Back in the Potomac Highlands, I had stars on my ceiling. Some may find them incredibly gaudy, but it was so difficult for me to see the real ones. Half of the time when I thought I saw a star, I was actually seeing lights from a plane or a cell phone tower. One day, a day I could tell was rapidly approaching, I would look up to the sky and no longer be able to see something as simple and stunning as a sky blanketed with stars.

Zayne had known how important being able to see stars, even fake, glow in the darkness was to me. What he’d done by placing them on the ceiling, during a time that I’d been convinced that he hated me and so regretted the Protector bond, was one of the most beautiful things anyone could ever have done for me. That was the Zayne I knew was still inside the fallen angel.

I had hope.

Not the wishful thinking kind of hope, but the real deal. I knew it wasn’t too late. Zayne had endless opportunity to kill me. From the moment he arrived, right up until he took off like a rocket an hour or so ago, he could’ve done serious damage to me. And if he wanted me dead, taking out that Ghoul hadn’t helped his cause.

Then again, the whole “I should be the one who kills you” thing didn’t bring the warm and fuzzies, but maybe when he tossed Dez and I, it hadn’t been a coincidence that I ended up in a much softer area. Or that when he’d turned, he avoided knocking me out with those wings. It could’ve all been on an unconscious level, one he couldn’t understand in his present state.

And the man that he’d killed? The jury was still technically out on that. Before we left the park, Dez had found the man’s ID and had Gideon checking to see if he could dig up anything on the guy. If what Zayne had claimed was true, he hadn’t taken an innocent’s life. I could argue all day the semantics of whether any murder was justifiable, but it wasn’t like Wardens hadn’t taken out bad humans in the past who’d not only been assisting demons, but were actively committing horrendous deeds. So, No Regrets on that front for the time being.

What was important was that Zayne was still in there. I just needed to figure out how in the world I could pull this off.