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stuff,” Tina corrected.
    That was exactly what he’d meant, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.
    “Well, growing up, I bounced around a bunch of... modest ...homes. I learned to never carry a lot of things with me because I was so used to constantly packing up, never sure where I was going next. I’ve never lived in a place this big in my entire life,” she explained.
    “Army brat?” Ethan guessed.
    Tina yawned again and it her next words breathy and an octave higher. “Foster care. My mom died when I was born. Never knew my dad.”
    A pang of sympathy made Ethan’s gut clench. He couldn’t imagine what that must’ve been like, but he knew exactly what it was like to be without parents. But he had at least known his for a little while before they were...gone.
    “How long have you been on your own?” he asked quietly.
    “You get kicked out of the program when you’re eighteen. Went to Kent Community while working a couple of jobs. Graduated last year and moved here.”
    Ethan cleared his throat. “I’ve been on my own for a while, too.”
    Tina tilted her head up to look at him. “Yeah?” There was a sense of tenderness in her gaze.
    This whole talking afterwards thing felt weird to Ethan. But something told him he could confide in her. “You know that development we went to last night? I used to live there with my parents. Before the accident.”
    Tina paused and Ethan knew she was wondering how to phrase the inevitable next question. “What, if you don’t mind me asking...”
    “They were murdered. Someone set fire to our house.” Even after all this time, saying the words still triggered a dull ache in his chest. His parents, the two most wonderful people in the world, disappeared forever when he was just a teenager.
    He felt her shudder against him. “I’m so sorry.”
    Ethan remembered the house in all its glory: the exquisite stained glass windows on the second floor, the white wicker swinging chair on the porch, the brass knocker on the front door that resembled a stoic lion. Before tonight, it was the only house in Mezza Estates to ever burn down. He frowned.
    “Did they ever catch who did it?” Tina asked.
    “It was my father’s best friend, a Gluttony. After it happened, he was run out of town and no one saw him ever again. His actions shocked the demon community—they never thought he would go to that extreme.”
    Tina looked at him with disbelief. “That’s terrible. Why would his friend do that?”
    “Because my father was a demon and my mother was an angel.” Bile rose in his throat at the reminder of how close-minded demons used to be.
    “An angel?” Tina wondered aloud. “They really exist? I thought they were just a myth.”
    “Oh, they exist. But they are very rare. Most of them are healers. At birth, they are marked with a strip of platinum blonde hair near their temple so that people know they could go to them whenever they are in danger.”
    Tina shook her head. “Why would his friend do that to him?”
    Ethan sighed. “It seems ridiculous now, with demons, angels and humans living peacefully yet fairly separately among each other, but in my parents’ generation there was a hatred toward mixed marriages in the demon community. My father’s best friend spearheaded this movement, this discrimination. What would happen to the demon community if there were people with mixed blood out there? His platform was that we had to preserve the traditions and values we uphold.”
    “And what are they?” Tina asked, genuinely interested. “The traditions.”
    “Demons were stigmatized for so long, that the darkness we bring to the world is bad, is wrong. But we were created to balance the dark and light in the world, to provide a yin to the yang in life. Angel blood would lighten our darkness. Many demons take this role very seriously, but some took it too far, becoming corrupt, taking pleasure in the pain they bring humans. They ruined it for others, like me, who