The Sweetest Burn. Jeaniene Frost

past me and headed toward the front of the former tour bus.

      “Jaz, don’t!” I shouted, chasing after her.

      “Let’s get something clear,” she snapped when she reached Adrian. “If you betray my sister again, I’ll kill you.”

      I wanted to drag her away, but Adrian held out his hand to me in the universal gesture for Wait, I’ve got this.

      “If I betray Ivy again, I’ll let you kill me,” he told Jasmine, a hard little smile playing on his lips. “Deal?”

      “You’d better believe it,” she muttered, spinning around. “Forget the French toast, I lost my appetite.”

      “After this, so did I,” I snapped.

      “Don’t worry, Ivy,” Adrian said, his tone deceptively mild. “Now that your sister and I have an understanding, all that’s left is coming through on what you and I agreed to.”

      Costa raised a brow, but after Jasmine’s little scene, I wasn’t about to explain my ultimatum to Adrian last night.

      “Tell you later,” I said with a sigh.

      Then, taking a deep breath, I went back to the kitchen and began mixing the eggs again. All the while, I repeated she’s been though a lot until it cooled my anger. Jasmine just needed more time to see that Adrian wasn’t the same person she’d heard so much about while trapped in his former realm. Right now, the only thing she knew was that fate predicted him to betray me two more times, the final one being permanent. No wonder she wasn’t his biggest fan. She didn’t have to be so bitchy about everything, but then again...

      “She’s been through a lot,” I said to the room in general.

      Adrian’s glance at me only lasted a second, yet its effect lingered. “So have you, Ivy.”

      True, and the fight wasn’t even half over yet. The thought made me whisk the eggs far harder than necessary. Costa came over and gave me a supportive pat on the back.

      “Don’t mind Jasmine’s attitude,” he said lightly. “I hated Adrian at first, too.”

      I stopped whisking to whirl around in surprise. “But he pulled you out of a demon realm and saved your life!”

      Something dark flashed over Costa’s face, marring his tanned, attractive features. “He did, yet I still hated him for a long time because of what happened to me in the realms. Some things, you get over. Some things—” his voice lowered until I doubted that anyone except me could hear him “—you don’t.”

      A chill skittered up my spine. Yes, Costa had suffered horribly in the same realm that Adrian had ruled for almost a century, but I’d been sure that he’d forgiven Adrian since Adrian had walked away from that life to devote himself to destroying demons. Furthermore, Costa had fought side by side with us when we’d searched for the slingshot, and through it all, I’d never had reason to doubt his loyalty.

      Yet that unfamiliar hardness in his dark brown gaze now made me wonder...what if I’d been wrong?

       CHAPTER NINE

      WE MADE IT through the next two days without incident. When it was daylight, the four of us took turns driving, once Jasmine and I learned the trick to operating a forty-six-foot-long vehicle that was also towing a car. Once night fell, we parked on hallowed ground, avoiding the chance of running into any demons who ventured out in the dark to play. Brutus was our version of a security system then. While we slept, he was awake, either perching himself on the roof of the bus or flying overhead to scope out danger from the skies.

      Despite being in near constant contact with Adrian for the past few days, there seemed to be an invisible wall between us. That could be because Jasmine had practically welded herself to my hip, but I wondered if something else was up.

      I should just ask Adrian how he intended to prove that he wouldn’t betray me again. Or ask him how he felt about me—the other question I couldn’t stop wondering about. Yet I didn’t have the courage to do it, and the irony of that wasn’t lost on me. How could I hope to win a fight against demons if I didn’t even have the guts to wage an emotional battle?

      Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, was hot, with sunshine so strong, the rays almost felt tangible. I’d expected mile upon mile of gently rolling sand hills, but the terrain was flat, hard earth that reminded me more of an endless parking lot than a desert. In many ways, it was the exact opposite of a demon realm, yet this area had the same air of desolateness, and if I squinted, the mountains in the distance could have been gargantuan pyramids that demons so loved to show off with.

      Jasmine looked around with more bemusement than trepidation, reminding me that the only realm she’d seen had been Adrian’s. That had been a paradise compared to some of the others, with petrified trees mimicking a forest and frozen rivers reflecting lights from the magnificent, blue-hued city.

      “See all the rocks, Ivy?” Adrian said, breaking through my memories. “Those trails behind them are why we’re here.”

      Countless rocks did litter the cracked ground, ranging in size from baseballs to boulders. Most had trails behind them, indicating that they’d been dragged to their positions. Some of those trails were short, as if a child had pushed the smaller ones a few inches before growing bored, yet some of them stretched out farther than I could see, and it would take several people to move the bigger boulders even an inch.

      Why would anyone want to come out to Death Valley just to push around rocks? I wondered. Talk about being in desperate need of a social life. Then I looked more closely at the trails behind the rocks. Something was missing...

      “There are no footprints,” I said in surprise. “How did those stones move, if no one was out here to move them?”

      Adrian gave me an arch look. “Exactly. Scientists recently came up with a reason why the sailing stones moved on their own, but I don’t buy it. That’s why this place is our first stop. Do you sense anything hallowed at play here?”

      The million-dollar question. I took a deep breath, focusing on the supernatural sensor inside me. After a few moments, I frowned. Nothing. Was this thing inside me even on?

      I tried again, closing my eyes as I concentrated harder. Minutes ticked by, and still, nothing. Okay, maybe there wasn’t anything sacred within a hundred miles of this place, but then I should have felt the lack of it. Instead, all I felt was sweat trickling down my body and a headache coming on.

      “Ivy.” Adrian’s voice was low. “Are you okay?”

      I opened my eyes, a sigh hissing through my teeth as I figured out the problem. “No. I’m completely out of shape!”

      “Says who?” Costa said, giving me a once-over.

      I almost kicked a nearby rock out of frustration. “Not like that. I spent the past couple months learning how to fight, but I haven’t worked on my hallowed radar since I found the slingshot. That means now, my hallowed radar is as sluggish as if it spent this whole time couch-surfing while bingeing on chips and beer.”

      Jasmine gave me an incredulous look. “Are you serious?”

      “As if I’d joke about this,” I muttered.

      There had to be a way to jump-start my process. After all, I’d managed to use my hallowed finder back when I didn’t even know that I had the ability. Of course, back then my life was usually in danger, so that had probably factored into things—

      Inspiration hit and I spun around, grabbing Adrian by the arm. “Choke me,” I announced. “Survival instinct kicks my abilities into gear, as you proved so memorably before.”

      A muscle ticked in his jaw. “No.”

      “But you have to,” I said, which should have been obvious. Otherwise, we’d wasted three days driving