“Did you really stay in last night? You didn’t go back out there?” he asked. “Honestly?”

“You saw what kind of condition I was in. I was dragging. I slept all night,” I told him as I picked up my dirty clothes, dropping them in a small hamper.

“Yeah, you definitely were dragging.”

Wondering exactly how bad I looked to others and then remembering what I looked like in the mirror, I frowned.

Dez was quiet for a moment but then I heard his heavy sigh, and I knew something I probably didn’t want to hear was coming. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Zayne, Trinity. A lot of thinking I would rather not be doing but needed to. I think we need to prepare ourselves for the fact that he...that he may not return to us.”

Stamping down the rush of anger, I placed the hamper by the stacked washer and dryer. “He’s in there, Dez. I know he is.”

“I want to believe that. More than you probably think I do, but who we saw in the park wasn’t Zayne.”

“He’s still in there,” I repeated, tossing a detergent pod in with the clothes as I thought about what Zayne said before he left. The thing that’s taking up a part of me will hurt you.

“Trust me, I know he is. I’m going to get him back.”

“We just need to be prepared,” Dez replied. “That’s all I’m saying.”

“I know.” I slammed the laundry door shut hard enough that it would’ve scared Peanut if he was nearby. Peanut. Something occurred to me. “Can you ask Gideon to check on something for me?”

“Sure. What you need?”

“I don’t know if he can even help or not, but there’s a girl that lives in this apartment complex. Her name is Gena,” I told him. “I don’t know her last name or who her parents are. All I know is that she’s on a lower floor. I need to know what apartment she’s in.”

“That’s going to be hard with just a kid’s name, but some apartments require all occupants to be listed at the manager’s office. I’ll see if Gideon can crack into their systems.”

“Perfect,” I said, knowing it was a long shot.

“Do I want to know why you want this information?” he asked after a moment.

“It involves a ghost, so probably not.”

“You’re right. I don’t.”

As I walked over to the fridge, there was one other thing that randomly popped into my head. “There’s something else I was wondering. Gideon seems to know a lot about the history of Wardens and even the Trueborns, right?”

“He knows more than any of us,” Dez said.