His eyes flew open. Those wings lifted, arcing high, and for a long moment, I thought I had it all wrong. He was going to use the grace burning through his wings against me, and that Throne was going to be real disappointed in me.

“I’m done playing with you,” he warned. “The next time I see you, I will kill you.”

And with that, he snapped those powerful wings down and lifted off. He rose so fast he was like a star ascending instead of falling. He shot into the night sky, rapidly becoming nothing more than memory.

Water sloshed as Dez climbed out of the fountain, grunting as he hit the ground. “Did you seriously just kiss him?”

“I did.” I didn’t take my eyes off the night sky. The darker shapes of the clouds that had lingered since yesterday’s rainstorm were clearing. Wet warmth trickled out from my nose. I reached up, wiping the blood away before it could hit the ground.

“I honestly don’t even know what to say about that.”

“He’s still in there.” I squinted and then closed my right eye, the one with the thicker cataracts.

There was a pause of silence. “You sure about that, Trinity? Because there was nothing about that thing that behaved like Zayne.”

I saw them. Tiny specks of light. I saw stars. “Yes. I’m sure.”

9

For the second night in a row, I limped back into the empty apartment in the dead of the night. Kicking off my shoes by the door, I dropped the key card on the counter and then headed straight for the shower. This time, there was only dirt and the pieces of grass that had somehow ended up in my hair circling the drain. No blood. I reckoned that was an improvement as I pulled on one of Zayne’s clean shirts. It made for a pretty decent sleep shirt, and at the current moment, I doubted he cared.

Gathering up the blanket and pillow from where I left them on the couch, I brought them back into the bedroom—into the one that was supposed to be ours. Using an aching hip to close the door, I turned to the bed. The soft white glow from the ceiling wasn’t nearly enough light, but I shuffled forward, squinting into the darkness—

My knee cracked off the frame of the bed. The sting of pain was deep and throbbing. “Crap.”

Breathing through the obnoxiously intense pain, I dropped the blanket onto the bed and tossed the pillow to the head. Then I climbed in and, after taking a deep breath, I looked up at the ceiling. The pang to my heart felt like a stab wound as I tracked the faint light from each star randomly scattered across the ceiling.