Instead, I quell the burst of disconcertion, sit back, and cross my arms under my breasts.

“I don’t need to defend my existence or my friendship with Fee to you.”

He’s looking right through me, right into me. “No. No, I don’t suppose you do.” Leanna returns with his tea and a complimentary slice of cake.

Traitor.

Elijah graces her with a smile, and I swear the horny bitch is probably calculating how fast she can get him into bed.

She leaves us with a wink, and Elijah makes his tea with a cool precision that’s almost hypnotic. I realize I’m staring when he raises his brows and spears me with a questioning look.

“If you’re done making your tea…”

He takes a small sip and sets his cup down. “It would take a vast amount of energy to create a tulpa such as yourself. And if someone has created several—”

“The hooded figures aren’t like me.”

“No?”

“They’re…empty. Almost as if someone’s looking through them.”

He pouts and nods. “Right. Puppets. Not fully formed and yet manifested. That in itself takes immense control. I’m afraid I don’t know of any witch or warlock capable of such a feat.”

But the wisp of a secret crosses his features. He’s hiding something from me.

Nope, not having that shit. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He sucks on his bottom lip contemplatively.

I lean forward, hands braced on the table. “There are killer tulpas in the city. This isn’t the time to be fucking coy, okay. Right now, they’re after my friend, but who the fuck knows what the bigger agenda is? We need to catch the bastard controlling them and find out what the hell he’s up to before this slow-burn situation blows up in our faces.”

“If you want me to be candid, you need to stop holding back information. Tell me about your friend. She’s a witch.”

Fuck. Of course, if he knew what I was, he’d be able to figure out what Fee was. Two choices and only one can get me the answers I need.

“She was a witch, but she somehow passed her powers on to me when she created me. The consensus is that being part Loup and part demon was too much for her body, and so when she created me in her grief, her witch abilities passed into me.”

“And her coven?”

“She never had one. Her mother was a witch who lived as a human and married a human. They were both killed in a fire when she was a baby. Her biological father is a Loup. She was raised as a human in a foster home and later adopted. She only recently discovered her true nature.”

Elijah sits back with a thud, and his face goes through several expressions as if practicing them. For a moment, I think he’s having a fit, but then he picks up his cup as calm as can be and takes a deep sip.

“Um…are you all right?”

“Peachy,” he says.

Peachy? Who in the hell says peachy?

“So, this fire…” He cuts into his cake with his fork. “How long ago was it?”

“Why does that matter?”

“It doesn’t. I’m just curious.” He pops a forkful of cake into his mouth, and for a moment, I’m mesmerized by the way his lips close over the utensil and—

Whoa, what the fuck? “Twenty-three years or maybe twenty-four. I’m not sure. She was a toddler at the time.”

“And she survived.”

I sigh. “She had help, okay. Look, the rest isn’t pertinent to our case.”

He inclines his head. “I’ll do some more digging and get back to you. Maybe next time we can meet on my home turf?”

“And where might that be?”

“Up north slightly. I’ll pay your travel costs, of course.”

Weirdo. “No need. I can jump there.”

“Jump?” His frown relaxes. “As in teleport.”

“Whatever. Look, you get me answers, and I’ll meet you wherever the fuck you want.”

“In that case, Coraline, I’ll be in touch. Soon.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Fee

This was the first flight by myself, and I made it without a hitch. I was born to fly, and even though I didn’t trust Lilith, I couldn’t help but be grateful for her gift. I was here, at the reception to the Beyond, and I’d come alone.

It felt so fucking good to have the autonomy.

“Hello, Seraphina Dawn,” Celestia, the Beyond’s equivalent of Alexa, said coolly.

She was stationed behind the neat white counter that sat in the gorgeous forest around us. The forest that was merely a beautiful simulation, because this was the Beyond’s reception area. Yeah, I was still wrapping my head around the way this place operated.

“Please make your deposit,” she said, face devoid of all emotion. She didn’t even look my way, but then I wasn’t sure she could see in the traditional sense.

“No small talk today, then?”

“What would you wish to talk about?” she asked.

“Anything you want.”

Silence.

