Page 54 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

In the day since he’d left, I’d attempted to keep busy, but nothing could fill the hollow feelings that ached at the center of me. At first I was worried about the absence of Nephesh’s soul damaging me somehow. But I knew now, it was the absence of the demon himself. Of my soul mate. I had had him, and now I didn’t.

And in the quiet moments walking home from the diner, the only thing that kept me putting one foot after the other had been reliving those quiet, beautiful moments in my dreams. When we had just been us.

I shut the door, bolting it behind me, and then stared around the space. A sudden compulsion to go running back out of the room hit me, and I braced my feet, swearing loudly. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

But deep in my chest, something hummed, a desperate compulsion to open the door, to bolt out of this building. Because something was wrong. It wasn’t just Nephesh leaving.

I hadn’t felt this in years. It reminded me just like that day… A sharp chill swept down my spine, fear filling my heart.

Oh God, what had I done? I’d been distracted, too distracted. I must’ve missed something. Hurrying, I zipped up my jacket, the straps on my bag suddenly slick with my sweat.

I needed to go. I turned, unbolting the door I’d just come through and swinging it wide. My mind was already racing with backup plans when I realized that there was someone in front of me. Multiple someones.

There, standing on my doorway, stood Rocky, his white hair tousled and wild. But I wasn’t worried about his hair or the way that his clothes were knocked askew and looked as if they’d be just thrown on. I was distracted by the man in a dark suit, standing beside him, looming over him, and as soon as my door was open, the stranger leaned in, palm flattening on my door. Another man, depressed identically, moved to stand behind them.

My eyes took them in, heart rate climbing as I read the warning, the plea in Rocky’s eyes. Fury, fear, frustration all boomed in my belly.

“They know you took the meds, Justine.”

I blinked, adrenaline coursing through my veins. “Wait, what?”

Rocky cleared his throat. “The medicine you stole for the kids. They know it was you.”

I stared at him, incredulous. “Rocky, you think these people are with the police? Look at them! Do you think they send them out here for petty crimes like that?”

Rocky quivered, his eyes anxiously jumping from me to the palm on my door and back again. “I’m sorry, Justine. I have to protect the kids.”

“And you’ve done a wonderful job, Mr. Rockford. You can go now.”

Rocky hesitated. “Justine, I—”

“Go Rocky,” I snarled. He had to go. He had to go now, to protect the kids, to protect himself. Even if he was too stupid to realize he must’ve gotten involved in something bigger than himself. Bigger than me.

In my chest, that warning blazed, hotter and heavier than before. Run, it begged. Run far. I braced my legs for what would come the moment we were alone.

I listened to Rocky’s hurried footsteps, to the slam of his door. I heard the chain of his extra lock slide across the fixture. I frowned up into the face of the suited man. “What happens now?”

“You have to come with us, down to the station, ma’am.”

“Drop the act. I know we aren't going anywhere like a police station. Might as well tell me the truth.” I grunted a little as the handcuffs pinched my skin, flinching as I remembered the scars on Nephesh’s wrists. He’d endured enough. I could manage this.

Besides, it allowed me to press my thumb against the name tattooed in dark ink across my wrist. Hunching forward, I whispered, “Nephesh, please, they’re here.”

Nervous about what they might’ve heard, I chattered on. “Do I have time to get my bag? You really don’t want to have to deal with me without my skincare routine, I will be looking rough in like two days. So if I could just have a moment to grab that.”

“Shut up. For God’s sake.”

I didn’t stop, letting my words fall fast and furious, half of it nonsense. But it was better than letting them see the way my body trembled in fear. The men ignored my chattering as they shoved me down the hallway, my shoelaces causing me to stumble as we passed Rocky’s closed door.

When I recovered, I hissed at them, surprising the one on my right enough that he stepped back from me. I saw it then, the hesitation, the fear that flashed across his face.

“You’re not after me, are you?”

“Move,” the other one barked.

I grunted in my most Nephesh-ish way, letting them shuffle me forward once more, my mind whirling with the possibilities. What were they doing here? That feeling that I’d had, the one that had followed me the way I’d always believed I was cursed. It had been a warning. One I hadn’t taken enough into account this time.

And now they had me. But something told me there was more to this. If Nephesh had been there, this wouldn’t be happening. Was it possible they knew about him? They had to have. Something in the timing was too coincidental.