It was afterward, while I was sprawled across his chest and one wing was draped over my back, that Zayne asked, “Do you know what will happen with your vision?”

“I don’t know. I asked, but he didn’t know, either. There’s a possibility the death of the cells could’ve stopped or it will continue. It’s a wait and see game.”

“Like before.”

“Yep.”

He continued tracing idle circles along my upper arm. “Either way, you got this.”

I grinned. “We got this.”

“We do.” He stretched his neck and kissed the top of my head. Several moments of silence passed. “Did I ever tell you what Heaven smelled like to me?”

I lifted my head, searching to find his features in the dim light. “No, you didn’t.”

“Jasmine,” he said. “Heaven smelled like jasmine.”

It took me a moment—okay, it probably took longer than it should for me to get that, but then I did. “My body wash is jasmine.”

“I know,” he confirmed. “Heaven smelled like you.”

My heart skipped and danced a little jig. “I love you.”

We kissed and then we spent the rest of those softly lit hours showing each other once again just how much we loved one another.

* * *

“Never did I think I’d be at a cookout with demons,” Jada said as she dropped onto the picnic table beside me the next evening. She shook her head. “Hell, I never thought I’d see Wardens and demons hanging out.”

We were gathered at Roth and Layla’s place, in their backyard by an extravagant pool fitting of a...demonic prince. The thing had a rock waterfall! “And don’t forget fallen angel.” I knocked my shoulder against hers as my gaze flicked to Zayne. He stood on the patio near the pool, talking with Ty and Roth.

I was shocked to have seen Ty show up and even more surprised when he shook Roth’s and then Cayman’s hand upon meeting them. And I might’ve stopped breathing a little when Nicolai arrived with Danika and Dez, who’d brought his wife. The fact that the head of the DC clan would come and bring two females with them was astonishing. Yeah, the two male Wardens didn’t indiscriminately hate demons, but that also didn’t mean they hung out with them.

And they were doing that now, standing with the others, actually talking and laughing. Jasmine and Danika were sitting on the ledge of the pool, their legs dangling in the water as Cayman enjoyed a volleyball game with Stacey.

Maybe the world did end.

But there was a cause for celebration. Gideon had succeeded in tracking down enough gemstones to disrupt the ley lines. They’d be in our possession by the end of the week.

“It’s a new start, it feels like,” Jada said. “A new era.”

“It really is.” I glanced over at Jada. She’d taken everything I had to share with her rather well. Even the Peanut being my dad part. I think she processed all of that better than me, but Jada had always been incredibly pragmatic. “When do you think Ty will be officially assigned to the DC clan? Like are they going to wait till the next Accolade?”

“I wish they wouldn’t, but do you really think my father would do anything else?”

I grinned. “Probably not.”

“You’re going to come visit us, right?”

“Of course. Zayne and I deserve some downtime, and we’re going to take it as soon as we deal with the portal.” I watched Zayne knock the beach ball back to Cayman.

We were going to see all the places we’d talked about. Rome. Edinburgh. The Hollywood sign. Everywhere. And then we would come back here. As of right now, we planned on staying in the area, especially since the Antichrist was around here, somewhere, but maybe we’d leave. We weren’t sure yet, and there was something exciting about having the future so unplanned. It wouldn’t always be easy. I knew that. We had to step back in that school and disrupt the portal. There were the ghosts and Shadow People, and we still needed to figure out how to break the angelic wards holding them there. There’d be more demons who didn’t want to follow the rules and more stupid humans who would somehow do worse than any demonic force could ever carry out. Then there was the Antichrist to possibly deal with and the fact that I could very well still go blind. Things wouldn’t always be safe or fun. There would be risks and nights nothing like this one, but we had each other. We had our friends.

And that was all that mattered.

Sometime later, flames crackled from the firepit. Actual s’mores were being made, and I was in Zayne’s arms, the back of my head resting against his chest as I looked up at the dark sky.

There were no stars I could see, but that was okay. I had the Constellation of Zayne to look upon every night. I would always remember how beautiful the sea of dazzling, twinkling lights was. That memory would never fade. It would always be there when I looked up at the sky. I would always see the stars no matter what, because of him.

Peanut.

My father.

Thank you, Dad. I mouthed the words, giving them no sound, but I think he heard them, anyway.

Thank you.

* * *