The Sweetest Burn

Adrian pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket, then let out a snort. “Guess I should’ve known.”

  It was smashed as well as soaked from my bath water, his blood and the blood of who-knew-how-many minions and demons who had tried to kill him. Adrian attempted to use it anyway, and then threw it down when the screen didn’t even power on.

  “We’ll borrow one,” I said, looking around to see if any of the people near us had one.

  “Don’t bother,” Adrian replied, striding toward the chapel. “There’s a phone inside here.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  FATHER LOUIS DIDN’T answer his cell phone. A sobbing student did, and from the details Adrian managed to get out of the hysterical guy, we headed over to the Jesuit Residence. I already feared the worst, but seeing the doors blown off the multistoried building the same way the chapel doors had been destroyed confirmed it.

  “Blinky came here,” I said, shooting a grim look at Adrian. “Do you think—?”

  “Yes,” he replied in a stony voice. “He went after Father Louis to get the map.”

  I didn’t know if the Jesuit Residence had been on hallowed ground, but when I saw the long, ice-slicked puddle that snaked up to the building and continued past those decimated doors, I realized it didn’t matter. A realm tunnel had spilled out here, allowing Blinky and any other demon all the access they wanted.

  There was also blood. A lot of blood, and I tried not to step in the crimson swaths as we walked inside the building. The first thing I saw was two guys who looked to be my age, hugging each other in the corner. Two cops were with them, one getting their statements while the other cordoned off an area around a large, sodden hump in the biggest puddle of blood.

  The last several cops I’d seen had been minions, so I kept my hands near the knives strapped under my shirt as we approached. We hadn’t just used the phone back at the chapel. We’d also resupplied ourselves with weapons from Adrian’s stash in his loft. My right arm hadn’t begun to hurt or glow, so at least there didn’t seem to be any demons nearby.

  “Officer,” Adrian said, striding up to the cop by the blood puddle. “I need to see that man. I know him.”

  The cop turned to face Adrian. His face was very pale, but I was relieved when his eyes didn’t show any unearthly flash of light in them. He was human, then, and just pale from shock.

  “There’s not much left to see,” the officer replied, shaking his head. “Someone butchered him.”

  I closed my eyes. I hadn’t wanted to believe that the bloody hump on the floor was Father Louis, even though deep down, I’d known that it was. He’d been such a kindly old man, and now he was gone, and in a horrible manner. It wasn’t right.

  “Not someone, something,” one of the young Jesuits suddenly shouted. “I told you, it wasn’t human!”

  I went over to the two men, giving Adrian a sideways glance that I hoped he could interpret. One of these guys had the good father’s cell phone, and if Blinky had taken the tablet, it was now our only link to the runes written on it.

  “I’ve seen things tonight that defied explanation, too,” I told them, mustering up some tears, which wasn’t hard to do considering how bad I felt about Father Louis’s gruesome demise. “It’s just so...so awful!”

  With that, I flung my arms around the two guys, letting out loud, fake sobs. They hugged me back, either out of sympathy or continued trauma over what they’d seen. As soon as their heads were close, I halted my sobs to whisper an urgent message.

  “Give me the priest’s cell phone. These cops will never believe what you saw, but I do, and I need what’s on the phone to stop those creatures from hurting anyone else.”

  They reared back, giving me a startled look, but I only clutched them tighter and sobbed even louder.

  “If you want Father Louis avenged, give me the phone,” I hissed between those fake sobs. “Quickly!”

  Something hard was pressed to my stomach. I grabbed it, slipping the phone inside my pocket before hugging the two men for real this time. “Thank you,” I whispered.

  Then, I turned around to see Adrian kneeling next to the bloody remains of Father Louis, ignoring the other cop’s demands to back away. Adrian lifted the father’s sodden robes, feeling around for a moment, and rose, his expression grim.

  “It’s not here,” he said, ignoring the cops who were now both pointing their guns at him.

