The walk should've been short. It felt endless.
Streetlights hummed overhead, throwing pale halos onto cracked sidewalks and empty storefront windows. Jade kept her hands shoved in her jacket pockets, shoulders tight, jaw locked. She didn't look back, because she could feel Zeth behind her anyway. Not the way she had earlier when his heart had been pinned to her hair like a secret she didn't ask for. This was different. No thread in her skull. No echo of his thoughts. Just his footsteps, steady and quiet, like he was trying not to spook a feral animal.
Jade was feral tonight.
Her mind replayed the bar in broken flashes: the way Levi's fingers had clamped around her wrist, the cold certainty in his voice, the sharp smell of beer and sweat, and then… the sudden absence. Like someone had ripped a sound out of the air. Like a door had slammed. And then Aamon's voice, bored as always, cutting through the moment:
Took you long enough.
Jade's throat tightened so hard she tasted metal. Levi had been willing to kill her like it was a joke… and Aamon had sat there like it was entertainment. That thought burned worse than fear. Jade couldn't understand why Aamon allowed it to happen after promising her that she would not be in danger in his presence. She didn't understand any of it. Not really.
When they reached the lab building, the world got quieter. The streets thinned, the lights dimmed, and the huge glass face of the facility reflected Jade back at herself. Smaller. Pale. Haunted. Like a ghost pretending it still belonged to the living.
She swiped her badge through the reader. The door clicked open.
Inside, the lab smelled like disinfectant and cold metal and stale coffee. The overhead lights were off, leaving only emergency strips along the floor and a few monitor LEDs blinking in distant rooms like lazy eyes. Jade liked it that way. Darkness made things feel simpler. Less exposed. She shut the door behind her. She didn't bother to check if Zeth came in.
Jade walked past the front desk, past the break room, past the corridor where she'd once watched impossible things held inside glass and steel and false human rules. Tonight, her office door felt like salvation. She pushed it open, stepped inside, and finally let her body collapse. She slid down the wall until she hit the floor, knees drawn to her chest. The chair sat a few feet away, polite and unused. A long breath left her, shaky and too loud in the silence.
"I should've gotten a bottle on my way here," she muttered, and the sound of her own voice made her flinch.
The walk had wiped her mind clean, almost pleasantly. Like her thoughts had been yanked out by the roots and left on the sidewalk behind her. Now, sitting here, the thoughts returned like flood.
Zoe's laughter. Zeth's irritated voice. Levi's cold smile. Aamon's eyes, unreadable even when he was looking right at her. Aamon's hands on her waist, lifting her like she weighed nothing. Aamon's warmth. And then the sick twist of realizing she'd wanted it, and wors, she missed it.
Jade pressed her forehead into her knees and tried to breathe.
"Having demons for friends makes things difficult," she huffed, like complaining could make it less true.
Heat streaked down her cheeks. For half a second, she had the absurd, desperate thought that Aamon had brushed her face again. That he was there, somehow, like smoke sliding through a crack in reality. Then she realized it was just tears. Her chest caved. The dam inside her finally broke, and Jade cried like she'd been holding it back her whole life. Quiet at first, then rougher. Ugly. Honest. Just the raw truth of it.
It hadn't hit her right away at the bar. Not fully. Her mind had kept skipping over the worst part like a needle avoiding a scratch in a record, but sitting here, alone with herself, she couldn't avoid it anymore. Levi was going to kill her and Aamon hadn't lifted a finger. He watched.He was going to let it happen.
Jade clenched her fists until her nails bit her palms. Up until that moment, Aamon seemed like he cared. In his own strange way. In the way he'd brought beer like it was medicine. In the way he'd promised to protect her without hesitation. In the way his voice went colder whenever someone looked at her like prey. The way he always seemed to show up at the right time and fix everything going wrong in the moment.
And then…
Took you long enough.
Jade squeezed her eyes shut so tight it hurt as his words replay in her mind. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to scream at him, scold him for lies, hit him until her hands hurt.
If she was being honest with herself, after the anger had burned away, all she really wanted was to have him hold her. To have him tell her, without dodging, without smirking, without saying "I'll explain later," that she was safe.
That he would protect her. She hated that she felt stupid for wishing for it.
The office door clicked softly. Jade didn't look up. Footsteps crossed the room.
Zeth crouched down in front of her, studying her shaking shoulders. For a moment, he just stared, like he was trying to decide whether this was a mortal thing or a Jade thing. Then he reached out and poked her forehead gently.
"You cry a lot, you know that?" he said matter-of-factly.
Jade jerked her head up, startled. Her eyes were wet and furious and embarrassed all at once. Jade tried wiping her face, but the tears wouldn't stop, so she hid again, burying her face behind her knees like a kid caught doing something shameful.
