like the words scrambled in front of me and I saw it. “Holy crap. The name of the company. Bar Rhinge. Maybe I’m seeing things, but don’t those letters also spell Harbinger?”
“What?” Danika looked down and then she jerked. “Hell...” Grabbing a piece of paper and pencil out of the desk, she wrote down the company’s name and then Harbinger under it. She quickly connected the letters. “You’re right.”
“It’s an anagram.” Zayne huffed out a laugh. “Good catch, Trin.”
Cheeks flushing, I shrugged. “I mean, we already know they’re all connected, so not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal. It’s more proof that we’re onto something,” he said.
“He’s right,” Gideon agreed. “I should’ve seen that. It’s kind of obvious once you do.”
“Can’t always be the nerdiest in the room,” Danika remarked.
“I disagree.” Gideon picked up the other roll of paper and unrolled it on top of the plans. “This whole thing got me thinking—what in the Hell is going on with that school? Before this, we had too much demon activity there. It’s the same place the Lilin was created. Now the senator will be ‘renovating’ it, and it’s full of trapped ghosts and spirits plus has tunnels running near it or under it with angelic wards. There’s no way all of that can be a coincidence.”
“It has to be the Hellmouth,” I murmured, staring at the paper he’d laid down. All I saw was hundreds of lines, some bolder than the others.
“It’s not a Hellmouth, but it’s definitely something.” Gideon walked around to stand by Danika. “What you’re looking at is a map of ley lines—intangible lines of energy. They’re in alignment all over the world with significant landmarks or religious sites. Humans think it’s a pseudoscience, but it’s real. These lines are straight navigational points that connect areas across the world.”
“I’ve heard of them.” Zayne’s brows knitted. “On a show where people investigate fake hauntings.”
“Hey.” I shot him a look. “How do you know they’re fake?”
Zayne grinned.
“A lot of strange things occur along ley lines. Major historical events in the human world, places where people claim to experience more spirit activity,” Danika chimed in. “Areas where Wardens would often find larger-than-normal demon populations.
“Often incantations or spells are more powerful and therefore successful along the ley lines. They indicate powerful, charged areas,” Gideon continued. “And this one here?” He drew his finger over a thicker red line and then stopped over a red dot. “This is the same ley line that connects from Stonehenge, all the way to Easter Island...and this dot?” He tapped his finger. “This is a hub, and it’s not only around Washington, DC, but nearly on top of the area where Heights on the Hill is.”
Holy crap.
“That could be why the Harbinger is interested in this school,” Zayne said, looking at me. “It’s not a random location.”
“Would make sense if whatever he’s planning is going to require a whole lot of the heavenly, spiritual variety of energy. That kind of power, wielded by someone who knows how to control it, could turn a balled-up piece of paper into an atomic bomb, and that makes damn near anything possible.”
32
“You really suck at folding clothes,” Peanut pointed out from where he was floating near the ceiling.
“Thanks,” I muttered, wondering how I’d fit all these clothes in the luggage in the first place. I glanced up at Peanut. “What are you doing up there?”
“Mediating.”
“Sounds legit.” I folded a tank top as my mind slowly but surely circled back to what I’d been trying to not think about since Zayne had left the apartment.
What was he doing with Stacey? Were they having another ice cream social? Catching a movie, or going to that steak house he’d taken me to?
I shook my head as I shoved the tank into the luggage. It didn’t matter, and this was for the best. He deserved to have some sort of life outside of being my Protector, with whomever he chose. Eventually the ache in my chest would fade, and I would come to look at Zayne as nothing more than my Protector or my friend. Maybe then I’d even find someone to...to pass the time with.
If we lived long enough.
What we’d found out today was a big deal, but it had also created more questions than answers and I couldn’t shake the feeling we were missing something.
Something huge.
We still didn’t know what the Harbinger planned to do at the school, how the plan involved the trapped spirits and why he not only had