Released (The Eternal Balance #3)(23)

I snagged a map of the park and stepped off the path to plan our route. Get in and get out, fast as possible. “Looks like the Haunted House isn’t far from here. We need to figure out what to do when we find this girl.”

Azi blinked, and Jax’s gray eyes took on a bewildered look. “The plan is to acquire the stone. What is left to figure out?”

I folded the map and stuffed it into my back pocket. Jax and Azi shared at least one annoying trait. Both lacked subtlety. “I find it hard to believe that this girl is walking around with the damn thing sitting on top of gum wrappers and loose change in the bottom of her purse. She’s going to have to tell us where it is, and she might not want to do that.”

The demon let out a laugh. “Might not want to tell us? You’re concerned about the wishes of a puny human girl?”

“Hey!” I punched Jax’s arm. Hard. All I succeeded in doing was nearly breaking my knuckles.

“The girl will have no choice.”

“Yeah.” I folded my arms and glanced around to make sure we weren’t attracting any attention. Someone listening in on the conversation might get the wrong idea, because to me it sounded like we were planning an abduction—which is probably just what the demon had in mind. “When I said I had no intention of letting you muck up Jax’s future by getting him into trouble, I wasn’t joking. You’re not going in there and terrorizing some innocent girl.”

“Innocent?” it boomed, attracting the attention of a family of four to our right. “That stone belongs to me. She is not innocent.”

I grabbed Jax’s arm and dragged him to the side. “You have no idea how she ended up with the thing in the first place.”

“She stole it.”

“You don’t know that!”

“Another possibility is…?”

“She could have found it.”

“Lying on the floor?” It flashed me a pitying frown. “Either you are stupid or in denial.”

I grabbed Jax’s shoulders and spun the demon back toward the path before the urge to hit it overwhelmed me. “Let’s get moving.”

We wove through the crowd, and when we finally found the Haunted House, there was no line to get in. A guy in impressive zombie makeup, flanked by someone wearing a black robe and dark hood, lingered at the entrance, and when we approached, the zombie shambled toward us with a groan.

“Uuuuuuuuh,” he moaned, chomping his teeth at me. “Braaaaaains.”

A putrid scent filled the air as he came close. I nudged him away and waved a hand in front of my face in an attempt to disperse the stink. “Dude. Haven’t you ever seen an episode of The Walking Dead? Zombies don’t talk—but you have the smell down perfectly.”

“Back away.” Azi stepped between us. “Or I will show you true hell.”

The guy dropped his charade and scowled at us. “I’m doing my job, man. Relax.”

With a roll of my eyes, I tugged Azi through the door and left the two greeters to their job. “I told you, let me do the talking. That means all of it. Just stand there…” I gave Jax’s body a once-over and swallowed back a spike of heat. “Just stand there and look pretty.”

If it was insulted, I couldn’t tell—partially because three steps inside, the lights began flashing. There was a loud clanking sound, followed by maniacal laughter, and a gate slammed down behind us, covering the entrance. We were officially trapped.

“Cute,” I muttered and tamped down the lump forming in my throat. “Real cute.”

I made a move to step farther into the room, but Azi stopped me. “He tells me not to allow you to go inside.”

I’d never been thrilled by haunted houses. “Never been thrilled” translated into “was scared shitless by.” Kelly had forced me into several of them when I was a kid, insisting that they’d “make me tough.” I hadn’t had the courage to tell her she was doing more harm than good. After watching my parents murdered by monsters, the horror genre in general kept me up at night. Haunted houses were my younger self’s version of hell.

It wasn’t her fault, though. I’d never told a living soul what I’d seen that night. The only one who knew the truth was Jax—and that was only because the archangel Michael showed it to him. As much as I loved Jax, as much as I wanted to share every part of myself with him, I never saw myself reliving that horrible night. Not even for him.

I shrugged it off and took a deep breath to chase away the slight tremble. “It’s fine. I’m good. Let’s just get this over with.”

Azi nodded, and it was a testament to how little control Jax had in there. He’d been with me one of the times Kelly had forced me into participating in a Halloween carnival. Jax swore he’d never let me walk through another one of these things again after he heard me screaming at night from the next house over, as nightmares plagued me for weeks.

I kept my eyes peeled as we moved forward. There was no way to know exactly what we were looking for. We couldn’t ask for the girl because we didn’t know her name, and I’d only gotten quick glimpses, just enough to know what general area to look. I’d heard her voice but had never gotten a good look at her face.

An echoing cackle split the air, and my hair fluttered as something moved in front of us. Azi dragged me behind Jax’s body and struck out. There was a muffled yelp as the demon dragged a guy dressed as Jason from the Friday the 13th movies from the shadows. “Where is the girl?”