The Sweetest Burn

I gave Zach an incredulous look as Costa took Jasmine’s arm and started down the hill. “Manna grows on trees?”

He shrugged. “Where else did you think it came from?”

I clenched my fists to keep from doing something rash. Then I knelt beside Adrian and began applying pressure to his head and stomach wounds, all the while cursing Zach with my thoughts. We hoarded manna like gold because Zach only gave us a little at a time, yet it literally grew on trees in realms that he had unlimited access to? Unbelievable!

“You now have unlimited access to them, so you no longer need me for your supply,” he replied in an unruffled tone.

My fists clenched tighter on the wadded-up fabric I held to Adrian’s stomach. “That’s information we could have used several months ago,” I managed to say very calmly.

His pointed glance settled on my clenched hand. “Until you passed the first challenge and the slingshot merged with your body, you wouldn’t have been able to enter them.”

“But I’m a Davidian,” I protested. “Judians can cross into demon realms, so I should be able to cross into Archon ones.”

He let out a snort that somehow managed to sound both elegant and imperious. “The forces that guard these realms are much stronger than the ones that guard the demon worlds. No bloodline is enough to give a human the ability to cross into them. Only the hallowed weapon in your flesh is powerful enough.” Then Zach shocked me by adding, “You can’t tell Adrian about Demetrius,” as casually as if he were remarking about the weather.

“No way,” I said at once. “I know what it’s like to have people conceal really important information about your lineage from you. Adrian might have done that to me when we first met, but it was wrong, and I won’t do the same to him.”

“Will you never take anything on faith?” Zach muttered, holding up a hand when I started to respond. “If you need a reason, here it is. Tell Adrian now, and you will both die.”

I didn’t take those words as a threat. If Zach wanted us dead, we would be, many times over, so he must be warning us based on foreknowledge. Times like this, he seemed to want us to succeed, although his habit of sitting on the sidelines during most of our battles was an infuriating way for him to show it.

“Fine,” I said, shooting a guilty look at Adrian while thinking, I’m sorry. “I won’t tell him. But Demetrius might, now that he knows I know.”

Zach made a dismissive motion. “Don’t worry about him.”

“Oh, sure, a demon with enough power to spill realms onto us or sweep them back up is nothing to be concerned about. His being Adrian’s biological father and my superevil arch nemesis is just the icing on the relaxation cake.”

Zach’s mouth twitched at my acid tone. “As I told you before, your mind and your willpower needs to rule your circumstances, not the other way around.”

“And as I told you, easy for you to say,” I muttered, but Jasmine and Costa’s return had us leaving it at that.

“Is this enough?” Jasmine asked, holding a bundle out.

Zach glanced at the blooms that were shaped like a trumpet’s horn. Costa had taken his shirt off and used it as a basket, allowing them to collect dozens of the white flowers.

“This will do,” he said. “Crush them together. The pollen will coat the petals and turn the entire mixture into manna.”

“Can I keep your shirt?” I asked Costa. I had nothing else to use as a container while I crushed the flowers. This realm might be stunning, but it lacked some basic conveniences.

“Of course,” he said. “Need help?”

I spread his shirt flat on the ground and began crushing up the flowers. “I’ve got it.”

Jasmine looked around, her expression reminding me of when we were kids and our parents took us to Disneyland. “This place...it’s so beautiful, it doesn’t even seem real.”

“Yes,” Zach agreed, with none of her awe. “That is why we took the survivors from the Bennington realm to these worlds. Their tranquility assists with the healing process.”

Costa made such a bitter-sounding noise that I looked up from my task. “I don’t remember getting any angelic rehab after my time in the demon realms,” he said in a steely tone.

“Me, neither,” Jasmine added, her expression hardening.

Zach’s arm swept out in a wide arc. “If you feel cheated and you want to stay in this one, then stay.”

I paused in crushing the flowers. “Are you serious?” Jasmine and I asked at the same time.

Zach’s stare was level, and uncompromising. “Yes. In fact, any of you can stay here as long as you wish, but remember, by doing so, you lose your chance to be a participant in this war.”

I began crushing the flowers with more force than necessary. “That’s not a real offer for me. I’m the last Davidian, so if I sat this war out by staying here, the realm walls would crumble and countless places around the world would look like the campus we just left.”

“Correct,” Zach replied in that infuriatingly calm tone.

I glared at him. “That’s no choice, and you know it.”

Zach glared back, only his eyes had lights shimmering in them. “It is a choice, and it comes down to this. You living happily here, or leaving this place to save strangers who will never even know what you did, let alone thank you for it.”

“Demetrius, is that you?” I replied mockingly. “Because Zach, Archon Who Only Follows Orders, would never try to talk me out of fulfilling my much-anticipated destiny.”

“Do you remember my telling you that Adrian’s fate was in his own hands?” Zach replied, his tone far more sharp. “So is yours. The Creator gave all humans free will, and that gift is so strong, not even destiny can overcome it.”

Everyone’s eyes were suddenly fixed on me. My heart began to race, but I tried not to show how affected I was as I crushed the last of the blooms into the sticky, crumb-like substance. Then I spread some onto Adrian’s head and stomach while my thoughts careened over this unexpected offer.

What if me, Adrian, Jasmine and Costa did ride out the fall of the realm walls in a beautiful world where demons could never harm us? As I well knew, even if I found the staff, I might not be able to wield it long enough to fix the walls. The more likely scenario was my touching it, falling over dead and having demons dance around my corpse as they used the staff to send all the realm walls crashing down.

In fact, might it be better for everyone if I stayed? Sure, some realm walls would crumble, but not all of them, and if only some fell, then the majority of people would live. After all, if I stayed here, then the staff stayed lost. Demons had already struck out for millennia trying to find it on their own and I doubted their luck would change anytime soon. If I stayed, then demons couldn’t find the staff through me, and if Adrian, Costa and Jasmine happened to stay with me, well, what was wrong with that? Weren’t they also entitled to a little happiness after everything they’d been through?

Zach stared at me, hearing every thought as if I were speaking them out loud. His expression didn’t change, but his dark, steady gaze reflected the truth of my rationalizations, and I hated what I saw in their reflection.

I didn’t want to die, and I really didn’t want the people I loved to die, either. There was nothing wrong with that, unless I was willing to trade our safeties for the lives of untold millions. If I was willing to do that, then I was as evil as the creatures I despised with every fiber of my being.

I looked at Jasmine and Costa. My sister’s gaze was filled with silent urgings for me to take this way out. Costa’s was jaded, a little knowing, and I flashed back to our conversation several days ago, although with everything that had happened, it felt like several years ago. You need to find something else to fight for, he’d said. I hadn’t believed him then, but faced with such a momentous choice now, I knew that he was right.

I couldn’t just fight for the people I loved. I also had to fight for everyone who couldn’t fight for themselves, for everyone who didn’t know there was a war going on around them, and for all those who’d suffered and died at the hands of demons and minions, my parents included.