“Even though I don’t like it, I can agree with that.” He folded his arms around me, resting his chin on the top of my head. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t so damn brave.”

I smiled at that. “The feeling is mutual.”

His arms tightened around me. “What do you think about what Dez had to say about Gideon not being able to find anything on Trueborns reproducing?” he asked after a few moments.

“I don’t know what I think or what to think,” I admitted, closing my eyes. “What about you?”

“The same.” He dragged a hand up my back. “I think we need to get one of those tests.”

“Yeah, I think we do, too.” I pulled back, smiling a little when he fixed my glasses yet again. “But there’s something else we need to do first. We have to go see the Crone.”

Zayne used my phone to call Stacey—who he’d grown close to after his father’s death and the fallout with Layla. When I thought about how jealous I’d been when I’d discovered them in the ice cream shop, I sort of wanted to punch myself in the actual face. I tried to give him a little space because I was sure it would be an emotional call, but he tugged me down to where he sat on the couch, holding me close. The whole time he spoke with her, he smoothed his hand through my hair and down my back. Every so often, he would stop and drop a kiss on my temple or my forehead, and I... I soaked up the affection like a happy little sponge. He seemed to need to be as close to me as I needed the same from him, and I imagined the trauma of the last several days drove the desire. Stacey wanted to see Zayne, and I couldn’t blame her for that. I could tell just from what he was saying that she was shocked, but Zayne felt it was too risky. He was right. Gabriel might not know Zayne was back yet, but he would, and I wouldn’t put it past the archangel to go after anyone close to either of us.

After the call, we’d decided it was best if we went ahead and removed one of his feathers while in the apartment. That prevented Zayne from having to do the show-and-tell with his wings with the Crone and any other witch present. It wasn’t that we didn’t trust her...

Okay, we didn’t trust her.

It wasn’t anything personal. We just didn’t trust any witch.

Of course, when he tugged his shirt off and his wings unfurled, I got a little distracted staring at them. Dragging my gaze from one graceful arch, I got down to business. “So how do we do this?”

“You can just grab one,” he offered.