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When I turned back, Paige smiled softly. She wasn’t ready to go forward.
I reached out and took her hand. “It’s okay. I understand. I can go forward on my own.”
Her smile was tight. Her eyes turned ever so slightly glassy from unshed tears. “Take care of him for me?”
I nodded.
“He’s in good hands.” She squeezed my hand and let go before fading into the shadows.
Of course, that’s when Hel caught up. Or, at least that’s when she discovered that I’d escaped her prison. A wretched scream in the direction we’d come from shook the walls and rained dust overhead.
I ducked and darted towards Maddox. He stiffened when I threw my arms around him, but it didn’t last long. He quickly realized it was me and enveloped me in his embrace. When he buried his face in the crook of my neck, an electric jolt ran from my heart to my core.
Neither of us should have been corporeal. We were spirits, outside our bodies. Yet, somehow I could sink into him like he was really there. His scent filled my nose and put my heart at ease.
“Let’s go home,” he said into my hair.
“Yeah, we should move soon. Hel is throwing a hissy fit right now, but she could catch up to us at any moment.” Even with Hel breathing down the back of our necks, I couldn’t help but smile when I looked up at Maddox.
He brushed my hair out of my face, cupped my cheek, and kissed me. That was enough for the darkness around us to vanish.
When I woke in my own bed, I found myself yearning for the press of his lips on mine again. Only, the room wasn’t as empty as I would have liked. I bolted upright and saw Bianca, the witch.
My stomach immediately dropped. She gave me a five-finger wiggle wave without uncrossing her arms from around her middle. When she turned back to the scene at hand, I realized Ryder had his hands on Maddox’s chest. Electricity gathered in the air right before crashing into Maddox.
The smell of burnt flesh rolled through the room. I gagged.
Ryder mumbled something under his breath. My heart stuttered. I leapt out of bed, uncaring that I was wearing an oversized t-shirt and nothing else—not even underwear, apparently.
“You killed him?” I shouted at Bianca.
She threw both hands in the air, exasperated. “How else did you expect this to work? Normal people can’t just traverse the afterlife.”
“For a detective, he’s awfully stupid,” I grumbled.
Bianca cocked her head curiously. I had no time to explain. I grabbed ahold of the tether that bound Maddox and myself together and gave it a hard yank. His soul came rushing out of the afterlife and back into the room.
It didn’t fuse with his body, but instead crashed into mine. Barely a heartbeat later, Maddox gasped for air. His eyes shot open. He lurched forward and spasmed. I dropped to my knees in front of him, my hands on his shoulders to keep him steady.
“I’m all right,” he said, breathless. “I’m all right.”
I raised a brow but didn’t question him otherwise because I had something else to say. “You can open portals to the afterlife.”
Maddox stared at me quizzically.
I flicked him on the end of his nose. “You could have opened a portal without witchcraft! Maybe they don’t know that your portals lead directly to the afterlife, butyoudo! You could have done this without killing yourself, dummy.”
He fell back in his chair and blinked. When his lips parted, nothing came out. He closed his mouth and cocked his head, both brows raised. “Shit. You’re right.”
Maddox hadn’t been thinking, but from what I could see on his face, he hadn’t been in a state that allowed much thought. His face was gaunt. There were deep shadows in the hollows of his cheeks. Dark bags made his eyes sunken and solemn. He bit his lip to reveal sharpened teeth.
He was on the verge of something that I didn’t like. I took his hand and squeezed it. A great wave of power rushed out of me and into him. He sucked in a ragged breath and exhaled like a parched man given water for the first time in days.
“What the hell happened down there?” Bianca asked.
I twisted towards her. “Hel threw a hissy fit because I won’t kill Maddox.”
“All right, then. Not what I was expecting, but I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re friends with the other fools that like to spit in God’s face.” Bianca nodded and gathered her things.
