The grin reappeared. “At first I was confused. I knew I was in Heaven. I knew that in my bones, but I was...surprised to find myself there.”

Obviously Zayne thought that because he was missing a part of his soul, thanks to Layla. That was water under a bridge that had been burned down, but there was no stopping the spike of anger that followed any thoughts of how badly Zayne had been wounded by Layla, even though it was before we’d even met. It wasn’t like I held that against her or anything.

Okay. I kind of did, but I was working on getting over that and being an overall better person.

I just needed a whole lot of improvement on both of those fronts.

“I wasn’t alone. Took me a couple of moments to realize that someone was there with me—behind me.” Zayne leaned back, his head tilted toward me. “It was your father.”

19

I didn’t think I heard him right at first. “Really? My father?”

“Yes.”

I was stuck in disbelief for several moments before acknowledging that it had been my father who had finally corrected a destiny that had gone off the rails, not only for Zayne and I, but also for Misha. That thought of my old Protector, my friend, still brought a wealth of pain. I would never completely get over his betrayal or how I’d been so wrapped up in myself that I’d missed how unhappy Misha had been.

But it made sense that Michael, my father, would be there. Zayne had been my Protector when he...when he died. My initial shock showed I wasn’t thinking about his presence correctly. I was attributing it to some kind of fatherly obligation—something that he knew nothing about, even if the Throne claimed that my father had faith in me.

I made sure my voice was level when I asked, “Was it him who told you about who the Wardens were originally?”

“Basically, and yeah, that was a shock, but first he made sure I knew how incredibly disappointed he was that I’d already, as he put it, ‘gotten myself killed.’”

“What an asshole!” I exclaimed, wishing my father was in front of me so I could punt-kick him in the freaking face.

“Have you met an archangel that wasn’t one?” Cayman asked.

“Since I’ve only met two, no.” I folded my arms over my chest. “You didn’t get yourself killed, Zayne.”

“Well, I guess that is debatable.”

I opened my mouth to give a highly detailed thesis on how wrong he was.