My stomach tumbled. I knew who he was referencing. Lucifer.
“How does it feel, though?” Cayman asked. “Knowing where you really come from?”
“Honestly? Doesn’t feel good or bad. It just...makes sense.” Zayne briefly glanced at the demon. “Who I am or even who I was has nothing to do with ancestors who lived some thousands of years ago.”
“You’re such a disappointment,” Cayman muttered.
“Really?” Zayne replied.
“Yeah, because you’re so damn well adapted.” Cayman pouted. “It’s no fun to mess with you about your less than holy origins if it doesn’t bother you.”
“Sorry.” Zayne strode toward me. He took my hand, pulling me toward the couch. “Sit with me?”
“Of course,” I murmured, grateful to not be standing the moment my butt hit the cushion.
“But now I understand why Roth said some of the things he said,” Zayne added as he sat beside me. “And also surprised he’s managed to keep that to himself.”
“You and me both.”
“Even Roth follows some rules,” Cayman said.
Something occurred to me then. “You know what I don’t understand?”
“How humans still think climate change is junk science?” Cayman suggested.
“Yeah, that also, but—”
“Bitcoins?” he offered up next. “Because even I don’t understand Bitcoins and I’ve seen all manner of money.”
I frowned. “No. I’m not talking about Bitcoins. How did the future Wardens end up getting created? There weren’t any female Fallen, right? There’s no female angels.”
“Who says there aren’t any female angels?” Cayman asked, turning around so he was facing us.
I blinked rapidly. “I’ve never seen nor heard of one.”
“There are female angels,” Zayne confirmed. “I saw a few.”
“Wait. For real? What did they look like?”
“They looked like...female angels,” he said.
“That’s real helpful.” I turned to Cayman. “Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this? Why is there no mention of a female angel in any—wait.” I held up my hand. “I honestly don’t even need that answered. The patriarchy.”
“Yep.” Cayman nodded. “And that’s a human construct. Can’t even blame us demons for that.”
“Okay. So there were female angels who Fell?”
“I bet you won’t be surprised to hear that no female angels have ever gotten themselves kicked out of Heaven,” Cayman said. “Not because they never questioned anything. It’s just that they actually questioned things in a logical, thoughtful manner instead of acting like general fools.”
“No,” I muttered. “Not surprised at all to hear that.”
“Anyway, remember the thing where God flooded the Earth to rid the world of the nephilim offspring that resulted from naughty-fun times before the Fallen were cast to stone? Well, God didn’t get all of them.”
Zayne draped my braid over my shoulder. “There were only a few human women whose genetics matched up with Wardens’, allowing them to become pregnant with a Warden. Come to find out, those women were all descendants of the children of those who Fell.”
“Watered-down nephilim,” Cayman said.
“Watered-down Trueborns,” I muttered, thinking all of that sounded potentially incestuous. I was just going to hope that the first generation of Wardens had hooked up with women who weren’t their offspring, and leave it at that.
Besides, I needed to be more worried about the functionality of my own womb.
“So what was it like?” Cayman asked, picking up a small box of animal crackers before all but rolling over the back of the couch and into a corner of the sectional. “The whole dying thing? I’m curious. You know—’cuz I’ve never died.”
“That’s kind of a rude question to ask,” I pointed out.
Cayman shrugged.
The corners of Zayne’s lips tipped up. “As if you don’t want to know.”
I opened my mouth to deny that, but then sighed. “Yeah, I can’t even lie. I am curious.”
“Knew it.” He ran a hand over his head, dragging his hair back from his face. “I remember dying. Kind of.”
“Kind of?” Cayman asked around a mouthful of crackers.
He nodded. “I remember being under the school, in that cavern, and knowing I was dying and being...scared out of my mind for you—for what would happen once I was gone. I could feel your pain, and all I wanted was to make sure you knew it would be okay.”
God.
It took everything in me not to launch myself at Zayne again.
“And then there was a loud snapping sound, almost like thunder, and this flash of intense light. Never seen something so bright before.” A far-off look crept into his expression, but he didn’t take his gaze off me. Actually, he hadn’t for more than a few moments, and I wondered if it was because he was feeling the same as me. Like, deep down, he couldn’t believe we were here. Together. “The light receded pretty quickly, and when it did, I was in some kind of building.”
“A building? Instead of clouds?” I sighed. “I am so disappointed.”
A grin appeared. “I eventually saw clouds.”
I clasped my hands under my chin. “With angels resting on them?”
Cayman snorted.