The Sweetest Burn

I had to say it. “You do know it’s extremely twisted that you need an angel’s help to hook up, right?”

This time, his laughter had an edge. “I never have before, but with Zach, I can give you the guarantee that you demanded.”

I didn’t remind him that I’d only promised him a chance, not a sure thing. “How does Zach factor into you proving that you can beat your fate?” I asked instead.

He tensed, but then relaxed almost as fast. “It’s complicated, so I’d rather show you than tell you.”

“That’s what my prom date said right before I cracked a beer bottle over his head,” I replied, my tone dry. “You told me no more secrets, remember?”

He angled his head so he could look at me, and his expression was serious. “I don’t want to tell you right now. That’s a choice, not a secret, and yes, there’s a difference.”

Not in my mind, but I’d given him an ultimatum—a huge one—and he’d sworn to meet it. I still didn’t think that it was possible, but I had to admit—the idea was starting to appeal. And if it was possible for Adrian to prove that he could beat his fate without having to wait until the end of this war, how could I refuse to honor the only stipulation he’d given me?

“Fine,” I said. “You’ll tell me, or show me, when Zach does what you want him to.” If he does, I silently added. Then I changed the subject. “So, the staff’s not here. What’s next on our list of places filled with unexplainable natural weirdness?”

“It’s...” His voice trailed off, then he almost shoved me away. He was out of the car before I could ask what was wrong, but one look around answered that.

When I’d glanced out the window moments ago, the sky had been bright blue. Now, it was deepest indigo that was fast turning to black. With all the crazy lightning, I would’ve thought a storm was rolling in, except there were no clouds.

Adrian jumped back into the car, slamming it into gear and hitting the gas. The instant velocity knocked me against the seats hard enough to risk whiplash.

“Call Costa.” His tone was urgent. “Tell him to aim for the lightning and get out of here, now.”

I began to tear through my purse looking for my cell phone. “What’s going on?”

Lightning continued to flash on every horizon, until the perimeter of the landscape was bathed in strobes of dazzling white. At the same time, the sky turned pitch black, and more terrifying, somehow looked like it was starting to fall.

Adrian floored the gas. “This area is being swallowed by a demon realm.”

CHAPTER TEN

I’M THE FIRST to criticize when people ask dumb questions during a crisis. Seriously, I can’t count the times I’ve thought, Just shut up and run! while watching a horror movie. In reality, stupid-babble was a side effect of shock, and despite all that I’d been through, I still wasn’t immune to it.

Take me saying, “What? How?” while dialing Costa’s cell phone with shaking fingers.

Adrian didn’t take his eyes off the nearest lightning storm, which he was driving us straight toward.

“Told you, demon realms are created when they cause parts of their world to slam into ours. I’ve seen it done before, and this is what it looked like.”

Yes, he’d explained realm creation to me months ago. Not that understanding it helped when a nightmare-black sky was bearing down on us like a giant foot about to squash an ant. Costa answered on the second ring, and I didn’t wait for him to say hello before blurting out Adrian’s instructions.

“Drive for the lightning. A realm’s coming down on us!”

“What?” Costa demanded. See? Stupid-babble.

“A realm is about to swallow us,” I yelled. “The only way out is through the lightning, so drive, drive, drive!”

I heard Costa shout something to Jasmine, then the line went dead. I checked the phone. No bars. With two worlds about to collide in the same space, that wasn’t a surprise. Darkness had now completely enveloped the area around us, making it difficult to see the bands of lightning we were headed toward. Without our headlights, we’d be driving blind, and we needed to see or we’d crash into one of the area’s many boulders. When we’d gone on our joy ride, we’d driven well away from the bus, not knowing that there would be any consequences. Now, I only hoped that Costa and Jasmine were closer to the lightning belts than we were, because despite Adrian pushing the muscle car to its limit, the horizon around us was turning completely black.

Then several loud booms shook us. Adrian skidded to a stop, narrowly avoiding a large fissure that opened up in the ground in front of us. The air became heavy, compressing us as if each square inch had been filled with invisible weight. Something far louder than thunder echoed across the sky, making me clutch my ears in a futile attempt to lessen the painful noise.

Adrian put the car in Park and shut off the engine. When his gaze met mine, the grim expectancy in those sapphire depths made what he said almost redundant.

“We can’t outrun it. It’s here.”

I looked out the window—and a scream trembled in my throat. I barely noticed Adrian unclipping his seat belt and pulling me into his arms. With those awful compressing sensations growing worse, only his grip kept me from running out of the car in an instinctive, useless attempt to get away.

“Brace yourself!” he shouted above the deafening noise.

I did, unable to stop staring out the window. The wall of black rushing down upon us lost its impenetrable, inky darkness. Instead, for a few terrifying seconds, it looked like a smoky mirror. I could see the top of our car amid the rock-littered landscape, see the cracked ground shuddering and fissuring as if caught in the grip of an earthquake, and then I saw my own pale, stricken face staring up from the windshield when that mirrored reflection crashed down on top of us.

Glass pelted my face before Adrian shoved my head into his chest. I tried to concentrate on how tightly he held me, not on the sudden heaviness in my gut that made me feel like I was being eviscerated in my seat. The noise was the worst; a roaring, blasting sound that seemed to reverberate through my entire body. The urge to run was overwhelming, but at the same time, fear kept me frozen in place.

After what might have been minutes, but felt like hours, Adrian pulled away. He lifted my head, and the faint light from the electronics on the dashboard showed blood running from his ears and from the countless tiny cuts on his face. He leaned over and took some napkins out of his glove box, wiping at my face instead of his. I only realized I was bleeding, too, when I saw that they were stained red after he drew them away.

“Is—is it over?” I asked, surprised that I was barely able to hear my own voice.

He nodded, and I lip-read more than heard him say, “Yes.”

I drew a shaking hand through my hair, feeling the bite of countless shards that were stuck inside the brown mass. A glance down revealed that Adrian and I were covered with glass. All of the windows and most of the windshield were gone, and my mind flashed to his prior erotic statement. How I wished these had broken from uncontrollable passion instead of a realm slamming into this section of desert.

Even if Adrian hadn’t told me what was happening, I’d have figured it out from the new frigid temperatures and the utter darkness. No moonlight interrupted the unbreakable blackness, either. If the moon existed in demon realms, it was never seen because not even the sun’s reflection made it into these frozen facsimiles of hell.

I shivered, shock wearing off enough to remind me that I was dressed in shorts and a tank top. Perfect for an afternoon in Death Valley; highly dangerous for our new surroundings. Adrian caught the shiver and drew his shirt off, causing a small shower of glass to hit the seats. Then he balled it up and began using it to brush the glass off me. He said something, but I only caught a word or two. Then he shouted, which made my ears hurt even more, but at least I understood him.

“Get up slowly, there’s glass everywhere.”

No shit. I managed to get to the door, wincing at all the new cuts that caused despite my being careful. When I was finally outside, I began brushing the shards off me while my shivers turned into shudders. Where had that wind come from? It felt like it skipped my skin and went straight into my bones.