Rage and Ruin (The Harbinger 2)

“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.”

“It didn’t freak you out that she could see you?”

“Did it freak me out when I knew you could see me?”

I lowered the shirt I’d picked up. “Uh, yes. You screamed like a banshee.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Peanut giggled. “I did.”

Shaking my head, I balled up the shirt and tossed it into the luggage. “So, which apartment is she in?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because I’d like to meet her.”

“I don’t want you to meet her.”

“What?” I was sort of offended.

“Because you’d probably freak her out, and she’s got enough to deal with.”

I leaned against the foot of the bed. “What does she have to deal with? Homework and parents?”

“You have no idea.”

My gaze sharpened on him. “Then tell me.”

“Things are...complicated with her and her family.” He flopped onto his back and sank halfway through the floor. “And that’s all I can say.”

I frowned down at him. “Why can’t you say more?”

“Because I promised the little dudette that I wouldn’t talk to anyone about that stuff,” he said. “And I keep my promises.”

“But I’m not just anyone,” I reasoned. “I’m—Dammit!”

Peanut had sunk completely through the floor, and I knew he wasn’t coming back for a while.

The fact he wouldn’t tell me anything about the girl or her family was concerning. I re-added finding out more about her to the list for the third time, worried that either something bad was happening to her, or she was doing something she shouldn’t be.

* * *

The moment I heard the front door open, I sprang off the bed. It was late. Like night had fallen kind of late. I hadn’t expected Zayne to be gone this long.

Moving around the suitcase I’d finally managed to pack, with the exception of clothes for the next couple days, I told myself not to go out there, because it would look like I’d been waiting for him. Which I had been.

I curled my fingers around the cool door knob.

But I had questions.

Like, what had they done? Did they share a romantic candlelight dinner between friends? Did they catch a movie afterward, or go for a walk? Or back to Stacey’s place? Because it was close to eleven, so there was no way they just ate dinner. Did they spend hours catching up or making out? I hadn’t felt anything...weird through the bond, but that didn’t mean anything, since distance weakened it. And even though Zayne insisted they were only friends, Stacey was really pretty, and they had hooked up in the past. There was some level of attraction there, physical and emotional, and Zayne hadn’t...

He couldn’t be with me.

He probably didn’t even want to be with me now.

My stomach twisted in knots. I needed to play it cool. I told myself that as I whipped open the bedroom door so hard that I nearly pulled it off its hinges.

So much for playing it cool.

My narrow vision swept over the living room, stopping on the blurry form of Zayne. He was standing behind the couch as if he’d stopped there abruptly.