  I was dismayed, but not surprised. Zach might not have been the only celestial being who knew that there was a map to the staff’s location. Blinky had been there when we discovered the tablet, so he knew that it had been with the staff. Even if he hadn’t heard of the map, he would’ve known the tablet was a clue, and he must have overheard Father Louis saying he was taking it to get the runes translated. If not for Father Louis’s excitement in taking all those pictures, Blinky would have made off with our only link to the staff’s location.

  “Don’t worry,” I replied, patting my pocket. “I’ve got the photos.”

  Adrian glanced at the cops, who were ordering him to get on the ground with his hands on top of his head. Then he threw a challenging smile my way. “Think you can keep up?”

  I snorted, understanding his meaning. “Can you?”

  And then we both ran out of the building so fast, the officers could do nothing to stop us.

  * * *

  I TOLD MYSELF that it only made sense to return to the light realm. So far, the campus appeared to be minion-and demon-free, but I would be putting everyone’s lives in danger if Demetrius or anyone like him returned to make another attempt at killing me. After all, they might have extra motivation now that Blinky had the tablet. With it, they might not even need me to find the staff anymore. For all we knew, its exact location was carved into the ancient stone block.

  If I were being honest, however, I’d admit that I brought everyone back here because I wanted to. The safety, the sun, the warmth, the flower-strewn meadows that were so beautiful, it wouldn’t surprise me if a unicorn appeared and suddenly started frolicking in them... I didn’t want to let any of this go. Not yet. Being here felt like giving my soul some much-needed Xanax. Besides, apparently we had plenty to eat, too.

  “There’s fruit trees!” Jasmine announced after returning from a short walk with Costa.

  Adrian shot her a jaded look. “Let me guess—apple?”

  From her unfettered smile, she missed the irony, although Costa gave him an appreciative grin. “Yep, all kinds,” she said happily. “Plus, olive trees, avocado trees and almond trees.”

  I’d be delighted to browse through the trees snacking on fruits and nuts, for more reasons than the simple fact that I was hungry. But, much as I loved everything about this realm, I had to get back on the hunt for the staff. I hadn’t been lying when I told those Jesuits that I intended to avenge Father Louis’s death, and everyone else who’d been killed tonight.

  “You and Costa help yourselves. Adrian and I need to find Zach,” I said. We’d been here for over an hour, but the Archon hadn’t shown up. Maybe he was in another corner of this realm.

  Adrian stood so fast, I realized he’d only been sitting with me because he thought I needed the rest. “Let’s go.”

  Costa arched a brow. “Impatient to get your favor, huh?” he drawled with a knowing look that almost caused me to blush.

  “We don’t need Zach for that,” I hastily said, then as Adrian swung a surprised glance my way, I amended, “Okay, not only for that. Zach is who-knows-how-old, right? And he knows all kinds of things, so maybe he knows how to read runes, too.”

  “He might,” Adrian said, his expression turning thoughtful. “It’s definitely worth a shot. I have no idea who Father Louis was going to show the tablet to, so that’s a dead end, and for obvious reasons, I don’t want just anyone looking at it.”

  “I do in fa
ct read runic,” a voice stated from nearby.

  I turned around. Zach hadn’t been behind us seconds ago, of course, but now, he was lounging a little higher on the grassy knoll as serenely as if he’d just roused himself from a nap. His ability to suddenly appear—and disappear—was something that continued to unnerve me, but at this moment, I was so glad to see him that I didn’t point that out.

  “Look at these photos of the tablet,” I said, tossing Father Louis’s cell at him. “Can you read the runes?”

  Zach scrolled through the pictures. A little line stitched between his brows, as if he were concentrating very hard or having trouble seeing through the sun’s glare on the screen.

  “It’s drawn by someone who obviously wasn’t an expert in runic,” he finally said, “but roughly translated, it says ‘It is back in its holy home.’”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I burst out. “That’s not a map, it’s the vaguest riddle ever!”