Zeth made a sound that might've been an awkward laugh. After watching her for a moment, debating what the best course of action would be, Zeth decided to try to offer her comfort. He sat down beside her, back against the wall, legs stretched out.
Jade heard him exhaling, long and tired. He was quiet for a moment, then asked, cautiously, "So… was it Aamon or Levi that upset you?"
Jade didn't answer. Zeth huffed again, rubbing at his temples.
"I hate not knowing what's going on in there," he muttered. "Earlier it was exhausting. Now it's… worse." Zeth looked at Jade again, watching her shoulders shake, her breathes came in short unsteady bursts, and he could hear the ugliness of tears. The way she tried so hard to hide her pain despite it being so obvious.
"I never thought I would wish to be back in your head," Zeth groaned. "At least I would know how to help."
Zeth's voice softened, grudgingly. "I'm not… good at this. The crying thing. I mean. You're leaking." Zeth tried to joke, to make light of the situation. "Look at you Jade. You're going to get snot all over the floor if you keep on like this."
Jade let out a broken laugh that turned into another sob then, her shoulders hitched. Zeth stared at her a beat, then sighed like he was making a decision he hated. He shifted closer. Then, abruptly, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest.
For one terrifying second, her body didn't know what to do with comfort. Her instincts screamed danger because every time she let someone close, something always followed. Disappointment. Abandonment. Pain. Asking for help always had a price.
Jade stiffened so hard Zeth feared she'd petrified under his cold touch. She was waiting for what came next. Her mind screaming at her to stay on guard. Her heart raced, tears raced down her face. She took a breath, then another, slower. Forcing herself to see the truth of the situation.
Zeth's hold wasn't hungry. It wasn't possessive. It was clumsy, childish. Careful. Like he was holding a fragile object and didn't know how much pressure would break it. He was attempting comfort without fully understanding how.
Jade's breath caught, and then her arms moved on their own. She grabbed him and sobbed into his chest. Zeth was caught off guard for half a second, then he patted her back once. Awkward. Wrong spot. Like he'd seen humans do it in a movie once and hoped it worked.
Jade's entire body shuddered, the tears did not stop. Zeth sighed, "You know, this jacket is expensive. Can we not get your snotty boogers all over it?" Zeth laughed gently as he ran his hand over the top of Jade's head. He body shook again.
"Are you… cold?" Zeth wasn't fully aware of why humans reacted in some ways. He had common understandings, but none of the demons had interacted with a human long enough to fully understand. After being inside Jade's mind for a while, Zeth had an in depth glance at how complicated she was but it didn't make it any easier to understand her now.
"Are you scared?" he tried again when Jade still didn't reply.
Zeth huffed, frustrated, then tilted his head like a scientist adjusting the method mid-experiment.
"Are you… angry?" he asked quietly.
Jade's breath hitched. That one landed.
Zeth sighed like he'd found the right switch. "Yeah. That makes sense."
Jade stayed pressed against him, tears soaking into his shirt, until her sobs started to slow. Her breathing steadied, but she still trembled in lingering aftershocks. She was finally letting herself relax, the storm of emotions dying with each shudder when suddenly, Jade felt warmth surrounding her. It was startling in comparison to Zeth's cold touch.
Jade blinked. She lifted her head slowly. Red filled the corner of her vision, feathers catching dim light like embers. A massive wing had wrapped over her shoulders like a blanket. Jade sniffed once, loudly. Jade stared, sure she was half-delirious from crying. "…You carry a blanket of feathers around?" Jade mumbled under her breath because the question felt ridiculous.
Zeth's mouth twitched. "It's not a blanket," he said quietly. "It's my wing."
Jade looked down at it again, fingers hovering just above the feathers. She didn't touch at first. She didn't want to ruin it.
"…Wing?" she repeated, voice hoarse. "So you can fly?"
Zeth's expression brightened, proud despite himself. "Yes, actually. Even with only one."
Jade blinked again. "Wait. Only one?"
Zeth's eyes narrowed like he'd forgotten he was talking to a mortal. "Yes. Only one."
"…And you can still fly," Jade said, like her brain was trying to accept the physics.
"Well," Zeth said, shrugging. "I'm not flapping around like a pigeon. I can fly."
Jade's mouth cracked into a small, reluctant smile. "Do all demons have wings?"
"No." Zeth settled back. "Only me and two other upper-class demons, plus the legion under Beelzebub."
The name made Jade's spine prickle. "Beelzebub…"
Zeth watched her expression. "Yeah. That one."
Jade swallowed and leaned back against him again, quieter now, tears finally slowing.
Zeth's wing stayed around her, warm and strangely comforting.
