I didn’t know what to say.

Cayman stepped toward the couch and then knelt so the senator was eye level with him. “I can also tell you that Azreal would never make such an agreement. There is literally nothing anyone can offer him. You were lied to.”

The man did not move.

Zayne lowered his hands. “She was your weakness. They found it,” he said, repeating what he’d said to me earlier. “They exploited it.”

My gaze flickered over the man. “The sad thing is, you would’ve seen her again. If she had been good and you were good, you would’ve seen her when you died. You would’ve joined her, stayed with her for all of eternity. But now?” I shook my head. “You will not.”

His eyes squeezed shut. “They promised me,” he whispered. “They promised me.”

I sighed, chest heavy, torn between hating this guy and feeling sorry for him. How could I feel both? He wasn’t a good person. Maybe at some point he had been, but he’d turned a blind eye to everything wrong to get what he wanted, and I...

A coldness filled the pit of my stomach as I glanced at Zayne, thinking that I never wanted to know what it felt like to get to the point the senator had, where I’d do anything to bring back the love of my life.

I, who rarely prayed, prayed then to never know what that felt like.

Ever.

36

We left the senator a broken man with more mental and emotional hurts than physical. There was nothing else to coax from him other than heartbreak.

It hadn’t been a waste of time, despite what Cayman said, because we now knew how a man like Senator Fisher had gotten wrapped up in this. But knowing left me with a heavy heart and distracted thoughts as we patrolled, hoping to lure the Harbinger out of whatever hidey hole he’d crawled back into.

It was tragic, what love could drive a person to do.

Zayne called an end to the evening earlier than usual, and for once I didn’t complain or feel guilty about not scouring every nook and cranny of the city. Finding the Harbinger was paramount, but I suspected that the moment we entered the school on Saturday—in two days—Sulien would show up. And once we got into that school, we’d know exactly what we were dealing with.

I had a feeling we’d be blowing up some stuff shortly after.

As we walked to where the bike was parked, I said, “Something I’ve been thinking about. Why do you think Bael is being hidden? He’s being protected. Isn’t that weird?”