  “Maybe not,” Adrian said, starting to pace. “Remember the history of St. Joan’s Chapel that Father Louis told us about? The chapel originally came from France, so what if its old site is the ‘holy home’ that the staff was taken back to?”

  “But there’d be nothing there now, right?” Jasmine asked, beating me to the same question.

  “There might be a leftover slab, or something else to mark where the church was,” Costa said, giving Adrian an appraising look. “And if Zach can read runes, the demon that snatched the tablet might be able to, also. Or he’s bringing it to somebody who can, so it’ll be a race to see who gets there first.”

  Adrian’s features hardened as he looked at me. “We’ll need to use demon realms to get there. A plane would take too long.”

  He didn’t say out loud what the rest of his expression confirmed. The demons would know that their realms would be the fastest way for us to travel, too, so they’d be expecting us.

  I wanted to go back to those frozen, pitch-black realms and fight more demons about as much as I wanted to brush my teeth with razors, but I got up at once. “Just give me a minute. I want to make sure I’ve got enough rocks for whatever happens.”

  “There is another alternative,” Zach pointed out.

  Adrian’s stare was like a laser. “Are you finally going to fight with us side by side?”

  Zach’s dismissive gesture wasn’t quite a shrug. “You know that Archons cannot enter the dark worlds, and as I have often reminded you, I only intercede when I am ordered, which I have not been in this case.”

  Adrian turned away, muttering, “Figures.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t stop the stab of hurt I felt. After everything that had happened, Zach still didn’t regard us as anything aside from obligatory tasks to be dealt with if the appropriate instructions came down? Not that I’d been so naive as to think the powerful Archon regarded us as friends, but I’d hoped... I’d hoped that he cared.

  Jasmine came up to me, taking my hand. When I saw my hurt mirrored on her features, I forced my expression into a smile.

  “Don’t worry, we’ve got this,” I told her, glad that my voice sounded light and confident. I’d had to give so many false reassurances over the past few months; I was finally getting good at them. To Zach, I simply said, “What alternative?”

  In the time it took me to look from my sister to him, his features became impassive, though his dark stare reminded me that he’d heard all my thoughts. Still, for a split second, I saw something in his expression. It was gone so fast, I couldn’t tell if it had been pity or contempt, but whatever it was, he’d felt it strongly enough to crack his usual inscrutableness.

  “These realms are not bound by the limitations of their dark counterparts,” he replied, nothing in his tone giving a hint to what he was feeling. “Each one of them contains a vortex that connects them together, so those with the ability to enter them can then be transported anywhere in the world where light realms exist. You need only to think of the destination you wish to go when you use the gateway, and it will take you there.”

  “Wow,” I said, so impressed that I stopped trying to decipher Zach’s elusive emotion. “You’re saying that I can just think my way to where we need to go? Talk about an upgrade from using the demon realms to travel!”

  “Anywhere other light realms exist, huh?” Adrian looked from me to Zach, but instead of being awed like I was, an expression of deliberate calculation took over his features. “And where might those be? France, I hope?”

  Zach arched a brow. “You should know. These realms are in the same places where demon realms are. Every time they strike into your world, we strike back.”

  Now I was really impressed, and in the midst of that, also a little ashamed. I’d just been thinking about how Zach didn’t care about us, and I regularly bemoaned how the rest of his kind as well as his boss didn’t do enough to help humanity. But hearing about this made me wonder if there was a lot more going on behind the scenes in this war. For all our sakes, I hoped so.

  “I’ll get lots of rocks just in case, but other than that—” this time, my smile was real “—let’s take a trip to France.”

  “Just me, Ivy and Brutus are going,” Adrian said when Jasmine left my side and started gathering up her things.

  Costa looked as surprised as my sister did. “Why?” he asked. “Ivy didn’t have any trouble pulling all of us through.”

  A muscle flexed in Adrian’s jaw. “If you’re my friend, Costa, don’t press this. Just stay here.”

  “I’m asking,” Jasmine said, striding over to Adrian. “Why?”

