The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)

I hadn’t hated my bio-mom for abandoning me. The Jenkinses had raised me better than that. Instead, the few times I’d thought about her, I’d pitied her for being desperate enough to give up her month-old newborn so she’d have a better chance at disappearing into this country. Her life in Mexico must have been truly awful. As for my bio-dad, well, I knew nothing about him. No Caucasians had been spotted escaping the tractor trailer the day of the accident, so he’d been gone by the time I was abandoned. Maybe he hadn’t even known that he had a daughter.

That’s what I’d believed, and the Jenkinses had showered me with so much love, I’d been fine with it. Then I’d met Zach and he’d ripped my world apart, first by telling me about my supernatural lineage and unwanted destiny, then by his comment about my birth mother. Your real mother didn’t leave you because she was running from the police. She did it to save you, just as your dreams revealed.

He’d tried to tell me more, and I hadn’t let him. I’d been too overwhelmed after finding out that my adoptive parents had been killed, Archons and demons were real and demons had my sister in one of their realms. Add in the part where my best chance at saving Jasmine involved a lost supernatural slingshot and an arrogant, secretive man who wanted nothing to do with me, and I’d been full up on what I could handle.

But Zach was right, I reflected as I got into the limo while Adrian gave Brutus instructions to follow us by air. I’d had chances since then to ask about my biological parents, and I hadn’t. Why didn’t I want to know? Was I afraid that the reality was worse than the fallacy I’d grown up believing?

I’d ask Zach after we found the staff, I decided, telling myself I wasn’t taking the coward’s way out. I was only being practical. Whatever the truth was, it could wait until then.

*

WE TUMBLED INTO the light realm soaking wet from the East River. Well, all of us except Zach. He somehow emerged without a drop on him, then had the nerve to give me a condescending back pat as I coughed out the water I’d inadvertently swallowed.

Archons. They really rubbed in their superiority at times.

“Ivy!” Jasmine exclaimed, running over and hugging me despite getting dirty river water on her. “Are you okay? What happened? You were gone so long!”

“Just two days,” I began, then stopped. Right, time moved differently here. “How long has it been on this side?”

Jasmine let me go, flipping back her odd streak of white hair. “Weeks,” she said, a catch in her voice. “Zach came by an hour ago to say he was bringing you back soon, but before that, I hadn’t seen him in weeks, either.”

I turned to give the Archon a scathing look. “You promised me that you’d look out for my sister.”

“And I did,” he replied in that infuriatingly calm tone. “I left Jophiel to watch over them.”

“You’d like him,” Costa said to Adrian, giving him a hand slap instead of a hug. “He quotes Scripture all the time.”

“And I missed that?” Adrian replied with heavy irony.

“Yeah, but—” Costa eyed the ring on my finger that Jasmine hadn’t noticed yet “—guess you were busy with something else.”

Adrian’s hand covered mine, hiding the ring. “We were, but before we get to that, I owe both of you an apology.”

Costa’s brows rose, as if he’d never heard those words from Adrian before. My sister looked at our clasped hands and her mouth curled down, but all she said was, “For which thing?”

I shook my head at her choice of words. Good to know she still had her spiteful side even after being trapped with a Scripture-touting Archon for this timeline’s version of weeks.

“For accusing you of betrayal.”

The words fell flatly from Adrian, but his hand flexed around mine almost convulsively, indicating his true emotions.

“It wasn’t you, Jasmine, although I was sure you’d done it,” he went on. “And it wasn’t you, Costa, although I thought you were the only other option. It was me.”

My sister’s features darkened until all the blood must have been rushing to her face. “You,” she almost hissed. “Again.”

“Not by choice,” I said quickly, squeezing Adrian’s hand hard. “This wasn’t like before. Demetrius was, um, able to track Adrian through his blood, but none of us knew that.”

Now Costa’s brows really rose, although I wasn’t going to tell them how. That was Adrian’s secret to keep or to reveal.

“I’m sorry, too,” I said, meaning it, but also trying to fill the new, ominous silence. “I thought it was you who’d snuck behind our backs to Demetrius, Costa. Please forgive me.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he glanced at Adrian, then he gave us a lopsided smile. “I guess I’m sorry, too, because I thought it had to be Jasmine since I knew it wasn’t me.”

“And I thought it was you for the same reason,” Jasmine said, with a pleading look at Costa. “I’m really sorry.”

“Looks like we all are,” Costa said, but I noticed that he took Jasmine’s hand and no one else’s. Then he turned to Adrian. “That must be powerful magic Demetrius is using.” His tone was casual, but the look he gave Adrian made me wonder if he suspected the truth. “Do you have a way around it?”

“Yep, Zach fixed it, we’re all good,” I rushed to reply.

Adrian sighed. “I’m not hiding this from my best friend, Ivy, even if he’s no longer my friend once I tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Costa asked with open challenge.

Adrian dropped my hand and squared his shoulders. “I’m Demetrius’s son,” he said in an unwavering tone. “His real son.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

WE DIDN’T HAVE a chance to tell Jasmine and Costa about the binding ceremony. Not with how they took the news about Demetrius. Costa was the opposite of congratulatory, of course, but my sister just lost it. She railed at Adrian, at me and even at Zach, who pulled his usual disappearing act after her first shout at him. Finally, Costa suggested they take a walk.

“It’ll give us time to think,” Costa said, tugging her a step down the hill. “Let’s sit by the river. You love that.”

She snatched her hand away. “No. I’ll go alone.”

I stared at my sister as she stomped down the hill. I would’ve gone after her if I didn’t believe my presence would do more harm than good. Right now, Jasmine might believe that this proved all her worst suspicions about Adrian, but after she calmed down, she’d realize it was no more Adrian’s fault that Demetrius had fathered him than it was my fault for being the last Davidian. Sometimes, the only choice life gave you was how you handled the things you didn’t choose.

“She’s confused, angry and worried, but she’s strong,” I said once she was far enough away that she couldn’t hear me. “She’ll come around. She’s handled everything else that’s been thrown at her since demons kidnapped her six months ago.”

Adrian’s gaze held hints of sadness as he looked from Costa to me. “Maybe she can’t handle this. It’s about more than who my father is. It’s also about who I am, and that’s half-demon.”

“You were half-demon when you worked with an Archon for years to rescue innocent people from becoming realm slaves,” I said, my tone sharpening. “You were half-demon all the times you faced a horde of murderous minions and demons to protect me, and you were half-demon when you bound your soul to mine so you’d prove to me and everyone else that you weren’t fulfilling your fate.”