I should be worried. There were Wardens out there who weren’t exactly comfortable with the idea of a Trueborn being around. A lot had to do with a history that was mostly forgotten, one that I hadn’t even known about until Thierry, the head of the Potomac Highlands clan who was more of a father to me than Michael was, told me. Apparently it had to do with a bonding and it led to a rebellion. A whole lot of Wardens were killed, bonds to the Wardens were severed and the Trueborns died off.
Until me.
And until Sulien.
But he was dead, so whatever, until me.
Dez pushed open the door, and I saw Nicolai first. The youngest clan leader sat behind the kind of desk Thierry often sat behind. He had a pretty impressive scar along his face, which only added to his air of badassery. The dark, glossy-haired female Warden standing next to him also took him up a level. Danika was like no female Warden I knew. I couldn’t even compare her to Jada, who was also bold. Danika simply didn’t play by the archaic rules surrounding the females, and the fact that Nicolai didn’t try to put her back in that gilded cage made me like him even more.
Gideon was also present, standing on the other side of Nicolai, his phone cradled in his palm. Zayne always referred to him as the resident tech expert while I thought of him as the resident hacker and jack-of-all-trades.
He eyed me as I walked forward, and I wondered if he was thinking about the time he was in here with Nicolai and Zayne, when he learned I could see ghosts. He’d thought I had watered-down angel blood in me. Based on the tiny step back he took, I believed he now knew I had a whole lot in me.
Shoulder-length brown hair fell back as Nicolai lifted his head. He started to speak, but Danika beat him to it.
Concern filled her voice as she straightened. “Are you injured, Trinity?”
Wishing I’d stopped to wipe the blood from my face, I shook my head. “It’s minor.”
“I can get my sister,” she offered, stepping away from the desk. “You have blood coming out of your ears. I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t seem minor.”
Crap.
I forgot about that, too.
“That’s not necessary.” I glanced at the chair and started to sit but remembered I was drenched. I’d already ruined enough upholstery today. “I’m fine.”
Danika looked like she wanted to argue. “If you’re sure.” She glanced at Gideon. “We were just on our way out—”
“It’s okay. You guys don’t have to leave.” I crossed my arms. “It’s probably best if you all hear this firsthand.”
“Does whatever you have to tell us explain why you look worse than the last time I saw you?” Nicolai asked.
My lips pursed. I thought I looked way improved from last time. Then again, I hadn’t seen my reflection. “It does.”
“Okay.” He nodded at the chair. “At least sit down. I don’t care if you get it wet.”
Murmuring my thanks, I sat down. The immediate relief that shuttled through me was an indication that Nicolai’s observation on my appearance probably wasn’t far off from reality. “I don’t know how to say this other than to just come out and say it,” I said as Dez took a position against the wall. “Zayne is alive.”
4
Everyone froze. I don’t think they breathed, and no one said anything for so long I was about to say it again when Dez finally snapped out of it.
“Trinity, he can’t be,” he said, voice soft and too gentle.
“Trust me, I know how it sounds, but he’s alive. I saw him. I talked to him. I felt him. He’s flesh and bone and winged,” I told them. “He’s alive, but he’s not exactly the same. He’s a fallen angel, still in possession of his wings and a whole lot of heavenly fire. Grace.”
Nicolai and Danika stared blankly at me, and I assumed both Dez and Gideon were doing the same.
“And he’s partly responsible for this.” I gestured at myself. “And the Throne that I ended up talking to after seeing Zayne is responsible for the bleeding ears.”
The phone slipped out of Gideon’s palm and hit the floor with a heavy thud.
“You probably want to leave that there since I’m just getting started,” I told him.
“Okay,” Gideon whispered.
“Zayne found me in Rock Creek Park, and he didn’t really recognize me. It was like he did and then he couldn’t, and he went all Fight Club on me. I managed to get away—well, I sort of cut him and ran away, and while I was running, I heard this voice in my head telling me to go to the church.”
Across from me, Nicolai blinked slowly.
Knowing how out there all of this sounded, I still forged forward. “That’s where I saw the Throne, and a bunch of creepy stone angels, but they are kind of irrelevant even though the sight of them moving is going to haunt me for the rest of my life. The Throne told me what happened,” I said, and then I told them everything that the Throne had shared with me up until what I had to do. How Zayne had been given a choice. The burn upon reentry. And how, in his current state, he viewed Wardens and anything with grace in them as the enemy. I told them that the Throne had warned that Zayne...that he could become a risk to innocent people. When I finished, all I wanted to do was get back out there and find him.