A lot of it had to do with the fact that Wardens and demons being remotely friendly toward one another was unheard of, because, well, duh. One represented Heaven. The other represented Hell. Wardens hunted demons. Demons hunted Wardens. That was the circle of life right there, and it was quite understandable that they were natural-born enemies.

Except it wasn’t.

Zayne was the first Warden I’d met who didn’t view all demons as if they were evil incarnate. Like all Wardens, I was raised to believe that there was no question when it came to their evilness, but because of Zayne, I was learning that demons were...complex, and some seemed to be able to exercise free will, just like humans and Wardens.

Not all demons were irrationally evil. Though, I wasn’t sure if rationally evil was any better, but I was learning that good and evil weren’t cut and dry. That no one, not even Wardens or demons, was born one way and stayed stagnate in their choices and deeds. Demons were capable of great goodness, and Wardens could accomplish great evil.

Look at...look at Misha. Although Wardens were born with pure souls—and if there was a list of all that was good and holy in the world, they’d be damn near the top—Misha had done horrible things. He’d been evil. There was no denying that.

But it wasn’t only what Zayne and Roth each were that made it strange that they were sort of friendly with one another. It was what they had in common.

Layla.

Anyway, I guessed Zayne and Roth were sort of frenemies.

Roth had helped Zayne and I meet with the coven of witches who’d been responsible for placing an enchantment spell on humans, and that was something he hadn’t needed to do. Another oddly undemonic thing he’d done was, when we’d been ambushed by Upper Level demons and nearly died at Senator Fisher’s house, Roth had come back to help Zayne after he’d gotten Layla to safety. Maybe he’d done it because of Layla’s complicated history with Zayne, but he had come back and that meant something.

“Wait,” I said. “You said he’s bringing friends?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

Every muscle in my body tensed as Zayne went to the console beside the door and hit a button just as a buzzing sound came from the intercom.

“Come on up,” he said into the speaker, his voice full of exasperation.

When Roth said friends, did he mean Layla? Would he really bring her here, knowing all that had gone down between her and Zayne? It was the demon who had told me about Zayne and Layla’s messy history. I’d had no clue about it until Roth had broken the news.