"I'm kind of surprised you haven't lost your mind yet," Zeth admitted after a pause. "With everything you've learned in the last few days." Zeth feels Jades shoulders rise and fall in a halfhearted shrug.
"Don't tell me you've already had enough?" Zeth tries to joke but Jade looks up at him with a look of disdain
"Says the one who couldn't take more than few hours in my head." Jade retorts quietly.
Zeth clears his throat. "Guess I hit a nerve eh?" He smiles but Jade shows no change.
"Alright I concede. Look I don't want to add to all that madness in your head but if you need something else to think about for a while, I could tell you a story…my story."
Jade hesitated, then nodded once and rested her head against his chest again, like she'd decided his presence was better than being alone with her thoughts.
Zeth took a deep breath.
"Most of what the record books say is true," he began. "I followed one of my fellow angels from the Light Realm."
Jade's head snapped up. "You used to be an angel? Like Lucifer?"
Zeth shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Though we left for different reasons."
He stared at the dark ceiling, voice going distant like he was watching memories on the inside of his skull.
"The Light Realm and the Dark Realm have laws that mirror each other. Opposites, but balanced. Mortals are where the lines blur. Where rules get… messy."
Jade stayed quiet, listening.
"Some angels didn't think the Light Realm was fair," Zeth continued. "They thought the Magnate made laws that protected power and disguised it as virtue. Some rebelled. Some abandoned him."
Zeth's jaw tightened. "I was part of the second group."
"Why did you leave?" Jade asked softly.
Zeth's wing flexed slightly, feathers shifting. "Beelzebub."
Jade swallowed.
Zeth nodded, as if confirming it even to himself. "He was a deity I looked up to for a long time in the Light Realm. And every few thousand years, the Realms open their borders for something called the Soul Shift. During this time, high level Angels and Demons are allowed to travel to the Mortal Realm."
Jade's brows pinched. "Is that happening now?"
Zeth nodded. "That's why we're here."
"But only a certain number can leave," Zeth said. "Because both realms have enemies. Both need defenders."
Jade nodded slowly, processing the information. "And Beelzebub was an angel with you?" She questioned.
Zeth shook his head. "Not at first, no. Beelzebub was originally a demon," Zeth continued. "The first Prince of Hell to rise from human sin. Gluttony."
Jade's eyes widened slightly.
"During the first Soul Shift," Zeth said, "the Magnate offered him a seat of power in the Light Realm. The Magnate thought Beelzebub's strength could help defend against rogue demons."
Zeth's mouth twisted. "It… didn't go well. Beelzebub required too many souls. The Light Realm destabilized. Chaos followed. And when the balance tipped too far, Beelzebub was thrown out, along with his legion. The only reason any of them can fly," Zeth said, voice low, "is because they were touched by the Light Realm once. Even if the Light hated them for it."
Jade stared at his wing again, understanding dawning.
"I wanted to go with him," Zeth admitted. "When he fell, I wanted to follow. But losing one high-level angel was already a blow to the Light Realm, so I wasn't given permission."
His fingers curled slightly. "I tried anyway."
Jade held her breath.
"The remaining high-class angels tried to rip my wings from me," Zeth said flatly. "They only managed to take one. And the other… they cursed."
He lifted his wing a little, showing it in the dim light. Red. Not bloody. Not stained. Just… permanently wrong, like a warning baked into his bones.
"It's a mark," Zeth said. "Means I can never return to the Light Realm."
He exhaled, almost relieved. "Honestly? Good riddance."
Jade's chest tightened. Not pity exactly. Something deeper. A quiet recognition of exile. Of being unwanted by the place you came from.
Zeth continued, voice slipping into dark humor again like it was armor.
"Bealz and I spent time in the Mortal realm before he eventually returned to the Dark Realm but I remained here as a God to the Egyptians. I was offered sacrifice and praised daily.
Jade's lips parted. "You were… worshiped."
Zeth nodded. "I let it go to my head."
He looked down at Jade, expression sharp. "One day, the Red Sea was parted. The slaves of the people who worshiped me were going to be saved. I tried to stop them."
Zeth's voice went hollow. "I was swallowed by the sea. Entombed. A pillar of light in the deepest part of it."
Jade's throat dried, her voice little more than a whisper now. "Did… God trap you there?"
Zeth barked a laugh, startled by the question. "Not the god you're thinking of."
He sighed. "Mammon."
Jade blinked. "Mammon?"
Zeth nodded. "He is the Prince of Greed. He wanted praise. The sacrifices. Mortal sins and praise are… useful currency."
Jade's mind flashed to Levi's fingers on her wrist. The way he'd talked like she was meat.
Her voice turned quiet. "Levi is one of the princes."
