“What were you thinking you’d want for breakfast?” Zayne asked as we walked past several shops closed for the night.
I’d made plans to meet up with Jada and Ty for breakfast. That was if they weren’t still fighting. I doubted that they would be. I knew that they’d have to return to the community in the next day or so. I was still expecting Thierry or Matthew to show up.
“I don’t know.” I scanned the dark trees, having not felt one single demon. All of them had to be congregating around either Lucifer or Gabriel. “I know they’re not picky. Neither am I, so if you can think of a good place, I’m sure it will be okay.”
“What if I picked a place that only made egg whites and spinach?”
“I’d stop talking to you.”
“But you’d keep loving me.”
“Reluctantly,” I quipped.
Zayne laughed as he swooped down, kissing my cheek. “I’ll find us a place with all the fried bacon you can eat.”
“And waffles.”
“What about pancakes?”
“Ew. No.”
“What?” He looked down at me. “How can you like waffles and not pancakes?”
“I just don’t.”
“You’re weird.”
“I’m not the one who eats egg whites willingly.”
“How is that weird? It’s healthy—”
“That’s all you need to say to prove my point.” We neared an intersection. “You’re not going to die of clogged arteries, so live a little and eat the yolk.”
Zayne laughed as he placed his hand on my lower back and we crossed the street. He waited till there were several feet between us and anyone who could overhear our conversation. “I’ve been thinking about how to draw Gabriel out. The last you saw him, he was at that school. Obviously it was a trap, but what if that trap works both ways?”
I immediately picked up on what he was saying. “You’re thinking about going to that school—to the portal, to possibly catch Gabriel’s attention?”
“He has to have eyes on the place.”
“I’m sure he does. I’ve been thinking of that, too.” I paused as he snagged my arm, stopping me as someone cut directly in front of me, rushing into a convenience store. “But the school is still full of ghosts, wraiths and Shadow People. Actually, there are probably more there now than there were before.”
“But the difference this time is that I can see them. It won’t just be you that has to keep an eye on them,” he pointed out.
I thought that over as our steps slowed and we neared several stone, abstract shapes that I was guessing were supposed to be artwork at an entrance to a city park. “That school is the last place I want to visit. It gives even me the creeps,” I admitted. “But we may have more luck doing something like that than aimlessly roaming the streets.” Stopping near a stone that looked like an oval doughnut, I looked up at Zayne. “Especially when Gabriel has to know that you aren’t dead.”
“And now a new and improved version,” he added.
I cracked a grin. “And if the demons at Roth’s place sensed Lucifer, then I imagine the ones who have been working with Gabriel also have sensed his arrival.”
“Not to mention his fire display last night.”
I nodded, surprised that was last night. It felt like a week ago. “He’s probably going to be more careful.”
“It’s a plan.” Zayne crossed his arms. “Better than you being bait and letting yourself get caught.”
“That isn’t a bad idea and it’s still not off the table,” I replied, watching Zayne’s jaw harden in the glow of the streetlamp. “I know you don’t like it, but if we can’t get him or Bael to come out by going to the school, we need to try that. I don’t want to wait until we’re days away from the Transfiguration to try to stop him. That’s cutting it too close and that’s—” I stopped as a small group of people crossed the intersection. They were too far away and there wasn’t enough light for me to see their features, but goose bumps spread across my arms as I watched them.
Three of them were talking and laughing among each other, but there was someone behind them—someone whose shadow didn’t look right to me.
Zayne followed my gaze. The group passed under the light spilling out from the park. Three continued on. One didn’t.
I squinted as the person walking behind them stopped and looked over at us.
“Holy shit,” Zayne whispered.
I took a step forward and then another so I could see better.
And immediately wished I hadn’t.
Only half of the man’s head looked right. The other side was misshapen, caved in and, from what I could see, a bloody mess.
I recognized him.
Senator Fisher.
31
“Idon’t know if I want you to confirm or deny what I’m
seeing,” Zayne said.
“You really are seeing him,” I whispered, still a bit shocked that he could.
“Do they always look like that?”