Page 26 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

Judge shrugged, appearing more human than he had so far. “Only partially.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good. You do that.” Judge cleared his throat, moving quickly out of the alleyway and into the bright daylight of the sun. Instead of flinching like I did, the man tilted his head back, his face turned up to the heat of the rays, and he sucked in mouthful after mouthful of the fresh air. I couldn’t stop the smile that curled my lips.

“The sun feel good?”

“It does,” Judge admitted. “I’ve missed it.”

“No sun in the pits of Hell?”

One eye opened to glare down at me, but one side of his lips curled. “Not exactly.”

I’d started to ask him to elaborate, when I noticed the Uber driver across the street was giving us an odd look. “Uh, yeah, Judge, we should probably get going.”

Judge sighed loudly then offered me an elbow, as if we weren’t wearing athleisure in the middle of a midwestern downtown center. It was something people did walking the red carpet or in medieval times.

Not here, and definitely not me.

Which somehow made it so much better. I grinned at him, which surprised him, and then poked my hand through to grip the smooth flex of his forearm. Judge looked forward again, his muscles tensing beneath my touch.

I didn’t know why, but I ran my fingers over the forearm I gripped. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.”

“Do you truly mind coming along?”

“I truly don’t.”

“If it is my choice, then we are going to visit an old friend.”

“Do you have friends?”

He grunted but followed as I stepped off into the sunlight once more. It was a beautiful day today, the crisp fall weather making it easy to convince myself that I was holding on to Judge because of the chill, not because he felt so damn good. But all too soon, we’d turned into a very old, slightly dilapidated-looking graveyard.

“You wanted to come to a graveyard?”

“This is—” Judge’s throat worked “—where my friend’s body is. Her family erected a stone in her honor. I’ve always wanted to see it.”

“Oh.” I blinked rapidly, trying to catch up with the wealth of knowledge he’d just dropped onto me. Judge had friends—human friends, by the look of it. And one of them had died. “Do you know where? What’s her name?”

We had stopped at one row, and I could feel the tension radiating off Judge as we looked around. “Her name was Anna Stuart.”

Something hung in the air between us, pressing down on my chest as I stared at the demon. He swallowed, a strange, wistful look appearing on his face. “And she was my soul mate.”

***

Nephesh

It had been the wrong to say, seeing as I could actually feel the hurt that came racing through the bond between Justine and me. Her hand, which had been tucked in my elbow, dropped, swinging slightly by her side.

“Oh, of course. You said Stuart?” She turned stiffly and marched off down a row.

Groaning, I trekked after her, hoping to both find Anna’s monument and to remedy the situation I’d just caused with Justine. “Wait, Justine.”

But she was insistent, marching up and down the rows, her face turned down to the grave markers as she moved.

“Stuart, Stuart, Stuart,” Justine was chanting. She stopped suddenly at the edge of the plot, her head cocking as she stared down at the last two markers. My heart thudded in my chest. I didn’t need to ask her. Every inch of her body screamed that she’d found what we were looking for. Moving to her side, I let my knees fold. The earth under them was cold, damp, but I didn’t mind. Because for the first time in fifty years, I was close to the living body of my best friend.

“Judge, I’m so sorry. Did you want me to go? I can wait over there.”