Rage and Ruin(69)

“I see it.” Zayne moved his finger over the outlines. “Same lines.”

“But that’s not all.” Danika reached for the rolled paper closest to her. “Gideon was able to get the remodeling plans for the school.”

“It was the name of the construction company,” he explained, lifting the top sheet and pulling the bottom one out. “I was able to hack into their servers in like ten seconds flat, and this is what I found.” He grinned at Danika. “Want to do the honors?”

She unrolled the paper, spreading it out over the senator’s plans for the mysterious school. I saw the company’s name scrawled across the top. “Tell me the first thing you notice.”

I squinted, trying to focus on the blurry squares and lines.

“It’s the same damn plans,” uttered Zayne. “Look here, Trin.” He drew his finger along a rectangular shape. “That’s the cafeteria and these are the classrooms.” He continued to point out the areas. “It’s Layla’s old school.”

“That’s not all,” Danika said, lifting her brows at Gideon.

“So, when I first looked up the company Bar Rhinge and Sons, I couldn’t find much on it except a cheap website with a rather questionable portfolio and contact info. Nothing online about the owners, but I did some quick digging and found the name the company is registered under.”

“Natashya Fisher.” Danika pushed off the desk. “As in Senator Fisher’s late wife.”

“Obviously finding that these renovation plans match the senator’s tells us that the senator is connected to the school, but that’s further confirmation.”

I stared at the name of the company, and I don’t know why it stood out then or what made me see it, but it was like the words scrambled in front of me and I saw it. “Holy crap. The name of the company. Bar Rhinge. Maybe I’m seeing things, but don’t those letters also spell Harbinger?”

“What?” Danika looked down and then she jerked. “Hell...” Grabbing a piece of paper and pencil out of the desk, she wrote down the company’s name and then Harbinger under it. She quickly connected the letters. “You’re right.”

“It’s an anagram.” Zayne huffed out a laugh. “Good catch, Trin.”

Cheeks flushing, I shrugged. “I mean, we already know they’re all connected, so not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal. It’s more proof that we’re onto something,” he said.

“He’s right,” Gideon agreed. “I should’ve seen that. It’s kind of obvious once you do.”

“Can’t always be the nerdiest in the room,” Danika remarked.

“I disagree.” Gideon picked up the other roll of paper and unrolled it on top of the plans. “This whole thing got me thinking—what in the Hell is going on with that school? Before this, we had too much demon activity there. It’s the same place the Lilin was created. Now the senator will be ‘renovating’ it, and it’s full of trapped ghosts and spirits plus has tunnels running near it or under it with angelic wards. There’s no way all of that can be a coincidence.”

“It has to be the Hellmouth,” I murmured, staring at the paper he’d laid down. All I saw was hundreds of lines, some bolder than the others.

“It’s not a Hellmouth, but it’s definitely something.” Gideon walked around to stand by Danika. “What you’re looking at is a map of ley lines—intangible lines of energy. They’re in alignment all over the world with significant landmarks or religious sites. Humans think it’s a pseudoscience, but it’s real. These lines are straight navigational points that connect areas across the world.”

“I’ve heard of them.” Zayne’s brows knitted. “On a show where people investigate fake hauntings.”

“Hey.” I shot him a look. “How do you know they’re fake?”

Zayne grinned.

“A lot of strange things occur along ley lines. Major historical events in the human world, places where people claim to experience more spirit activity,” Danika chimed in. “Areas where Wardens would often find larger-than-normal demon populations.

“Often incantations or spells are more powerful and therefore successful along the ley lines. They indicate powerful, charged areas,” Gideon continued. “And this one here?” He drew his finger over a thicker red line and then stopped over a red dot. “This is the same ley line that connects from Stonehenge, all the way to Easter Island...and this dot?” He tapped his finger. “This is a hub, and it’s not only around Washington, DC, but nearly on top of the area where Heights on the Hill is.”

Holy crap.

“That could be why the Harbinger is interested in this school,” Zayne said, looking at me. “It’s not a random location.”

“Would make sense if whatever he’s planning is going to require a whole lot of the heavenly, spiritual variety of energy. That kind of power, wielded by someone who knows how to control it, could turn a balled-up piece of paper into an atomic bomb, and that makes damn near anything possible.”





32


“You really suck at folding clothes,” Peanut pointed out from where he was floating near the ceiling.

“Thanks,” I muttered, wondering how I’d fit all these clothes in the luggage in the first place. I glanced up at Peanut. “What are you doing up there?”

“Mediating.”

“Sounds legit.” I folded a tank top as my mind slowly but surely circled back to what I’d been trying to not think about since Zayne had left the apartment.

What was he doing with Stacey? Were they having another ice cream social? Catching a movie, or going to that steak house he’d taken me to?

I shook my head as I shoved the tank into the luggage. It didn’t matter, and this was for the best. He deserved to have some sort of life outside of being my Protector, with whomever he chose. Eventually the ache in my chest would fade, and I would come to look at Zayne as nothing more than my Protector or my friend. Maybe then I’d even find someone to...to pass the time with.

If we lived long enough.

What we’d found out today was a big deal, but it had also created more questions than answers and I couldn’t shake the feeling we were missing something.

Something huge.

We still didn’t know what the Harbinger planned to do at the school, how the plan involved the trapped spirits and why he not only had angel blades but had been able to use an angelic ward to trap the spirits. Something didn’t make sense, because even if his angelic father was daddy of the year, why would an archangel teach a Trueborn angel wards? I didn’t have an answer to that.

Meanwhile, Zayne was probably eating ice cream and Twizzlers.

I snatched up a pair of jeans, material jerking as I folded it.

“What did those jeans ever do to you?” Peanut drifted down beside me.

“They exist.”

“Someone is in a bad mood.”

I lifted a shoulder.

“Where’s Zayne?”

“Out.”

“Why aren’t you with him?”

“Because I need to pack,” I told him, not wanting to get into the whole thing.

“It’ll probably take him ten minutes to pack,” he said, glancing at the closet. “He’s that organized.”

I said nothing.

“And you are the most unorganized thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

I gave him a look that promised certain death. Probably would’ve worked if he wasn’t already dead.

He grinned at me, and with his head more transparent than solid, he looked like a creepy jack-o’-lantern.

I missed Halloween.

“You know, I followed Zayne to the new apartment yesterday. He stopped there before he came up here.”

I hadn’t known that, but it explained where he’d been after I’d Ubered my way back to the apartment. “What does the place look like?”

“Nice. Two bedrooms. Two baths. Kitchen and living area is the same.” He crossed his legs as he lowered to the floor. “It’s actually the apartment sort of below this one.”

“Cool.” I was only half-jealous that Peanut had seen the new place and I hadn’t. “I guess the movers are showing up tomorrow to get the couch and stuff. They’ll take the bed last.”

“Really?” he drew the word out. “Then where will Zayne sleep?”

Good question. My stomach took a tumble, even though I knew it wasn’t going to be with me. “I don’t know. Maybe he’ll stay in the new place.”

“That would be lonely.”

I shrugged.

“The new place is kind of like Gena’s, but she has three bedrooms and a den,” he said. “But I don’t think anyone goes in the den.”

Gena.

Dang it, I’d forgotten about that girl again. “Tell me about her,” I said as I folded another shirt.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

I glanced at him. “You could tell me how you met her.”

“Well, I was floating in and out of apartments, checking out people, seeing how the cool live.”

My nose wrinkled.

“And I was in her kitchen, staring at the magnets they have on the fridge—and by the way, you all could use some magnets—and she saw me and said hi.”