The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)

Adrian’s expression became shadowed with more than our dark surroundings. “It’s hallowed. My abilities are derived from opposing forces, so whenever something hallowed touches my skin, I have an adverse reaction, and the more powerful the object, the more intense the reaction. That’s why I always wear gloves.”

Jasmine looked away, but not before I saw a knowing look cross her features. I began to wind the sling around my hand. I didn’t need it to brush against Adrian again and have the subsequent welt be another reminder to Jaz about his lineage. Besides, I must have a decent amount of darkness in me, too, because the slingshot burned me like fire whenever it activated.

“I’m sure that Moses’s staff is here,” I said, getting back to the point. “Every hallowed sensor I have is ringing off the hook, so it must be somewhere inside that room.”

“Moses’s staff?” that unfamiliar voice repeated, followed by low, disdainful laughter. “Who did you bring here, Adrian? A delusional treasure hunter or an extraordinary idiot?”

“I brought the last Davidian,” Adrian shot back, “and you’re about to watch her recover the second-most-hallowed weapon in existence.”





CHAPTER TWENTY

THAT STATEMENT WAS greeted by silence. I tested my legs and found that I was able to stand again. Wow. This hadn’t happened when I found the slingshot. Then, I’d just felt a full-body alert and a strange pulling sensation that had led me to its location. How powerful must the staff be if just being in its vicinity was enough to knock me off my feet?

Too powerful.

As soon as the depressing thought crossed my mind, I shoved it back. I had to do this, no matter the consequences. On the bright side, at least it would be over soon.

“Let’s do this,” I said, and walked into the small room that a glance showed to be a crypt.

A man stood next to a stone burial vault, which was the only furniture in the room. He looked to be my Dad’s age, with thick brown hair, pale skin and a ramrod-straight posture that reminded me of a marine at full attention. That was where his human similarities ended. He was shirtless, which revealed odd extensions of flesh beneath his arms that looked like flaps, as if he were wearing a base-jumping suit made of skin. That wasn’t what made me stop and stare in fascinated horror, though. It was his eyes. All several dozen of them.

Eyes covered his entire upper body, even on those skin flaps. Worse, they followed my every movement, as if just being there wasn’t creeptastic enough. I was so, so glad that he had on a pair of baggy pants. If those eyes were all over him, I didn’t want to know.

Then I met the gaze of the eyes in his normal-looking face, and really shuddered. No human could infuse such raw, unadulterated evil into their gaze. Not even minions could. Demons had a monopoly on that, and this one seemed to be the grand master of it. I felt chilled all the way to my soul as I stared at him. If I didn’t have a demon-killing weapon wrapped around my hand, I might have walked out right then.

But I did, and more than that, I could feel an even more powerful weapon inside this room. So, I stared back and tried not to let him see how rattled he made me feel.

“Why does he have eyes all over him?” I asked Adrian in an admirably calm voice.

“Blinky used to be a seraph,” Adrian said, giving me a slanting look. “Seraphim were one of the highest levels of angels, radiating light like firestorms, but Blinky lost all that, plus his feathers, when he rebelled during the Fall.”

Demons were so evil; I often forgot that many of them used to be angels. I hadn’t heard of a serpah before and had never guessed that an angel—fallen or otherwise—could look this freaky. Being covered with feathers and radiating light would have helped, but still. With those strange, wide flaps sprouting from his upper arms, back and legs, Blinky looked like a cross between a man and a manta ray. Add in the dozens of eyes covering him, and once again, my preconceived notions about angels had been proven wrong. One day, I had to pick up a Bible and research this stuff.

“She is the Davidian?” the seraph-turned-demon replied, with a disdainful snort. “You must be joking.”

The insult chased away the last of my unease. “Blinky, is it?” I said, my tone cool. “I totally get why they named you that. You’re an ophthalmologist’s dream.”

He smiled, and that simple stretch of his lips managed to ooze malevolence.

Jasmine walked in, took one look at the demon, and then walked out, visibly shaken. Adrian stopped me when I started to go after her.

“Costa’ll make sure she’s okay,” he said. With a single glance at the demon, Costa left, looking relieved to do so.

“Don’t touch the circles around him,” Adrian warned me. “They’ll hurt you because they mark the limits of the cursed earth.”

“Cursed earth?” I repeated, and leaned down, but didn’t touch the three separate lines that formed circles around the demon. The one closest to me appeared to be made of pale, loose sand, the second ring looked like it was ashes laminated into the stone floor, and the third was formed from a dark stain that resembled dried blood.

Adrian knelt next to me, his finger resting near the pale sand circle. “Yep. We poured and then glazed over these lines around Blinky after we let the hallowed ground knock him out. I told you that hallowed items have their counterparts. This first ring is made up of the ground bones of Moloch, a half demon who ordered child sacrifices for his worship. The next ring contains ashes from the Tower of Babel, and the third contains spilled blood from the first battle between Archons and demons. Put items like these together, and they turn whatever ground they rest on into condemned earth, making the space where Blinky stands as safe as home base.”

I was openmouthed at the history behind these innocuous-looking circles. “Where did you even get those things?”

He arched an amused brow. “Former demon prince, remember?”

Right, I kept forgetting that. So, that’s how Blinky could survive beneath a chapel. The cursed earth formed an invisible shield under him and around him. It also explained why there were no locks on the door to this crypt. If the demon took one step outside of his tiny, protected space, it would be his last.

And I now also knew that cursed objects would hurt me in the same way that hallowed ones hurt demons, but that didn’t tell me everything.

“You never told me how you ended up trapping a demon in the first place,” I reminded Adrian.

He shrugged. “I ran into Blinky a couple years ago while he was trolling for students to supply a nearby realm. I forced him onto hallowed ground, which almost killed him, and then I made this section for him in the crypt so I could interrogate him about the slingshot. I told you, at first, I was looking for it because I wanted to kill Demetrius. It wasn’t until later that I discovered I couldn’t use it even if I did find it.”

No, Zach had hidden that from Adrian, much as the Archon had hidden a lot of important things from me. I continued to look around the room, seeing more strange circles drawn into the walls. They even went over the door, which was still open after Jasmine and Costa’s hasty exit.