It took me a moment—okay, it probably took longer than it should for me to get that, but then I did. “My body wash is jasmine.”

“I know,” he confirmed. “Heaven smelled like you.”

My heart skipped and danced a little jig. “I love you.”

We kissed and then we spent the rest of those softly lit hours showing each other once again just how much we loved one another.

“Never did I think I’d be at a cookout with demons,” Jada said as she dropped onto the picnic table beside me the next evening. She shook her head. “Hell, I never thought I’d see Wardens and demons hanging out.”

We were gathered at Roth and Layla’s place, in their backyard by an extravagant pool fitting of a...demonic prince. The thing had a rock waterfall! “And don’t forget fallen angel.” I knocked my shoulder against hers as my gaze flicked to Zayne. He stood on the patio near the pool, talking with Ty and Roth.

I was shocked to have seen Ty show up and even more surprised when he shook Roth’s and then Cayman’s hand upon meeting them. And I might’ve stopped breathing a little when Nicolai arrived with Danika and Dez, who’d brought his wife. The fact that the head of the DC clan would come and bring two females with them was astonishing. Yeah, the two male Wardens didn’t indiscriminately hate demons, but that also didn’t mean they hung out with them.

And they were doing that now, standing with the others, actually talking and laughing. Jasmine and Danika were sitting on the ledge of the pool, their legs dangling in the water as Cayman enjoyed a volleyball game with Stacey.

Maybe the world did end.

But there was a cause for celebration. Gideon had succeeded in tracking down enough gemstones to disrupt the ley lines. They’d be in our possession by the end of the week.

“It’s a new start, it feels like,” Jada said. “A new era.”

“It really is.” I glanced over at Jada. She’d taken everything I had to share with her rather well. Even the Peanut being my dad part. I think she processed all of that better than me, but Jada had always been incredibly pragmatic. “When do you think Ty will be officially assigned to the DC clan? Like are they going to wait till the next Accolade?”

“I wish they wouldn’t, but do you really think my father would do anything else?”

I grinned. “Probably not.”

“You’re going to come visit us, right?”

“Of course. Zayne and I deserve some downtime, and we’re going to take it as soon as we deal with the portal.” I watched Zayne knock the beach ball back to Cayman.