Rage and Ruin by Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,141

out, welcoming the open air, even if it smelled faintly of exhaust.

Walking across the lawn toward the sidewalk, I was grateful to be in the bright, warm sunlight. My skin and bones were chilled like I’d spent hours in a meat locker.

Taking down the angelic wards sounded like a great plan, but none of us knew how to accomplish it. Not even Roth, who one would think knew something about getting around angel wards. The only people I could think of was my father.

Retrieving that information from him was about as likely as me swearing off fried food and soda.

“I’ll check in with Gideon,” Zayne was saying as we reached the trees lining the sidewalk. “See if he’s aware of a way.”

“I’ll ask around, too.” Roth dropped an arm over Layla’s shoulders. “Carefully and quietly.” He looked toward the street. “And just an FYI, I have people keeping an eye out for Bael. Still hasn’t been spotted.”

“Neither has Senator Fisher,” Zayne responded.

A white truck drove by, heading toward the school. It was like one of the trucks I’d seen parked outside the night before. “Hey.” I spun toward Zayne. “That truck. What’s the name on it?”

Zayne looked, head tilted. “It says ‘Bar Rhinge and Sons Construction.’ That’s the name of the construction company working on the school. I didn’t catch that last night.”

“I saw it and forgot,” I said. “We need to see if we can find anything on them.”

Zayne already had his cell phone out, calling Gideon. The Warden answered quickly, and as Zayne told him about the tunnel, the school and the construction company, I stepped onto the sidewalk and looked toward the school.

“A Hellmouth,” I said. “Isn’t that what you and Stacey called it?”

“Yes,” Layla said. “And we were only half joking.”

Even as my skin was thawing under the hot sun, a chill powered down my spine. “Maybe you guys are onto something. Not the Buffy variety of Hellmouths, but something like that.”

“Gideon’s on it right now. He’s blown away by the whole angelic language thing. Think he geeked out the moment he realized he had real angel weapons in his possession.” Zayne grinned. “He wants us to head to the compound to talk to him about the plans we found at the senator’s house. He thinks he might be onto something.”

“That’s good news,” I said. We could really use some good news.

“Keep us updated,” Roth said as we started walking back toward the intersection. “Especially if those damn blades go missing. Once the others realize what they have in their possession, I want to know if there’s a Warden who decides he could use them.”

Zayne nodded.

“Can you do me a favor?” Layla asked Zayne when we came to a street corner.

“Sure,” he answered.

I couldn’t help but notice how far both of them had come since the first time I’d seen them together. That was good, I thought, smiling.

“When you see Stacey later, can you try to talk her into staying out of school?” she asked, and the smile froze on my face. “Maybe she’ll listen to you.”

Zayne glanced at me before answering. “Yeah, I’ll talk to her.”

* * *

I wished Zayne had driven his motorcycle, because at least then I could pretend I couldn’t hear him. Alas, we were in his Impala and I had problems with my vision, not my hearing.

“I was going to tell you about Stacey,” he said, halfway to the compound.

Staring out the window, I nibbled away on my thumbnail. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“I know I don’t,” he replied, and I made a face at the window, unsure why he thought confirming that helped. “I was going to tell you because I wanted to.”

“Oh,” I murmured, focusing on the blurred buildings and people. “Cool.”

He obviously didn’t believe I thought it was cool. “She and I really didn’t get to talk yesterday.”

“Understandable.” I was sort of surprised the ice cream social was only yesterday. Felt like a week ago. “I kind of ruined all of that.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” he corrected. “It’s just with everything that happened with Sam and—”

“You don’t need to explain yourself. Pretty sure that’s already been established,” I said around my thumb. “Works out, anyway, because I need to pack.”

“I’m not trying to explain myself. It just slipped my mind with everything that happened between then and Layla bringing it up.” He paused, and then I felt his fingers on my wrist, sending a jolt of awareness through me. He pulled my hand from my mouth.