  I’d assumed it was to keep them safe since demons might be waiting for us there, which was why Adrian’s reply stunned me.

  “Demetrius dropped a realm on us within a few hours of our arrival in Death Valley. Then he leaked one onto us only a few hours after we showed up at the campus.” Adrian’s voice, already sharp, became harder than diamonds. “Once is coincidence, but twice is a pattern, and both times, the two of you were conveniently out of harm’s way. That’s why neither of you is coming with us now because I don’t know which of you has been going behind our backs with Demetrius.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  AFTER A MOMENT of shocked silence, I found my voice. “That’s impossible. Neither of them would ever do that.” Then, louder, “Jasmine, Costa, tell him you’d never do that!”

  “Of course I wouldn’t!” was my sister’s immediate response. “You know how horrible I felt about what I told the demons when they tortured Tommy. Do you think I’d ever do anything even resembling that again?”

  The stare Costa leveled at Adrian was full of anger. “After all these years, I never thought I’d have to say that I wouldn’t betray you,” Costa bit out.

  “See?” I said. “You’re wrong, Adrian!”

  Adrian turned to Zach, who I just realized had remained ominously silent. “Well?” Adrian asked. “You know almost everything, so tell me, am I wrong?”

  Zach let his gaze rest on each of us before replying, and though it only took moments, the tension grew and stretched, until my nerves felt as if they were about to snap.

  “You are correct. One of you has been alerting Demetrius,” Zach replied.

  An explosion seemed to go off in my mind, making Jasmine’s sputtered denials and Costa’s angry protestations fade into white noise. As if I’d never seen them before, I stared back and forth between the sister I loved and the friend I trusted. I didn’t want to believe it was true, but Archons never lied, and if I didn’t focus on how this bombshell ripped me apart emotionally, I’d recognize that each of them had motive.

  Jasmine had made it no secret that she lumped Adrian together with demons, to the point where she partially blamed Adrian for her boyfriend’s death as well as her awful treatment in his former realm. What if that hatred had dr
iven her to do something terrible, like trying to get him killed? It wouldn’t be hard for her to reach Demetrius. All she would’ve had to do was say his name in an unbroken mirror, and he would appear.

  Costa knew that, too, and as he’d told me recently, he still had difficulty forgiving Adrian for what had happened to him while he was enslaved in Adrian’s realm. Hadn’t Costa also said that he’d do anything to avenge his friend Tomas? Tomas had died trying to help Adrian and me, and while it was minions who’d shot him, maybe Costa blamed Adrian, too. After all, Tomas wouldn’t have been in Mexico to get shot if not for Adrian asking for Tomas’s help.

  It had to be Costa, I decided, reining in my spiraling emotions. Jasmine might hate Adrian, but she’d never risk me getting killed, too, and she knew I was number one on the demons’ hit list. Costa might like me, but if he was that determined to punish Adrian by turning him over to Demetrius, he wouldn’t call it off on my account. We’d been though a lot, but at the end of the day, I didn’t mean nearly as much to him as Tomas had.

  “...this is bullshit!” my sister was saying, and her screech cut through my inner wrestling match.

  “You bet it is,” Costa flared, his dark brown eyes almost flashing in his agitation. “I know it wasn’t me, and I was with Jasmine both times, so it couldn’t have been her, either!”

  “You sure about that?” Adrian asked, his tone softer, but no less harsh. “She never left your side to go into another room for a moment? Would you even remember if she had?”

  My gaze swung to Adrian. “It’s not her,” I snapped.

  From the pitying look he gave me, he’d also come to his own conclusions about who’d done it, only he’d landed on Jasmine.

  “It’s not her,” I insisted. “Jasmine would never do that to me, and Costa admitted before that he’s still pissed at you! Hell, he’s also never believed I’d be able to wield the staff without getting killed, so it’s not like he’d think my death would take the rest of the world down with me. He already thinks everyone is doomed.”