A wide, beautiful smile broke out across Zayne’s face. He laughed, the sound deep and familiar and warm like sunshine, stealing my breath. That was another thing I didn’t know if I’d ever hear again. His laugh, and it was beautiful.
My lips twitched. “I have a feeling you’re laughing at me.”
“I just told you that I know that I’ve changed and I don’t know exactly how much, and all you can think about is that I have two swords and you only have one.”
“Well, yeah. That’s a big deal. I’m an envious kind of person.”
He laughed again, the sound lighting my whole chest. “Only you would respond that way.”
That could be true.
A warm breeze caught the strands of his hair, lifting them from his bare shoulders as he looked around. Come to think of it, the abnormal chill was gone from the air. It wasn’t unbearably hot or muggy, but it was far more seasonable.
I watched him, wondering if he had something to do with the weather. How strange would that be? But it couldn’t have been a coincidence that it had been twenty or more degrees cooler than normal up until he’d been restored—well, mostly restored—to who he’d been before.
“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.”