Figuring Peanut was with his new friend who could see him—something I still needed to check on—or off doing whatever ghosts did in their spare, undead time, Dez and I had then headed to the park. Cayman had actually texted right before we got there. I had no idea how he’d gotten my phone number, but he’d sent a message that said, Are you still alive? I’d sent back a quick, Yes, and then received a response demanding proof that it was me and not an “asshole archangel” with my phone.

I’d texted back with, You’re afraid of me.

Yep. It’s you. Be safe. Roth would be mad if you got killed on my watch.

I really had no idea how to respond to that.

But all of that felt like an eternity ago.

Frustration burned its way through me as we passed by the bench I’d been sitting on when Zayne had arrived for what felt like the hundredth time. I stopped this time, scanning the dark tree line. At least it had stopped raining. The air was still weirdly cold for July.

Only a few steps ahead of me, Dez turned around. In his Warden form, his skin was a deep gray and as hard as granite, and the two thick horns that parted his hair could puncture through steel. He kept his large, leathery wings tucked back just in case I walked into one and lost an eyeball. Right now, most of him blended into the night. “Do you see anything?”

“Godzilla could be hiding among those trees and I wouldn’t be able to see him.”

“Sorry. I meant do you feel anything?”

“No.” I placed my hands on my hips. “Either he’s no longer in the park or he’s staying back.”

“Did he strike you as a type to stay back?” Dez asked, his voice raspier in his true form.

“Not particularly, but what do I know? It’s not like I ever met a fallen angel before.” I shook my head as my gaze fell to the outline of the bench. “I think we need to check someplace else.” Or I needed to be out here without Warden babysitters, because there could be a sliver of a chance that Zayne wasn’t coming close because of the Wardens. “Where? I have no idea.”

“He could be anywhere in the city.”

“That obvious piece of knowledge isn’t exactly helpful,” I replied.

Dez chuckled as he walked toward me. For someone so large, he moved as silently as a ghost. Zayne had been that way, too.

A sharp burst of agony pierced my heart.

He is that way, too.