The Sweetest Burn. Jeaniene Frost

going to get Moses’s staff, use it to repair the realm walls and then laugh as the demons choke on their unmet expectations of Adrian,” I told her in a strong voice that belied my inner fears. “If you don’t trust that he has truly changed, at least trust that Adrian hates demons even more than you do.”

      Tears welled in her eyes until one of them rolled down her cheek. “Then why do all the demons still believe in him?”

      I kept my hands on hers, but my grip loosened. “They need to,” I said at last. “Aside from getting lucky and managing to kill me first, Adrian’s betrayal is their only hope.”

      She smiled with more pain than anyone eighteen years old should ever have. “And your only hope is that they’re wrong. Someone’s going to lose this bet, and whoever does will die.”

      The truth of that was like razors across my heart. I couldn’t show that, so I turned away, starting to unload the contents of our suitcases into the room’s drawers and cabinets.

      “I know this is winner-take-all,” I said at last. “But only people who bet everything stand a chance to win it all. We’re going to win, Jasmine. I promise you that.”

      We have to, I didn’t add. If not, and the realm walls eroded enough to fall, or Adrian did betray me to demons as his destiny predicted, then all the horrible things Jasmine had experienced would become everyday life for the rest of humanity.

      I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.

       CHAPTER SIX

      ADRIAN TOOK THE first shift driving. He’d been tight-lipped ever since I came out of the bedroom, and it didn’t take my new, improved senses to figure out why. He’d overheard my conversation with Jasmine. Whether he was more upset at her low opinion of him or my assurance that I’d never felt anything real for him, I didn’t know and I wasn’t about to ask.

      Costa seemed unusually subdued, too. Of course, that could be because of Brutus’s close proximity. Even though we’d shared a house, I’d kept the gargoyle away from Costa as much as I could these past two months. Costa might only see a seagull when he looked at Brutus because of the Archon glamour Zach used to disguise him, but Costa never forgot what Brutus was. Neither did Jasmine, although she seemed to have gotten past her initial trepidation over him. Maybe Costa had seen too much of what Brutus had done when the gargoyle had been the demons’ flying version of a guard dog to ever feel comfortable around him.

      Because of Brutus’s fear of sunlight, we had him in the back bedroom with the windows and door shut. I only hoped he didn’t break the bed under his weight or get slime on the pillows; man, that gargoyle could drool when he slept! Costa, Jasmine and I were on the couch watching TV, although I don’t think any of us were paying attention to what was on the screen. We all appeared to be lost in our own thoughts.

      “So, California, here we come,” I said, trying to break the new, pensive atmosphere. “Which part are we going to? The beaches, the mountains, Hollywood?”

      The look Costa gave me said he knew what I was doing, and it wouldn’t work. “Death Valley. Shine that turd, Ivy.”

      Okay, so I had my work cut out for me. Was it riding with Brutus that had Costa so grumpy, or was it knowing that our brief, demon-free interlude was over? “Sun and sand, what’s not to love?” I said, accepting his challenge. “Beats the hell out of a freezing, pitch-black demon realm.”

      A smile ghosted across Costa’s lips. “You’re right—I would take scorpions, dehydration and heat stroke over the realms, but that doesn’t mean I like where we’re going.”

      I remembered that Costa hadn’t volunteered to come with us. Zach had just stated that Costa was going without bothering to ask his opinion on the matter.

      “Do you not want to be here? If so, we can drop you off somewhere, or...do something else?”

      Costa’s pointed look stopped my awkward attempt at letting him off the hook. “I’ve come this far, Ivy. I’m seeing it through to the end or I’ll die trying.”

      I flinched. Costa had been through enough to know that death was a real possibility. As he continued to stare at me, his real age seemed to creep into his dark brown gaze. Costa was a good-looking Greek guy who appeared to be in his late twenties, but time moved differently in the realms. In the one Costa had been trapped in, it had slowed to a near standstill. He’d be seventy-five on his next birthday, and every moment of those years filled his stare as he spoke again.

      “I’m okay with that, Ivy.” His voice was very soft. “The question is, are you ready to see this through, no matter what?”

      I hoped so. I attempted a confident version of a smile. “Of course. It’s my destiny, right?”

      He leaned back, flicking away wavy black hair that, along with his olive-toned skin and deep brown eyes, highlighted his Mediterranean heritage. “Destiny is only foreknowledge of choices you have yet to make.”

      “You’ve been spending too much time with Zach,” I muttered, wishing I’d kept watching the movie instead of trying to lighten the mood. Boy, had that backfired.

      “No,” Costa said, a harsh smile twisting his mouth. “I just know you want to get through this without hurting anyone except demons or minions, and that’s impossible. You’ve busted your ass training to fight them, but you haven’t accepted the fact that you might have to sacrifice everyone on this bus to win this war, and until you’re ready to do that, you’re not ready.”

      I looked away, my jaw clenching. “I’m doing this for everyone on this bus. I already lost my parents, my friends and any hope at a normal life, so if I lost all of you, too...it’d probably be easy for the demons to kill me, because I would have lost everything I’d been fighting for.”

      Costa’s smile was wiped away. “Then you need to find something else to fight for, because there’s a good chance that some or all of us will die before this is over. So find that something else, Ivy, because one day, you’re going to need it.”

      As if I needed any more pressure. If this was Costa’s version of a pep talk, he sucked at it. I looked at him, Jasmine, and then snuck a glance at Adrian, who drove without the aid of any mirrors because he’d smashed all the ones the bus came with. Breaking the mirrors negated a demon’s power to use them as mini-gateways or as spying tools, but they must make driving the bus a little more challenging. If so, Adrian didn’t show it. He stared fixedly at the road, but I knew he’d been listening.

      Did he agree? Did Jasmine? She looked grimly resigned to what Costa had said, but she had admitted herself that she wasn’t a fount of objectivity at the moment. Didn’t matter, I decided, renewed determination filling me. I didn’t need to find something else to do what had to be done to win this war.

      I had all the motivation I needed right here.

      * * *

      I ROLLED OVER and stuffed the pillow in a new position under my head. Useless. The bed was comfy, the trailer was quiet, and yet I’d lain here, wide-awake, for hours. I blamed Costa, of course. His little chat had been as encouraging as listening to demons debate my chances, and needless to say, they were pretty sure I wouldn’t succeed, either.

      Costa meant well, but like Jasmine, I figured he’d been through too much to be optimistic. I couldn’t blame him. I’d only been dealing with minions and demons for the better part of five months, and I still felt like I’d aged decades inside. If I’d been imprisoned by them for as long as Costa had, or lost my best friend to them the way Costa had lost Tomas? Yeah, I’d be a bowlful of doom, too, with a side order of bitterness.

      “Ivy.”

      My gaze flew to the door, but it was still closed. A quick glance revealed that Jasmine was the only person in the room with me. I hadn’t imagined hearing Adrian say my name from just a few inches away, though, so I strained my ears and