Armentrout

, which was just a really large fire pit where younger Wardens gathered at night to hang out,

I’d kissed Misha when I was sixteen, and he’d kissed me back, but then it became really weird because he was like a brother to me, and neither of us were about that kind of life.

Wardens’ body temperatures ran high—higher than humans, higher than mine—

Mating in Warden terms didn’t mean hooking up. It meant getting married and having a metric crap ton of little Warden babies,

Warden in training, preparing to be the warrior the world knew the Wardens as, and he didn’t understand how I’d gained the upper hand so quickly

According to my father, Protectors and their charges

who was like a second father to me.

But Thierry was the one in the position to do more. He was the boss here, and not just a clan leader but a Duke, overseeing all the other clans and the many outposts in the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley. He was ultimately responsible for training all the new warriors and ensuring that the community remained safe and relatively hidden

Wardens of the Potomac Highlands, the ancestral seat of power for the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley clans, where the warriors were trained to protect the human cities and fight the ever-increasing population of demons, had a purpose that extended beyond training the warriors

I could see ghosts and spirits,

how many knew the truth. Misha. Thierry and his husband, Matthew. Jada. That was all