Have a good life, Warren Knight, and try not to be an asshole anymore. I love you.
I want to reply that I don’t understand. I want to tell her that it’s death I’m going to, not life. But I can’t, because she’s already gone, and I’m slipping away.
Her voice is all I’m left with, and then my time is done, and I’ve fallen onto death’s blade as its next unwilling victim.
I love you too.
Chapter 37
Trix
Six Months Later
A new dead—or a ned as I like to call them—lands at my feet and starts dry heaving. Some incorporeal spit flings from his mouth and lands on my wings. “Eww.” I wrinkle my nose and step away from him.
I should probably have more compassion since I’m a damn angel, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
The guy groans as he gets up, and he’s a good three feet taller than I am when he straightens up. He’s a spindly dude, looking like a stick insect with wheat-stock limbs and crooked eyes.
“Wh-Where am I?” he sputters.
I pluck at my white wings. “You’re dead. Welcome to the afterlife. Please get in line to be processed,” I drawl.
He starts making a keening noise of sadness. I just blink at him.
I know, I know. Worst angel ever.
Luckily, one of the other angels working the line with me bustles over. Cariel looks like he used to be a grizzly shifter, because he’s a bear of a man and hairy all over. Even his white wings have sprouts of fur popping between the feathers.
“It’s okay,” Cariel soothes the ned. “Grace be with you,” he says before pushing some of his calming light towards him.
The ned nods, instantly calming. “Thank you,” he says with a hint of reverence.
Cariel nods all pompous angel-like, and the ned moves forward to get in line with the rest of the dead schmucks.
Cariel turns and marches over to me. “You could be a little kinder,” he reprimands me.
“I know. I’m sorry.” I really am, but I feel empty inside. I can barely fake a smile most days.
He shakes his head and looks around the massive room as we wait for more neds to show up. It’s been a bit slow this morning.
“How many people have you given Grace to today?” he asks.
“I dunno. Maybe, like...one?”
His bushy brows shoot up in surprise. “One? We’ve been working the line for hours.”
“Sorry,” I say again. I say that word a lot as an angel.
I should be grateful. After all, my angel powers made it possible to heal Warren’s heart. And the Veil didn’t pop me out of nonexistence—that’s definitely something to be thankful for. But to be honest, my heart isn’t in my afterlife job anymore. How can it be when I left it behind with a man I’ll never see again?
“These souls need reassuring,” he chastises me in his gravelly voice.
“I know.”
Guilt curls up in my stomach like the edge of a dry leaf.
Ever since becoming an angel six months ago, I’ve been struggling to adjust. After healing Warren, I was yanked back to the Veil and told to do grunt work. Punishment for going on an unauthorized trip and using my powers before I was trained.