After all, unless you’retouchedapparently, like that man in the alley, there was no way to see angels or demons if you were just some run of the mill human.Not unless you were striking up a deal at a crossroads or having a near death experience, or...if you were dead.At least, that’s what I’d gathered.
Which meant when I found my body, I probably wouldn’t see either of them—the angel or the demon I’d come to know and really, really like—again.
My heart sank at that truth.
But if I didn’t find my body in time and choose a side, I would become aghost.
I don’t want to haunt people!I don’t even have a cool ghost outfit!
I looked down at my clothes, feeling strangely on the spot.My olive-green shirt and jean jacket, jeans, and chucks were looking a little worse for wear, and I cursed when I opened my soup, when a blob all but burst out onto my shirt from my lid removal.
“I hopeyou’renot a vegetarian,” he bit as he handed Valory a bowl.
I didn’t miss the way her eyebrows shot up, or the way her fingers grazed his as she took the bowl from him.
A strange sort of memory filled my psyche.
My fingers sliding over Miles’s on top of his thigh.
The sunlight pouring through the car windows, lighting him up in its golden, amber rays.
But before I could grasp it, once more, it disappeared like the fading sun.
“I am not,” Valory responded as he handed her a fork.They stared at one another for a moment, and I think, dead or not, they had to be the best telenovela I’d ever seen.
Miles’s grandmother watched telenovelas...
Surely, that’s a thing afriendwould know, right?
“Thank you,” she said as he grumbled out a response.
“Now, we’re even.”
Though his words were harsh, his tone was anything but.
“I suppose we are,” Valory said, and for a moment, we were too enamored with our food to do anything but savor the sustenance as time slipped away.
CHAPTER5
Valory
I’d beenon a train once in my life, as a kid.My parents took me for Christmas one year.We hopped on the Polar Express and I was so excited, I could have burst.I had no idea where we actually went, because I was little and really thought we’d gone to the North Pole.Still, the experience was nothing short of comforting, cozy, and magical.
This...this train ride was not like that.Not in the least.
Our cabin was tight.
Would it have killed Endor to use his demon wiles to secure us something with a little more leg room?
Mercy shifted in her space, likely trying to get comfortable.According to the conductor, we had an eight hour ride ahead of us, nonstop.
Eight hours to be crammed in this tiny space with Endor and Mercy.I shouldn’t have felt bothered by such things, especially given the fact we had Mercy back and faced a much better chance of her actually finding her body than before, but...
Something about sharing such tight quarters with them made me feel antsy.
Irritable.
“What the fuck are you frowning about?”Endor bit, pulling my thoughts.
