“You’re right,” came Danika’s voice. “We don’t want to add to that, but we also aren’t going to stand back and do nothing.” She came forward, sitting beside me. “I think I know Zayne pretty well,” she said, and that was true. They were friends, and at one point they could’ve become more. That was what Zayne’s father had wanted. “If this was happening to any Warden, he wouldn’t sit it out. You know that. He’d be right there, making damn sure that he came home and that he didn’t add to the mess the other was in, and so would any of us.”

“But you can’t guarantee that. I can’t even guarantee that,” I argued.

“And you can’t guarantee that this will even work,” she countered. “That Zayne will even survive this.”

Cold air filled my chest. “You’re right. You all want to be there for that?”

“No,” Nicolai answered. “We want to be there for you if this doesn’t work.”

5

There was no convincing Nicolai or the others that the smart and sane thing was to stay home. It wasn’t like the city would descend into chaos if they did. Ever since the Harbinger had showed up, demon activity had gone way down. They could spend the next couple of days watching Netflix. There was some really interesting crap on that streaming service, according to Cayman, the demon who was sort of like middle management in the demonic world. When I left the apartment earlier that evening, he had passed out watching some kind of documentary about a guy with a mullet, big cats and murder.

But the Wardens weren’t about that kind of life.

So after taking a moment to wash the blood off my chin and below my ears, I found myself walking aimlessly through Rock Creek Park with Dez at my side and several other Wardens nearby. Gideon had hung back at the compound, wiring into the police dispatch just in case any calls came in that would possibly give us a lead on Zayne’s whereabouts. Nicolai was out here somewhere, but he’d left after Dez and I to “talk” things over with Danika. She wanted to help. Nicolai was dead set against that. I had no idea who won that battle, but I was betting on Danika.

Before we hit the park, we did swing by the apartment just in case Zayne somehow remembered the police and for me to let Cayman and my ghostly roommate, Peanut, know that I was alive.

The apartment was empty of all three of them.