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 specifictask, 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.
Chapter Nine
Phin
