Chapter Eight
Ossy
We parked in front, where parking cost money.
The parking garage would have been better.
It would have been less likely to get a parking ticket there, but the garage was technically part of Donn’s realm.
The curb was not. But did Ezul have to pick the curb closest to the building? Shouldn’t we park down the block?
The Soul Management Bureau building looked like any other high-rise in a downtown business district in any city. The name was spelled out in thick gold letters. It wasn’t the tallest building downtown, but it wasn’t the shortest either. It was all glass and metal.
That day, the window-washing crew hung from scaffolding outside.
I might be mortal and all, but there were certain things I wouldn’t do.
Getting onto that flimsy metal contraption, swaying several stories above the ground, was one of them.
I’d surf with sharks any day instead, but I appreciated the window-washers’ bravery.
I rolled my eyes as Ezul took the time to pay the meter. “I hate this plan. We should be inconspicuous, not waving to Donn from the street.”
“Do you see me waving?” Ezul acted as though he had every right to be there.
It made me wonder if he did, and if he was leading me to the slaughter.
Then I remembered what he’d said in the car about playing with Donn’s emotions.
That seemed like a very demonic thing to do, considering how sick it was. Maybe Ezul really was on our side.
“You might as well be.” I followed Ezul because I had no choice but to trust him.
And it wasn’t like I would back out. I was here for one thing, and one thing only.
To find Phin and take him home with me. I would never let him out of my sight again.
Plus, of the two of us, he was the one who would draw less attention.
He could still be working for Donn for all anyone knew.
He’d just been to work a couple of days ago. It had been longer for me.
We entered through the front door, just like Ezul said we would.
The receptionist’s eyes were like saucers when he saw us.
I couldn’t remember his name, but I knew Phin was friendly with him because I’d seen them talk a time or two.
We didn’t stop at the desk to talk. Instead, we walked through the lobby as though we weren’t infiltrating enemy territory, even though we very much were.
The lobby was open and filled with natural light pouring in through the glass walls.
The seating area featured black leather furniture, and instead of magazines, there were coffee-table books.
One caught my eye, so I grabbed it and flipped through it as I walked toward the elevators.
Donn had filled the book with images of nature, mostly, though I’d seen an amusement park as well.
It was titled The Afterlife, with no author listed.
One picture stood out to me the most. The photo showed a small beach hut with surfboards lined up outside, stuck in the sand. A clothesline stretched nearby, with towels and board shorts hanging from it. Beyond that lay an endless ocean, waves lapping at the shore. Palm trees swayed in the breeze.
For a single captured moment, the photograph held movement. I could see it clearly in my mind. In my version, Phin sat in a beach chair, staring out at the water, waiting for me to join him in the empty chair beside him.
The book must have some sort of magic attached to it. Anyone who picked it up could see their perfect afterlife. The beach hut was mine. The photo was a deliberate act meant to show the living that the afterlife wasn’t something to fear but something tailored. Perfect. Personal.
What I didn’t know was what Phin’s ideal place looked like. I’d never asked him. What a failure on my part. We’d had a thousand moments for me to find out. I’d wasted so many of them.
If I found Phin, I’d make it up to him. No, when I found Phin, every moment would be about him. That was how it should’ve been from the start. My need to avoid emotions, good or bad, had always felt like self-preservation, but now it just felt like loss.
I set the book on the nearest table.
The receptionist followed us with his gaze all the way to the elevators. I waved at him as he continued to stare. Sometimes people stared without realizing it, and I wanted to make him aware of it.
The guy smiled. His cheeks turned pink for reasons I couldn’t understand.
Did he think I was flirting? I wouldn’t.
I didn’t even really know how. Flirting with anyone but Phin had been off the table since the day we started fucking.
It was unintentional. I just didn’t want anyone but him.
I didn’t even really look at anyone else after Phin.
I should have known our relationship was more than just a good time.
The pull toward him had been strong from the start.
Not even Donnie Death’s magic could stop it entirely.
But I felt it wane as soon as I crossed the threshold into the building. My gut twisted.
Ezul pressed the up button, and then we waited like two morons.
“Are you crazy?” I was asking honestly. Didn't Donn scare him even a little?
Ezul grinned. “I’m a demon. We make other people insane. We don’t go there ourselves.”
