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“Sorry,” he cooed, trying to be cutesy.

I didn’t need to be babied. I just needed him to get it. “Well, I told you I can get sensory overload,” I snapped. “If we’re going into something gnarly that I haven’t seen before, you need to tell me first.”

“I’m sorry.” The teasing was gone from his tone. “Truly, River. I am.”

I faced forward, sensing every time he looked at me. I’d counted twelve in the last two minutes.

“Did any of the noises speak to you?” he asked finally.

“No.” I scowled. “That hasn’t happened in a while.”

We rode in silence. I continued to stare ahead at the picturesque fields, left undisturbed by the dwarves’ magic. Ryder finally decided to speak after what may have been his hundredth glance at me. “You can roll your window back down. They don’t leave any stragglers.”

He took his own advice and let his arm meet the air, twirling his fingers in the breeze.

I didn’t do the same, my mind caught on what I’d just experienced. “What is…what is even going on here?” A harsh laugh escaped me. “Like, what are all these species doing? Sprites, dwarves, werewolves, vampires…Are they all off fighting their own holy wars?”

“No, they’re not.” His gaze swept my cheek. “They’re just collateral beings.”

My palms rose with my shoulders. “See—what does that mean?”

“Humans and angels weren’t meant to mix, at least romantically. It went against every law of nature when the first Nephilim were created. It literally altered time and space—ripped it apart, creating a secondary dimension that almost perfectly overlaps with this one, in what we call the Great Cataclysm.”

My finger pulsed against my lips as I took it in. I hadn’t expected him to tell me all this, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to interrupt him.

“Even if the fabric of life is cut and reshaped with precision and purpose, it’s impossible to predict all the trickle-down effects it will have on creation.” Not ready to meet his eyes, I stole a glance at his hand atop the braided steering wheel—the tattooed one with the N and S stenciled between his thumb and pointer. My gaze shifted lower, to the fluid twist of his wrist, to the slight bend of his elbow. His body was lax, like his joints had been unlocked, like he might actually be enjoying this. Talking. “The other species? They were born of the Great Cataclysm. Born of two Earths. Like us.”

Us. My heart skipped a beat. “And humans aren’t affected because they…”

“Already live in the world that was created for them. How their Creator intended,” he finished for me. “We may be part of them…but they are not part of us.”

“So, instead of supernatural creatures, what do all these people see?”

“They see what you do. But, instead of taking it as truth, their mental filter kind of waters down the experience, and their brain spits up an excuse.”

“Like extremely hairy men of shorter stature going for a joyride on their Harleys?” My mouth creased into an unwitting smile. If they hadn’t been trailing us, I might not have looked twice or been attuned to their key, otherworldly differences—like how their helmets had thin slats for their pointy ears, or the way the dust around them twirled and twisted like a northern light.

“Yep.” A soft chuckle slipped out with the word. “You won’t catch them in the city very often, though. Mental filters or not, if their appearances became more frequent, sooner or later mortals would figure it out. Most supernatural beings want to keep their existence secret, so they live on the outskirts of society or blend in—harder to do with some species more than others.”

The bonfire from a couple nights before flashed in my mind. I could say without a doubt there were humans there. I mean, Shanley had invited me before she knew I wasn’t mortal. What had everyone running when Chet was turning into a werewolf—the cops? A belligerent dude? A stray wolf? And was it the same for them all, or dependent on the person?

Then I had another thought. “What about demons?”

“Demons are from another dimension that doesn’t overlap with either of ours. In order to come here, they need to be called forth.” The veins in the back of his hands popped as he gripped the steering wheel even tighter. “They need a leash from the underworld and a tether on earth.”

I remembered his brother saying something similar. It froze my blood then just as much as it did now. “Who would do that?”

“Many people, River. More than you think.”

One side of my lips curled up, scrunching my nose. “That’s…pretty horrifying.” Almost as bad as when he’d told me demons were really the tortured souls of corrupted angels.

I found myself back at a question I’d asked a couple days before, but I hadn’t been totally satisfied with the answer. “What happened to those angels and humans—the ones that fell in love?”

He breathed in a sigh. “Well, a human can’t join the angels because then they’d surpass Judgement. To be together, the angel would have to abandon their place among the Empyrean Throne and come to Earth, where they’d lose Source and immortality and essentially become mortal.” And apparently raise little Nephilim babies. “In theory. We don’t actually know if it went down that easy or if the lovers were ever rejoined.”

Something about that last part didn’t sit right with me. I gulped, the saliva burning my throat the entire way down. “What’s the Empyrean Throne?”

“Empyrea’s where the angels reside. They serve the Court of the Creator, who rules from the Empyrean Throne.”