Grace and Glory (The Harbinger 3)

“I’m demon free,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“Wise of you to be out there alone?” he asked.

Mind way too occupied to be irritated by the question, I said, “Probably not. Tell Dez I’ll be waiting for him.”

Ending the call, I hung back under the alcove of the church, mulling over how I was going to tell Nicolai that Zayne was alive and all that was involved in that. I doubted he knew the truth about what he was, but the Throne hadn’t said it was something that needed to remain a secret.

I leaned against the wall, an ache starting in my temples as I kept watch. My wary gaze darted over the steady stream of people and cars as I hoped Dez remembered I didn’t have the greatest eyeballs. I really didn’t want to end up getting into the wrong car.

About ten minutes later, a dark-colored SUV idled up to the curb and a moment later the passenger window rolled down. I couldn’t see inside, but I recognized the voice.

“Trinity?” Dez called out.

Thank you baby Jesus, he remembered. I started to hurry forward but slowed since I could never judge the distance between steps in low light. I managed to get down the stairs without falling and breaking my face. There was one person I got all up close and personal with when I navigated the packed sidewalk. I’d gotten so used to walking the streets with Zayne, who cleared the sidewalk like some kind of hot Moses. Somehow, he’d lead the way even though he stayed beside me instead of walking ahead of me.

My heart squeezed as I opened the SUV door and climbed in. I’ll get him back. I will, I promised myself as I squished into the leather seat. “Sorry.” I winced, closing the door. “I’m soaked.”

“No worries,” he replied, and I glanced over at the Warden. He was young, a handful of years older than Zayne. He had the cutest twins I’d ever seen. One of them, Izzy, was just learning how to shift. She also had a habit of biting toes, which was weirdly adorable. “Nicolai said you needed to speak with him. That it was an emergency.”

I nodded as I buckled myself in. “Thank you for picking me...” I trailed off as I looked out the passenger window.

An older man stood on the curb. At first glance, he looked normal. Dressed in dark trousers and a white button-down shirt, he could’ve been any number of the businessmen that stood around him, waiting to cross the street. Except he held no umbrella and the rain seemed to not touch him as he stood there, staring at me through the window. Half of his head looked...caved in, a bloody mess of bone and flesh as he stared back at me, a look of utter horror etched into the side of his face that wasn’t ruined.

I recognized him.

It was Josh Fisher—the senator who’d been aiding Gabriel and Bael by buying Heights on the Hill under the guise that the school would be renovated into a facility that would service chronically ill children. In reality, the land that school sat on was basically a Hellmouth straight out of Buffy, situated smack-dab in the middle of a hub of spiritual power where several powerful ley lines crossed. Gabriel had needed access to the school, to get at what rested in the ground below it. There, he’d already created the portal that would eventually become the doorway into Heaven.

And Gabriel and Bael had found the perfect person to help them. Senator Fisher had signed right up, all out of a desperate attempt to be reunited with his deceased wife. A man I hadn’t wanted to feel pity for, but now more than ever, I did. I understood how that kind of loss and grief would drive someone to do the unthinkable.

But he was dead now. Either by jumping out the window of his penthouse or by being thrown out of it.

“Shit,” I whispered.

“What?” Dez pulled away from the curb. “What are you looking at?”

I cranked my neck, about to tell him to stop the vehicle, but in a blink of an eye, Senator Fisher was gone. Dammit. I sat back against the seat. He’d spilled the beans on the Harbinger and Bael after a few minutes of “talking” with Zayne, but he could’ve been holding back on information—information he might be more likely to share now that he was super-duper-dead.

“It was Senator Fisher,” I told him.

Only a few Wardens knew what I was—Dez and Nicolai were two of them. Gideon, another Warden, only knew I could see ghosts, but since everything had gone down with Zayne, I was sure the Trueborn was out of the bag with the entire clan.

“Isn’t he dead—wait.” He glanced at me as we came to a stoplight. “You mean you saw his ghost?”