defies nature. Destroys it, actually. Chaos.”

“And that has something to do with me? That doesn’t sound right…” I stopped. “The vampires think I smell like angel blood.”

His head snapped up.

“Have any of them bitten you?” When I shook my head, Guy’s expression relaxed. “It was premature of me to even bring it up. Can you promise not to do anything reckless for the time being and I’ll promise to look into it for you?”

“Really?”

“Promise.”

I crossed my arms just as he extended his hand. “You said you take promises very seriously.”

“I do.” He looked serious enough. Then again, he always looked serious. Guy kept his hand out. Waiting.

“Fine.” I huffed but was secretly happy about it. We sealed our promise in his freezing cold hand. “So, like, hypothetically, if I was this chaos being you’re afraid to talk about, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Just the end of the world.”