I slammed his head back down. “Tell me what you did to him!”
“He was chosen.” He laughed, chilling me to my very core. “The Harbinger is finally here, and there’s no stopping what is coming. Rivers will run red. End times, baby, and there’s no way you can stop the Harbinger. You’re going to be a part of it all.”
I opened my mouth, but the demon suddenly moved. Not to roll me off or to attack. He gripped the wrist of my hand that held the dagger to his heart, and then he thrust up as he pulled me down.
Impaling himself.
“What the—” I shouted, jumping up and stumbling back as flames spilled from the hole in his chest and licked over his body.
Within seconds, he was nothing more than a scorch mark on the roof.
I looked at my dagger, then at the spot, and then back to my dagger. “What in the ever loving—”
The warm ball in my chest next to my heart pulsed, and a moment later, a ginormous thing dropped out of the sky and landed nimbly on the ledge like a Trinity-seeking missile of pissed-off-ness.
Oh, crap.
The Warden rose to his full height. Wings fanned out as wide as the body was tall and then some. Under the silvery moonlight, golden hair stirred between two proud, thick horns.
Zayne was a fearsome sight as he stepped onto the roof and stalked toward me, chin dipped low. Some people might think Wardens in their true form were grotesque, but not me. I thought he was beautiful in a raw, primitive way, like a coiling cobra moments before it struck.
In Warden form, Zayne’s skin was slate gray, and those two horns could puncture steel and stone, as could those wickedly sharp claws, and I thought for probably the hundredth time that it was a damn good thing Wardens were on Team Good.
As he drew closer, I realized his fangs were out. Those things were enormous, and I knew him well enough to know that they meant he was very, very angry. But even if I hadn’t seen his fangs, I’d have known. I could feel his anger right next to my heart. It felt like how cold medicine smelled, and it was further confirmation that this bond was a two-way street, feeding feelings to each other.
Slowly, I sheathed my daggers and then clasped my hands. A few seconds passed, and then I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “Do you know I love fireworks?”
Wow. That was random, even for me.
“This would be an amazing place to view them,” I tacked on. “Wish I’d known about this building before the Fourth of July.”
Zayne ignored that. “You’re not where I left you.”
I glanced around the empty rooftop. “I’m not.”
“What part of ‘stay where you are’ wasn’t clear?”
“The part where you thought I’d actually listen to you?” I suggested.
Zayne stopped a few feet from me. “Trin—”
“Don’t.” I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “You left me.”
“I left you for a handful of minutes so that I could see who this demon was before involving you. That’s my job—”
“Your job is not to leave me on the sidewalk like a dog that can’t go into a restaurant.”
“What?” Wind caught his shoulder-length golden hair, tossing several strands over his horns. “A dog—”
“You left me behind, and I get that this whole Protector thing is new to you, but leaving me behind—”
“Is apparently not the smart thing to do, because when I turn my back on you for five minutes, you end up on a rooftop several blocks away from where I left you,” he interrupted. “How did you even get up here? Better yet, why are you up here?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I ran and jumped.”
“Really?” he replied dryly, tucking his wings back.
“Onto a fire escape,” I added. “No one saw me, and I’m here—”
“What in the Hell?” Zayne was suddenly next to me, staring down at the scorched patch of cement. Very slowly, he lifted his head. “Please tell me you did not follow a demon up here.”
“I hate that you asked so nicely when I’m going to have to tell you what you don’t want to hear.”
“Trinity.” He angled his body toward me. “You engaged with a demon?”
“Yes, just like you ran off to do,” I pointed out. “I spotted him while I was waiting for you, and since I thought it was probably a big deal that two Upper Level demons were in the same area that Bael had been in, I decided it would be smart of me to see what was up.”
He opened his mouth.
“You know damn well I can take care of myself. You said so yourself. Or was that a lie?” I cut him off before he could say something that would remind me I’d planned to throat punch him. “I’m a fighter. This is what I was trained for, and you know I can defend myself, with or without you. Just like I know you can defend yourself without me. You don’t put me on the sidelines, because not only is that not cool, it’s a waste of time. I will not stay there.”
Zayne’s chin lifted and a long, terse moment passed. “You’re right.”
Surprise shuttled through me. “I know I am.”
“But you’re also wrong.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“What I said earlier stands. I don’t doubt your ability to defend yourself. I’ve seen you in action. Asking you to stay behind while I checked out the demon wasn’t about me putting you in a timeout because I thought you couldn’t handle yourself.”
“Then what was it about?”
“It was about what happened with Misha,” he said, and I recoiled, actually taking a step back as my arms dropped to my side. “That,” Zayne said. “That right there. Your reaction. You just went through something horrible, Trin, and—”
“I’m fine.”
“Bullshit,” he snapped, and I swallowed the irrational urge to giggle that always accompanied him cussing. “You and I both know that’s not true, and that’s okay. No one in their right mind would expect you to be okay.”
But I had to be okay.
Didn’t he understand that? What had happened with Misha sucked donkey butt, but everything I felt surrounding that was filed and tucked away, and it was going to stay that way forever and a day. It had to be that way. I had a job to do, a duty to fulfill.
Zayne sighed. “I think it was pretty obvious I didn’t want to patrol tonight. That I thought we should stay in.” He paused. “But I also get why you want to be out here, doing something, so I relented.”
Irritation flared. “As my Protector, you don’t get to relent or not when it comes to—”
“As your friend I sure as Hell get to step in when I think something is a bad idea.” Zayne’s jaw hardened. “That’s what friends do, Trin. They don’t just let you do whatever the Hell you want, and if they do, then they’re not your friends.”
I thought of Jada. I knew that she would’ve suggested the same thing. Take some time. Deal with what happened and process it as best as I could.
But there really was no processing any of this.
Zayne’s wings twitched but remained tucked. “I wanted you to sit it out, because I thought it was a good idea for you to take it easy, because you had to end the life of someone you cared about deeply.”
I sucked in a sharp, scorching breath.
“And if you think that’s wrong, so be it. I’m sorry if I made you think I doubted you, but I am not sorry that I’m thinking of what you’ve been through.”
I swallowed hard, wanting to fire back at him, but...what he was saying made sense. Looking away, I gave a little shake of my head. “I’m ready to be out here.”
Zayne said nothing.
“I’m okay. I wasn’t distracted or in danger. Obviously.” I turned and promptly tripped over something, because, of course, God hated me. Catching myself, I lifted my gaze to Zayne.
He threw his arms up in frustration. “Seriously?”
I looked down and saw what happened to be a cable. “I didn’t see it. Whatever.” It was time to change the subject. “Did you find the demon?”
He muttered what sounded like a curse under his breath. “I tracked him, but he rounded a corner onto First Street and disappeared.”
First Street meant nothing to me.
Zayne must’ve sensed that, because he explained, “First Street can lead you toward several of the Senate buildings. Doesn’t mean that’s where the demon was heading. What happened here?”
I twisted at the waist and looked down at the charred patch. “Well, the demon sort of decided to end things himself.”
“Come again?” His head jerked in my direction, gray-tone lips pressed in a thin line.
“He impaled himself on my dagger.” I shrugged. “He was all smart mouth and threats until I got him on his back. I wanted to make him talk, you know? See if he knew anything about Bael or the Harbinger.”
“Make him talk?”
I nodded, deciding it was a good idea to keep to myself the fact I’d showed the demon what I was. “I’ve learned I can be very convincing.”
Zayne opened his mouth.
I rushed on. “Anyway, he wouldn’t tell me anything about Bael, but he knew him...and Misha.”
He moved closer as I returned to staring at the spot. “How can you be sure?”