That was an excellent answer, probably accurate. Also, it was scary. Ezul had always seemed just a little off. The comment just confirmed what I had suspected all along. “So this is you making me nuts.”
Ezul had the audacity to smile. He would probably have laughed at me if he’d been capable of a sense of humor. He didn’t even have a twisted one.
I expected demon shadows to follow us the second we entered the building, but none of that happened.
I wanted to separate from him, but it had to be at the right moment. It would be dumb of me not to follow his lead, considering that the rest of the reapers and I had been MIA for so long.
The elevator seemed to take forever, as it always did.
Maybe it was just another way Donn exerted control, a reminder of who was in charge.
It had never bothered me before. I technically still worked for him.
Maybe with a slap on the wrist and a few demerits, I could even get my job back.
But that would mean turning my back on my beloved and my reaper family.
I couldn’t do that. Before Elliot dropped into our lives like a bomb, I might have taken the easy route.
Now I just wanted Phin safe. Easy wasn’t better—easy meant distance.
Even standing inside the Soul Management Bureau, my chest ached at the thought of that distance.
I wanted Phin more than I wanted immortality.
Grym had said he could feel Elliot’s emotions. He sometimes knew what Elliot was thinking. Elliot had the same connection with Grym.
It was as if a piece of me were missing. I’d given Phin a part of myself without realizing it. And now, with the possibility of losing him forever, I couldn’t imagine living without that piece.
I rubbed my chest and waited.
Ezul seemed oblivious, but he probably wasn’t. He was more observant than he let on.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. We stepped inside. Ezul pressed the button for the reaper floor. “I don’t know if Phin will be at his desk. Donn can hide Phin from us.”
“We’re playing hide-and-seek?”
“That’s my fear.” Ezul stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
The elevator music was soft, barely audible, and completely unnecessary. It made everything feel louder, including my breathing and heartbeat.
The elevator stopped smoothly, and the doors slid open.
Instead of Phin sitting at his desk, smiling as he always did, three demons from HR stood in the reaper lobby, as though waiting.
“Ezul, you did not come into work,” one of them said.
His dark eyes looked bottomless. If I stared too long, I would fall in and never reach the bottom.
“I’m here now,” Ezul said calmly. “And while late, I intend to resume my responsibilities. Osiris intends to do the same.”
The lie came easily. If not for the slight tremor in his hands, I might’ve believed it.
“Explain your absence.”
“I do not have to explain myself to you, Morro. You work for me.” He gestured lazily. “His majesty assigned me a specific task, that of convincing the Reapers to stop the nonsense and return to the Bureau. Osiris is the smartest of them all.”
I almost snorted. If I were so smart, I wouldn’t have left Phin. I would’ve claimed him as my beloved long ago and told him I loved him. Because I did. More than anything.
“Now,” Ezul continued, waving dismissively. “Get to work. Osiris and I are doing the same thing. I expect no less from the three of you.”
The demons lowered their heads, then melted into shadows and vanished.
As soon as they were gone, I shot Ezul a look. “Smooth talking there, senator. You could be a politician.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I am a demon of deception.”
That was the first time I’d ever heard him speak about what kind of demon he was.
His essence must have been tied to deception.
Would truth be part of him, too? Opposing forces might round him out.
I hoped that was the case. I wasn’t privy to what kind of demon anyone was or what it meant within the Bureau.
I just knew they had abilities reapers didn’t.
“I vow never to deceive you, Osiris,” he added, guessing where my mind was headed.
I still wasn’t sure whether I should trust him, but that wasn’t the priority. Phin was. “It’s clear Phin isn’t here. Let’s find out where he is.”
Ezul pressed the elevator button again, then turned into a shadow.
“I believe we should split up,” his voice echoed. “Try not to die, and try not to get sent to Tech Duinn.”
Separating sounded good to me. I was just glad it was Ezul’s idea. It made it easier to get away from him. But I had to wonder whether finding Phin was now a game we were playing with each other.
Ezul vanished into the floor.
I stood there for a moment, then prayed—really prayed—that he wasn’t deceiving me, that he was on my side, and that this wasn’t some elaborate trick to send me chasing my tail through the building. If it were, I could lose Phin forever.