O-kay, I guess she didn’t want anything.

A white pillar rose from the ground a few feet from the counter, and I pressed my scythe blade to it, marveling in the glow as the souls my reapers had collected were drawn into it. I’d asked Uriel what happened to these souls what seemed like a lifetime ago, and he hadn’t answered, but Dayna had. These souls would be recycled. Reborn. It felt good to know that they’d be given a second chance at life.

The pillar slid back into the ground, and I approached the counter. “Let’s skip the small talk then, Celestia. Can you get Uriel for me, please?”

Her blank metallic gaze flickered. “There is no celestial by that name.”

“Huh?” Maybe I needed to be more specific. “Uriel, Grigori, lower circle celestial?”

Her eyes flickered again. “There is no celestial by that name.”

A prickle of apprehension tightened my scalp. “Uriel. You know him. You introduced him last time I was here. Come on.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that. Will there be anything else?”

This was fucked, and she was acting slightly more mechanical than she had last time. Like hell was I leaving without sorting this out. There was a glitch in the system.

“Celestia, there seems to be an error. I know Uriel exists. I’ve met him. There’s a glitch in your systems.”

“No, Seraphina Dawn, there is no error. There is no record of the existence of a Uriel Grigori, lower-class celestial, in the history of the Beyond.”

I stared at her, trying to wrap my mind around what I was hearing. “You’ve made a mistake.”

“I do not make mistakes, Seraphina Dawn.”

Fuck that. This was insane. “Celestia, I want to speak to a real celestial. Now. It’s urgent.”

Her eyes flickered. “You wish to log a distress call?”

I had no idea what that was, but Uriel had somehow been wiped from the Beyond’s database, and panic was a bubble in my chest.

“Yes. Log the distress call.”

“Please stand by.”

Long minutes passed as I paced back and forth across the foyer. The cool, crisp forest around me did nothing to soothe my nerves. In fact, it irritated me with its faux promise of refuge.

The air to the left of the counter shimmered, and then a figure stepped through. He was dressed in a sleeveless armored top and black leather-like trousers with kneepads. He was huge, muscular, and imposing. Dark brows pinched in annoyance as he bore down on me.

“Cassiel, Dominion upper circle celestial,” Celestia said.

“You logged a distress call?” Cassiel glared at me, his expression like thunder, his voice like a rolling storm. “Do you even know what that is?”

“No. But I need to speak to someone other than your automated service.”

His eyes narrowed. “What could you possibly be distressed about. You have one job to do. One.”

He had no fucking idea, and he was getting on my nerves. “You obviously have no clue what a reaper’s job entails. For your information, this is one job of many.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “But I’m not here to argue. Your system is glitching, and you might want to get it looked at.”

“Celestia is infallible.”

“Really? Then how come she seems to have lost all record of a celestial’s existence.”

Cassiel went still for a long second, and then he sighed. “What is the celestial’s name?”

“Uriel. He’s a Grigori.”

“Celestia, search for Uriel, Grigori,” Cassiel said.

“There is no record of a Uriel Grigori.”

Cassiel gave me a flat look. “You heard her.”

Was he serious? “But, she’s wrong.”

“Celestia isn’t wrong.” He advanced. “Go back to the Underealm, reaper, and forget about your fictional celestial.”

I stood my ground. “You don’t intimidate me.”

“Then you’re a fool. I could crush you with a thought.”

“Maybe you could, but Uriel is my friend, and I’m not leaving here without seeing him.” The bubble of panic pressed against my ribcage. “What have you done to him?”

Cassiel grabbed my arm and hauled me away from the counter. “Your friend no longer exists,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “I’m sorry.” He released me by the thin spot that would lead me out of the Beyond. “You need to forget about him. If he is no longer in Celestia’s database, then he’s gone.”

Gone? “Gone where?”

His expression was almost pitying. “Goodbye, little reaper.”

And then he shoved me out of the Beyond.

“He shoved you?” Mal asked for the third time. “He fucking put his hands on you?”

His lip curled. “Cassiel, you say? Next time I’m up there, I’ll log a distress call and shove my fist in his fucking face.”