Nodding, I opened the door and stepped out into the sticky air.

“Angel Face?”

Sighing, I turned and bent down so that I could see into the car. “What, Demon Spawn from Hell?”

His lips quirked into a grin. “Just so you know, what I felt for Layla and what she felt for me was forbidden. That didn’t stop us.”

The unwanted spark in my chest felt a lot like hope. That burst of wanting was overshadowed by annoyance, because we were now back on the topic of Zayne. “Good to know. Happy for you both, but nothing like that is going on between Zayne and I.”

“I almost believe that,” he replied. “Both parts of your statement.”

I threw up my hands. “Why are you all up in my nonexistent love life, Roth?”

“Because I saw the way he looked at you, and I know the way he used to look at Layla. It was different.”

My brows snapped together. “Well, I’m not sure how that’s a good thing.”

“Different is not bad, Trinity. Different can be good.”

“Or it can mean nothing, like it does in this case.” I started to rise.

“Hey,” he called out again.

“What?” I snapped.

The demon prince smiled at me, seeming unperturbed by my annoyance. “What you did today needed to be done. Don’t waste air on guilt. It would not have been wasted on you.”

The door slid from my grasp, closing in my face before I could even respond. I straightened and stepped back as Roth peeled away from the curb.

Roth’s words cycled over and over as I stood along the side of the busy road for several minutes. He was right about the last part. Faye wouldn’t have spent a second feeling guilty if I’d been given to her in pieces.

Slowly, I turned and walked into the park. It was cooler here under the thick canopy of trees. Still humid and damp, but bearable as I mindlessly followed the path. After all the walking I’d done in the evenings patrolling for the Harbinger, making use of my leg muscles wasn’t exactly on my to-do list, but this was...

It was nice, and it was calming.

Accompanied by the distant hum of conversation and the trill of cicadas, I sank into my thoughts. Not about Zayne. I didn’t have the brain capacity to deal with anything Roth had just shared about him. Not when I’d just straight up killed someone.

Someone who was only mostly human and who had wanted—actually, needed—me dead. Who wouldn’t have mourned me. Who would’ve used my death for nefarious ends.

Still...someone I had killed.

I didn’t want to go back to the apartment. I didn’t want to be...trapped there with these thoughts. I needed to file them away before I faced Zayne.