“How is that free will, though?” I reasoned. “If Gabriel’s grace and his Glory is like an infection that corrupts people, how does free will come into play?”

“Good question.” Zayne squeezed my shoulder. “That can’t be free will. It sounds like a violation of it.”

“That’s one way to look at it.” Roth leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “But infections can be beat, right? At least most of them, with medicine. God could take the stance that this infection can be beat by faith.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s stupid.”

“I don’t make the rules,” Roth replied.

“Thank God for that,” Zayne murmured.

Roth winked at him. “All I’m saying is I wouldn’t rely on God, and I’m not saying that because I’m a demon. I’m just relying on statistical, historical evidence.”

I exhaled a heavy breath as I tipped my head back against Zayne’s arm. “Either way, it doesn’t matter. We have to risk the nuclear-level Gabriel fallout. We don’t have a choice.”

* * *

It was a little after one when Zayne and I made it back to the apartment. As he hopped in the shower, I plugged my phone in to charge and headed for the dryer to retrieve clean clothing. We were going to head out in a little bit, hoping we could draw more of Gabriel’s cohorts out. I’d stepped out of the small hall when I thought I saw movement to my right. Turning sharply, I caught sight of Peanut by the TV.

“Peanut!”

He squeaked, flickering out for a moment.

“Don’t you dare disappear!” I charged across the room. “You and I need to chat.”

He reappeared a few feet from the TV. “How dare you scare me like that. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“You’re dead, Peanut. You can’t have a heart attack.” I folded my arms. “You have a whole lot of explaining to do.”

“I was only watching you sleep the other night to make sure you were breathing.” He floated through the coffee table. “It wasn’t even that long.”

I blinked. “Okay. That’s not what I was planning to talk to you about, so we’re going to have to get back to that.”

“Oh. My bad.” Half of his legs were obscured by the table. “You can always just forget about that.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I told him.

He looked toward the hallway. “I hear the shower running.”

“Don’t you dare,” I warned him.

“Is that Zayne? Did you bring Zayne back?”

“I did. You would know that if you’d been around.”

Peanut started bopping up and down, clapping his hands. I supposed he was jumping, but I couldn’t see his lower body. “Yay! You did it!” He stopped bouncing. “He’s not, like, evil fallen angel anymore, is he?”

“No, he’s hot, supernice fallen angel now, and stop distracting me.”

“How am I distracting you?” He sank halfway through the coffee table.

I arched a brow. “You’ve been lying to me.”

“About watching you sleep?”

“No. Not about that. About Gena.”

His eyes widened in his nearly transparent head. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no one who lives here named Gena or any variation of that name. I had the apartment records checked.”

He rose from the coffee table. “Have you been checking on me?”

“Yes.”

“I feel attacked.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “I feel—”

“Why have you been lying to me, Peanut?” I interrupted before he could go drama spiral. “And what have you really been doing?”

“I haven’t been lying. Not really, Trinnie.” He drifted toward me. “I swear. You see, I just didn’t clarify some things.”

“I cannot wait to hear what these things are.”

“Well, for starters, Gena is...she’s not alive. That’s why you wouldn’t find her listed on anything. I think she died, like, a couple of decades ago.”

I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. “You said that there were some things going on with her parents.”

“Not her, like, birth parents. There’s this couple I guess she followed home one day and they’re having problems.” He shrugged. “Or something like that. I honestly think someone’s been stepping out. You know, visiting someone else’s bed. Dipping their ink—”

“I get what you’re saying.” I studied him, still unsure if he was being truthful. Why would he lie now? Then again, why would he have lied before? I heard the shower turn off. “Why didn’t you just tell me that? You didn’t have to make a story.”

He shrugged again. “She’s weirded out about the idea of someone seeing her. No one has been able to, and when I told her about you, she freaked out. Thinks you’re like a witch or something.”

“What?”

He nodded solemnly. “She comes from, like, old puritan times.”

“Puritan times? Peanut, that is more than a few decades old.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” he fired back. “I’m dead.”

“Peanut,” I sighed.

“I’m sorry, Trinnie. I didn’t mean to upset you—”

“Trin?” Zayne called out. “Who are you talking to?”

“Oh, gee whiz, he’s coming in here,” Peanut exclaimed. “I cannot be seen like this.”