The Sweetest Burn

“I don’t understand your boss,” I finally said to Zach, “but I have to believe that my bloodline and my abilities have given me a real chance to win this war, and I hope—” My voice hitched before I finished strongly with, “I hope if those two things aren’t enough, your boss will care enough to make up the difference, but either way, I have to do this. So thanks for the offer, Zach, but no thanks.”

A moan jerked my attention back to Adrian. His eyes opened, and he sat up, that horrible gash on the back of his head healed, as was the deep slash in his stomach.

“What happened?” he muttered thickly. “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing,” I said, shooting a quelling look at Jasmine when she opened her mouth to respond. “Nothing at all.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

ADRIAN HAD A barrage of questions that I fielded while trying not to out-and-out lie. How did we get away from Demetrius? What did I mean Demetrius had pulled the realm back into itself? Why would he do that? I was endlessly grateful that Costa and Jasmine hadn’t witnessed any of this, so my explanations, although not the full truth, went unchallenged.

“Demetrius still doesn’t want you dead, so when the other demons kept trying to kill you, he pulled the realm back to stop them,” I’d said, leaving out the crucial reason why. “Plus, his shadows are mostly gone, so I don’t think he felt up to taking on me with my slingshot and Brutus with his guillotine wings.”

Answering his question of “What is this place?” was much easier. After I was done explaining about light realms, he looked around, disbelief stamped on his features.

“I didn’t know these even existed. None of the demons ever talked about them, and neither did any minions.”

I let out a shaky laugh. “Until a little over an hour ago, I didn’t know they existed, either.”

“Thanks for keeping that a secret,” Adrian said to Zach, followed at once by “And nice of you to finally show up.”

“If you are not the Ancient of Days, I am not required to run to you when you call,” Zach replied almost airily.

Adrian glowered at him before returning his attention to me. “I’m surprised you couldn’t see glimpses of these realms, especially since you can catch glimpses of demon ones.”

“Nope,” I said, the irony of that hitting me. “Guess I have enough darkness in me for hallowed weapons to hurt me, too, and for me to see the demon realms, but not enough light in me to see the Archon realms. If I didn’t have the slingshot melded into my arm, I couldn’t even cross into them, either.”

Adrian stopped pacing to grasp me by the shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be your darkness when you need it,” he promised in a low, throaty voice.

“And I’ll be your light,” I replied at once.

His mouth crushed mine in a kiss that ended far too soon. “You already are,” he whispered when he lifted his head.

Then he let me go to pace again, and I could almost see him snapping back into battle mode. “We need to get back to the campus. I have to get that tablet from Father Louis, and we need to get Brutus.”

“Brutus is here,” I said, gesturing toward the tall bushes the gargoyle was hiding in. “But you’re right, we need to go back, especially since we have plenty of manna to help people.”

Adrian gave a cursory look at the residue still smeared on his stomach. “How much did Zach give us?”

“He didn’t. It grows on trees here,” Costa supplied.

Adrian stopped in midpace to nail Zach with a glare. “Really?” he asked with sarcastic accusation.

“My thoughts exactly,” I muttered before yelling, “Brutus!”

The gargoyle came out from the bushes, cringing and using his wings like a huge umbrella to block against the sun.

“Don’t worry, we’re going back to the darkness,” I told him as I began walking toward the gateway that led to the campus.

Adrian and Brutus followed me. Costa did, too, but when Jasmine began to fall in line, I stopped, turning around to face her. “You don’t have to go. Why don’t you rest a little here?”

She let out an exasperated noise. “I know I can’t fight like the rest of you, but if the realm tunnels are gone, then the demons are, too, so none of us should need to. Besides, I can help by treating any seriously injured people with manna.”

I hadn’t meant to insult her, so I said, “Great,” in a hurried manner and thrust Costa’s shirt at her. “Good thinking.”

She gave me a look that said she knew when she was being patronized. “I’m not stupid, Ivy. I know my limits.”

Costa sidled up and placed a casual arm around Jasmine’s shoulders. “She’s also tougher than she looks. You’re not the only person I trained when you were living at my house, Ivy.”

When had that happened? Jasmine and I had practically been joined at the hip for those two months, and I hadn’t seen Costa train her once. The only way I would have missed that was if they’d been sneaking out to do her training while I was asleep, or perhaps during one of my many trips to the grocery store...

All at once, I remembered their guilty expressions when they’d jumped up from the couch after I stormed into the bus earlier. My eyes narrowed as I looked at them. Was this the only thing they’d been hiding from me? Or was there something more?

“Great” was all I said, but I made a mental note to corner Jasmine later and find out if anything was going on with her and Costa. Not that Costa was a bad guy, but Jasmine was only eighteen, and Costa was...well, a lot, lot older.

Yes, I was being a total hypocrite by letting their age difference concern me since Adrian was over a century older than I was, but I couldn’t help it. She was my little sister. If I didn’t look out for her, who would?

I was still wondering if something more than friendship had been brewing between Jasmine and Costa when I pulled Brutus through the gateway first. But when we tumbled onto the street in front of Zilber Hall, the horrible aftermath from the realm spilling onto the campus chased everything else from my mind.

Fire trucks were lined up on several streets, spraying water onto the still-smoldering buildings. So many cop cars had their red-and-blue lights flashing that it cast a weird strobe effect over the campus. New ambulances were arriving as fast as other ones were leaving, their sirens almost indiscernible over the equally loud wails from the fire trucks and police cars. Students were either huddled together in groups, or were running around screaming out names as they searched for missing friends.

It was so awful, no one had noticed me and Brutus suddenly stumbling onto the sidewalk. Judging from the few people I made eye contact with, they were too shell-shocked to care even if they had seen us appear out of nowhere. We’d been in the light realm for at least half an hour, but on this end, it looked like it had only been minutes since Demetrius had pulled the realm tunnels back, so chaos still reigned.

“Keep an eye out for demons,” I told the gargoyle, patting him on his wings. “I’m going back for the rest of them.”

Once I had everyone back on this side, we scattered; Jasmine and Costa to treat the injured that the paramedics hadn’t gotten to yet, and me and Adrian to find Father Louis.

We went to St. Joan’s Chapel first. The roof had a huge hole from where Brutus forced his way inside to get to me, but I was surprised to see that the chapel doors looked like they’d been blown off with dynamite.

“Blinky,” Adrian said by way of explanation, flashing me a quick, wry grin. “That demon really wanted to kill me.”

Considering that Adrian had kept him locked up for the past several years, I didn’t doubt it. “You shouldn’t have sent me away with Brutus,” I muttered. “Seriously, Adrian, don’t ever do that again.”

“I needed to slow him down to make sure you got away,” he replied without the slightest hint of remorse.

I stopped our brisk pace to grab him. “I’m not the same girl you rescued all those months ago. I can take care of myself now, especially with the hallowed weapon in my arm. Your staying behind could’ve gotten you killed, just like your diving into a crowd of demons with Brutus almost got you killed. All I had to do was run by Demetrius and get to the Archon gateway, and I would’ve been fine. Stop thinking that you need to save me, Adrian.” My voice softened. “Saving people is my job, remember?”