The Sweetest Burn

If we weren’t lucky, then the police coming after us for a carjacking would be the least of our concerns.

“I’m sorry,” Adrian suddenly said, giving me a guarded look. “Are you okay?”

I took in a deep breath, knowing he wasn’t talking about traversing through the realms. “No, I’m not okay that we were sold out by a close friend, and I’m even less okay knowing that you still think it was Jasmine. She wouldn’t do that, Adrian. No matter how much she doesn’t like you, she’d never risk my life that way. I know her.”

He let out a short grunt. “I know Costa, too. If he wanted me dead, he’d come at me head-on, not sneak behind my back, and if it’s not him, then it has to be her.”

“It’s not,” I said, my tone sharper. “I’d bet my life and yours on that, and since you know how I feel about you, you should know I wouldn’t say that unless I was sure.”

The look he gave me was gentle, and when he spoke, his voice was soft. “I believe that’s true of the Jasmine you’re remembering. But this one spent several weeks being tormented by Demetrius. That would break anybody, so the person she is now isn’t the same person you grew up with. This Jasmine is hard, or she wouldn’t have survived. This Jasmine might even think she’s protecting you by getting rid of me, and she might have rationalized the danger she put you in by betting that I’d sacrifice myself to save you, and in that, she’d be right.”

Some of my anger drained away as I looked at him. Yes, Adrian had proved more than once that he’d sacrifice himself to make sure I was safe. It didn’t mean I agreed with him about Jasmine, but it meant I’d forgive him for doubting her.

And, when he finally realized that it had been Costa, I’d be there for him. That kind of betrayal bit deep, especially given Adrian’s absolute belief that it couldn’t be his friend, but simple numbers meant that if it wasn’t Jasmine, it had to be Costa. After all, I knew it hadn’t been me, and of course it hadn’t been Adrian...

A dark thought teased my mind. I rejected it at once, mentally slamming the door shut on it. Adrian would never do that, destiny be damned. I’d been willing to bet my life that it wasn’t Jasmine, and I’d bet it again that it couldn’t be Adrian.

Yet that nagging thought continued to worm its way through my subconscious, returning as fast as I kept rejecting it. He’s half-demon, it whispered, and he’s betrayed you before. With 50 percent of his nature contaminated by evil and 100 percent of his destiny predicting that he’d be the one who would deliver me to demons, could I really be sure that it wasn’t him?

Yes, I thought fiercely. And in about twenty minutes when we got to the former chapel site, I’d prove it by hopefully finding the staff and letting Adrian remove it from the ground. That’s how sure I was that he would never betray me again.

Just like your ancestors, that thought mocked. They’d been sure, too. So sure that they’d bet their lives, and lost them.

CHAPTER THIRTY

I HAD NEVER been to France before, but if I didn’t die and the world didn’t get splattered with demon realms, I’d love to come back. The tiny commune might not be nearly as popular as France’s other cities, but it reminded me of a secluded glen, and the river we walked along only made it more picturesque. Adrian had his arm around me, and the relative silence of the early morning cast a hushed, peaceful lull over the area. If not for our circumstances, it might have been romantic.

“I’ve been here once before,” Adrian remarked.

I was surprised. Had he been everywhere? Probably, I reminded myself. Adrian had had at least two normal life spans to travel, plus with access to realm vortexes, I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that he’d gotten around. “When?”

He gave me a sardonic smile. “The first time I slipped Demetrius’s watch and explored the human world. I couldn’t do it near my realm because too many people would recognize me, so I went through a vortex and it spit me out by the basilica. The sunshine, the cars, all the people... I’d never seen anything like it before. It freaked me out, so I started running and didn’t stop until I reached this town. It was quiet here, so I stayed for a day, just taking it all in with amazement.” Then his smile vanished. “Demetrius had such a fit when I went home that it took me a year to risk exploring this world again.”

Brutus snarled as he darted from tree to tree, and that shattered my fascination with Adrian’s story. Adrian whirled, looking for danger, and I pulled out a knife while I checked my arm. My slingshot wasn’t glowing and no one seemed to be around. When Brutus snarled again, I realized he was doing it in general grumpiness about being out in the sun. He’d wanted to stay in the van, but we didn’t know if we’d need a quick aerial getaway, let alone the protection of his lethal wings. Now those snarls, combined with his baleful looks, were his way of letting us know what he thought of that plan.

“Feeling anything yet?” Adrian asked, relaxing when he saw that Brutus was just expressing his displeasure.

“Just my toes getting cold,” I replied.

Adrian glanced down, as if just now remembering that I didn’t have on any shoes. “Aw, crap. Here, you can wear mine.”

I stopped him in the process of kicking his off. “Don’t bother. Your feet are twice as big, so I’d only trip.”

He began to walk faster, his gaze darting around. “If we’re lucky, this won’t take long.”

As if on cue, my senses began to perk up. A low, dinging vibration felt like it hummed along my subconscious, picking up in intensity as we continued to walk. By the time we’d gone another hundred yards, those dings had turned into inner gongs.

“Something’s here,” I said, keeping my voice low.

Adrian’s hand tightened around the knife he had holstered in his jeans pocket. “Minions or demons?” he asked softly.

“Neither,” I said, with a quick look around to make sure that I wasn’t speaking too soon. “Something hallowed.”

I began to walk away from the river, letting the supernatural sensor inside me guide my steps. Adrian and Brutus followed me, the latter snarling even louder when I took us well outside of the shelter of trees that had hugged the riverbank. Up ahead, I saw a line of warehouses, but in the clearing before that, on the gentle rise of a small hill, there was a crumbling stone structure that looked to be several hundred years old. Next to that, on a flat section of earth, I felt the ground beneath me change from grass and dirt to something harder. And the hardened ground sent my hallowed radar into overdrive, although it didn’t physically knock me over or hurt to be near it the way it had when I’d walked into the crypt under the chapel at the campus.

“Here,” I said, my voice a little hoarse from the mystical energy pouring into me.

Adrian knelt beside me, pulling at the grass. It didn’t take long before he revealed large, flat stones. Judging from their size and placement, these weren’t natural formations. They were the base of a structure that was no longer here.

And the hallowed item contained somewhere beneath these stones felt like it was calling out to me.

“Okay, let’s get started,” Adrian said with obvious relish.

I looked around, realizing that in our haste to get here, we’d forgotten something very important. Namely, any tools that we could dig the staff out with.

“Um,” I began, hoping that there was a French version of a Home Depot nearby, but Adrian just started talking to Brutus in Demonish. When he was finished, the gargoyle went over to the slab and pounded his broad, leathery heel onto it.

The impact shook the ground. Brutus beat his wings to increase his momentum, and his foot repeatedly slammed down to the accompanying sounds of stone breaking. He used so much force, I was worried that he’d hurt himself, but his apelike features actually looked like his version of happy. Maybe he was. He now had something to take out his frustration on, and he was making that stone slab pay for his being out in sunlight.

But when Brutus had stomped his way down about three feet, I caught a flash of purple among the pale gray stones. Then shards of the same color flew out, and when one of them hit me, the supernatural vibes coming from it made me realize that it was different from the other stones in more than color. ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">