“This is the...what—third demon that’s come for you? Have there been more?”
“It’s only been the Ghouls, the ones from the other night and this dork,” I told him, thinking it was probably best not to mention that two out of three times I left the house I’d had a run-in with a demon looking for me.
“Why isn’t Dez with you?”
“The Crone told me that a Warden or demon’s energy could mess with the spell.” I started to reach for my phone. “I should call him. Share the good news.”
“We can do that later. Right now I want to get you home.”
Home.
The new apartment that Zayne had barely spent any time in, where he’d placed glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling for me. Home. My chest squeezed. Before it was just walls and a roof with my clothing still half-packed away in luggage. The stars had made it feel more, but it wasn’t until now that it felt like a home.
Before I turned into a weepy mess all over again, I got my mind back on track. “Gabriel obviously knows where I am. He’ll come again.”
“But you won’t be alone then,” he said, and my heart turned into a gooey mess. “We may have to figure out somewhere else to stay if it becomes too much of a problem.”
I nodded. “The Transfiguration—wait, you weren’t there for that part of his extremely long-winded speech on how he plans to end everything.”
“I know about it.” He took my hand, and the feel of his palm firmly against mine was a wonderful feeling. “I’ve been filled in on a few things, the Transfiguration being one of them. He plans to open a rift between Earth and Heaven so that the demon Bael along with souls that belong to Hell can enter Heaven.”
My brows rose. “You really have been updated. Was it the Alphas? God. I still can’t believe you were actually in Heaven—the Heaven.” My eyes got wide, and I stopped walking. “What was it like? Is it just fluffy white clouds and angels chilling and doing nothing? Souls roaming around, having everything they could ever want? Or does it look like this place? But with angels and souls? I’ve asked so many spirits, but none of them will tell me—” My heart skipped a beat. “Oh my God, did you see your father?”
A grin played across his lips as he stared down at me and I...
I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I was jumping on him.
Zayne caught me as I wrapped my arms around his neck, and this time, he kept his footing. My legs clamped down on his hips, and there was no way he was shaking me off. Not that he tried. His arms immediately swept over me, and he held me just as tight as I clung to him.
Raw emotion crashed through me as it hit me once more that Zayne was alive and it was him, a little bit different but him. Tears pricked at my eyes. “I’m sorry. Okay, I’m not sorry. I just needed a hug.”
His chin grazed the top of my head. “This has to be my favorite kind of hug.”
“Mine, too,” I said, voice muffled. “I just... I can’t believe you’re really here.” My heart pounded and my stomach got into the mix, jumping all over the place. I wanted to laugh and cry, be silent and contemplative and yet scream as loud as I could. I felt like I was coming out of my skin.
“If you need to remind yourself that I’m really here, please feel free to jump on me. I won’t mind,” he said. “I’ll catch you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Why do you always have to say such perfect things?”
“I don’t always say the right things,” he denied. “You know that more than anyone else.”
“I do,” I told him. “That’s why I know what you say is usually just perfect. I’m an expert in these things.”
“I probably shouldn’t argue with you, then,” he said, his voice thicker, rougher with what he’d lacked before. Emotion.
“Yep.” I squeezed him with my arms and legs, and for just a few moments, I let reality soak its way in. I’d helped him find his way back to me, just as he promised, and even though he came back...different, it was him. There was a whole lot of bad stuff we still needed to face, but with him by my side, there was more than just a chance that we’d defeat Gabriel. There was hope. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. He was the silver lining, and this moment was proof that miracles were possible. There was a future beyond all of this.
Pulling myself together, I slowly disentangled myself. Once I was on my two feet and ninety-nine percent confident that I wasn’t going to launch myself at him again, I said, “Okay. I need to focus. I am focused. You can answer all of the questions about Heaven later, but back to what’s important. What did the angels tell you—?” I started walking again, pulling Zayne along with me until I stopped. “Where am I walking to, by the way?”
“I figured we’d catch a ride, since I’d rather speak to Nic before I take to the air,” he reasoned, and I wholeheartedly agreed with that. “I can get high enough that humans can’t tell my wings aren’t like a Warden’s, but I want to make sure none of the Wardens think I’m going to kill them.”
The Wardens.
He’d said that like he was no longer one of them, and he wasn’t. Obviously. I already knew that, but it was still a shock to the system.
“Good call,” I murmured, and then got back on track as we started walking down the path. “Is it possible? What Gabriel claimed? That Bael and the souls would infect Heaven and that God would close the gates?”
“Yes, which basically means any human that dies would no longer be able to enter Heaven. All the souls would be trapped on Earth, either becoming wraiths or tortured by demons,” Zayne finished with a sigh. “With the spheres of Heaven closed off, demons would have no reason to stay hidden. Earth would become Hell, and parts of Heaven would be lost. What Gabriel plans is possible.”
“I was kind of hoping he was just delusional.”
“Unfortunately not,” he said. “Some of the Alphas and other angels already want to close up shop.”
“The Throne said as much.” I wondered if my father was one of them as my gaze swept over the dense, shapeless tree line. Anger flashed through me. What had become of Gabriel couldn’t have been such a complete shock to the other archangels. He had to have showed signs of being out of control, with homicidal, world-destroying tendencies. That kind of stuff didn’t just appear out of the blue. None of them had done anything. My own father hadn’t even told me that Gabriel was the Harbinger, let alone remotely prepared me to come face-to-face with an archangel.
Angels were virtually useless.
Well, except that Throne. He’d been helpful. I peeked over at Zayne, who was technically an angel but not. He wasn’t useless, but any number of the angels, from the lowest class all the way up to the archangels, could’ve done something other than standing by, playing Animal Crossing or whatever it was that angels did in all their spare time.