“I’m sorry—”
“God, Trin. Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I know, but I also know what you went through, and I wish you hadn’t.” I turned my head, kissing the center of his palm. “I would change that if I could.”
The bridge of his nose brushed mine. “What happened?”
“My father,” I said, touching the curve of his jaw. “It’s, uh, it’s really out there, but you were right. What he did for you? It was the way he could show he cared, and this...why I didn’t die is because of him. The spell the Crone gave me? It did more than bring you to me. It bonded us together. That mark on my chest? It’s a bonding mark. Like the Protector bond but in reverse and stronger. Because of it, the angel blade didn’t kill me. Just wounded me. I won’t age. I won’t die unless something happens to you.” I pressed a finger to the center of his lower lip. “So, you’re kind of stuck with me for, like, eternity? Congrats.”
Zayne pulled back enough that our eyes could meet. “Are you...if you’re—you wouldn’t lie about something like this.”
“I wouldn’t.” I’d never heard Zayne so flustered before.
His eyes were wide. “I... God, Trin. I don’t know what to say other than how in the Hell could you even suggest that I was stuck with you?”
I laughed, and the rigidity in my muscles started to lessen. “Thought my aging wasn’t a big deal? You’d love me, broken hips and all?”
“I would love you broken hips and all,” he said, one hundred percent serious. “I would love you as much as I do now when you were eighty. There was no way I was going to let any of that get in the way of the time I had with you, but there was going to be nothing easy about watching you slowly leave me, day by day, year by year. And when that day came, I would’ve found my way to you. I would’ve followed. Nothing would have stopped me.”
My throat clogged with emotion. “I know.”
His gaze searched mine. “But to not have to worry about that? Dread that day? To know that you will be beside me fifty years from now? A hundred?”
Now was probably not a good time to mention the whole Antichrist thing. Later.
“I almost can’t believe this is real. That we’re this lucky.” His gaze now tracked over my features. “That we have this. A real future where I’m not dreading the day I lose you and you no longer have an obsession with broken hips.”
I laughed again, and more tension left me.
He kissed me, quickly and deeply. “I love that sound.”
“I can tell,” I breathed.
His lips curved into a smile against mine. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Well, I haven’t told you everything.”
“I don’t think anything could shock me more.” He kissed my cheek.
“Peanut was Michael. Or is my father.”
Zayne sat back.
“My father is Peanut,” I repeated. “He’s been Peanut this whole time. A figment of his...younger years, or a manifestation. Something extremely bizarre and confusing.”
“What?”
I nodded. “You heard me right. It was the only way he could be a part of my life,” I told him, exhaling roughly, and then I told him everything my father had told me.
It all sounded just as ridiculous coming out of my mouth.
“Okay. You were right,” Zayne said when I finished. “That is... I don’t even know what to say.”
I snorted.
“But didn’t he often walk...in on me while I was showering?” Zayne asked.
I cringed. “He claims it wasn’t anything creepy and that he didn’t do it half the times he said he did, but yeah, I don’t know.”
“I’m just not going to think about that.”
“Probably for the best.”
He smoothed a hand along my cheek, catching the strands of my hair. “What do you think of all of this?” He pressed a small kiss to the corner my lip. “How do you feel?”
“I... God, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve even begun to process any of it,” I admitted, toying with the edges of his hair. “Especially how much Michael...my father has done for me. How much I never knew, and here I was, hating on him—hating on him to Peanut. And that makes me feel like a grade-A douche.”
“Don’t feel like a grade A-douche,” he told me, and hearing him say that made me crack a grin. “I think he understands why you felt the way you did. He’s your father. He loves you.”
“He does,” I whispered, blowing out a deep breath as I lifted my gaze to Zayne. There was a lot going on in my head, but I would have... I would have forever to process through it all. “We defeated Gabriel.”
“We did.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “We saved the Heavens.”
“And God saved mankind.”