"Yep," Zeth said. "Prince of Envy. Also a drama queen, if you hadn't noticed."
Jade let out a small, exhausted breath that almost counted as a laugh. "I see, so if Aamon is the sovereign, does that mean he is everyone's father?"
Zeth stared at her.
And then he burst out laughing so hard his wing shook.
"Oh, I cannot wait to tell him you said that," Zeth wheezed, wiping at his eye like he'd actually teared up. "No. Good guess, but no."
Zeth sobered, leaning back. "The princes don't really have parents. They're born of human sin. Aamon is… different."
Jade went still, listening.
"Aamon is the Sovereign," Zeth said, and for the first time his voice carried something like reverence without irony. "Ruler of the Dark Realm. That means he has to be more powerful than all demons combined."
Jade's eyes widened.
"And not just power," Zeth continued. "Intellect. Timing. Restraint. If he didn't know when to use his strength, he'd be a disaster."
Zeth's gaze went distant again. "Some ancient cultures worshiped him once. Asked him for advice about war, friendship, problems of the heart. He can manipulate mortal consciousness. He commands Hellfire. Some even believe he can… bend time."
Jade swallowed, a new image of Aamon forming in her mind. Not just a sharp smile and cold teasing. Something older. Heavier.
She felt oddly… closer to him, just hearing Zeth speak like that.
"You mortals get the story wrong," Zeth said, irritation flickering. "You want our ruler to be the core of all evil because it makes you feel safer. Like you can point at something and say, that's the monster, that's the reason life hurts."
Jade didn't argue.
Zeth exhaled. "Sure. He's dark. He's dangerous. He has to be. If he couldn't crush every demon who challenged him, he couldn't hold the realm together."
He looked down at Jade. "But he's not mindless violence."
"How isn't he violent like the stories say demons are?" Jade questions slowly.
Anger flashes in Zeth' s eyes and for a moment Jade feared she'd asked the wrong thing.
"The opinion of mortals will never change." Zeth clicks his tongue, letting his anger die before he continues, slower this time. "Because, the universe requires balance."
Zeth looks at Jade's face expecting to find an expression of fear. He was amazed to see her eyes filled with wonder and curiosity. A thin smile appears on his face, though Jade can see a hint of sadness behind it.
"The Dark Realm needed a ruler capable of holding back darkness itself. Not just evil for evil's sake. Balance. A counterweight to the Light. Aamon carried that burden whether mortals understood it or not."
Then Zeth's expression sharpened again. "Aamon is still the most powerful deity in the Dark Realm. In fact, there is only one other Deity that rivals him."
Jade watches Zeth, her eyes wide in amazement. "How can he be so powerful?"
Zeth lets a smile crawl over his face easily. "Contracts." He says plainly. Jades face scrunches.
"Human sin, human kindness. We feed off of it. Acts of kindness provide longer sustenance than acts of sin, which is why you hear far more stories of deals made with devils than you do of angels performing miracles." Zeth explains calmly, as if it was common knowledge.
Jade's stomach tightened. "So, what if someone like me, never makes a deal for either side? Can they force me one way or another?" Jade's eyes widen slightly as a new fear unlocks in her mind. Zeth chuckles softly, knowing that her mind is swirling with too many thoughts all at once.
"No Jade. You are going to be fine. Take a breather, okay? In order to protect Mortals, certain rules are applied to deities. For Aamon, if he touches mortals, they burn unless a very specific circumstance happens."
Zeth let her sit with that for a moment, watching her process.
Jade's voice came out small when she finally spoke again. "I kind of feel bad for him."
Zeth stared at her like she'd grown a second head. "You feel bad for the most powerful being in the entire Dark Realm?"
Jade nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "It sounds lonely. Even if people support him… he's still alone at the top."
Zeth blinked slowly, baffled.
"That's what you took from all of that?" he muttered, astonished at what Jade considered important.
Jade shrugged. "I see things differently."
She lifted the edge of his wing gently, testing its weight with two fingers like it might vanish if she moved too fast. "I wouldn't call you normal either. Even by demon standards, Mr. One Wing."
Zeth's mouth twitched. "By demon standards, not being normal is more interesting."
Jade let out a small laugh, the first real one tonight.
Zeth looked down at her, satisfied. "You must be feeling better if you can mock me."
Jade's smile faded into something thoughtful. She nodded once, then sat up suddenly, eyes wide, like a puzzle piece had clicked into place.
"Zeth," she said, voice sharper now, urgent.
Zeth arched a brow. "What."
Jade stared at him like she was seeing the whole board for the first time.
"You said Aamon can't touch anything without burning it unless certain circumstances line up."
Zeth's expression tightened, cautious.
Jade swallowed.
"Tell me what the circumstances are."