The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)

He shrugged. “As you said, Brutus is too big to fit in any regular vehicle, plus in addition to the four of us, we also have lots of luggage and weapons.” Then Adrian cast an almost casual glance at the bedroom. When his gaze met mine, his smile had a decidedly wicked slant. “This will suit all our needs.”

Wow, he wasn’t even trying to be subtle! Did he really think he’d just walk back into my life and I’d greet him with open legs? Okay, so I’d come close to giving it up before, but I knew better now. We had destinies to fulfill—or in his case, to overcome—so any attraction I might still feel for him was irrelevant. Saving people was my top priority. Not getting sweaty with the one person in the world who was fated to betray me.

“We could also have just taken different cars,” I said, my chilly look telling him, It’s not happening.

The single arch of his brow said, We’ll see.

Jasmine and Costa climbed into the trailer, interrupting our wordless conversation. “Nice, bro,” Costa commented, looking around with appreciation, but no surprise. Maybe Costa was used to Adrian living large, even if that was a side of him I was just beginning to see.

“Is all this necessary?” was what Jasmine said. I frowned. I agreed, but she sounded snippy, which wasn’t like her.

“Our first stop is California,” Adrian replied, his new, neutral tone not fooling me a bit. He hadn’t done this just because we had a long way to go. “Since it will take days to get there, we all may as well be comfortable.”

Comfortable, my ass. His glance at the bedroom certainly hadn’t been accidental.

Jasmine shot a look between us, then she tugged on my arm. “Come on, Ivy. If the bedroom’s ours, let’s get settled in.”

I grabbed my bags and led the way. “The closet’s yours, and there are more drawers under the bed,” Adrian called out.

“Thanks—”

Jasmine shut the pocket door before I could finish speaking. When she turned around, her arms were crossed in a way that reminded me of our mother when she’d been upset.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied shortly. “You and Adrian are what’s wrong.”

I was so shocked, it took me a second to find my tongue. “Lower your voice, he can hear us,” I hissed.

Her blue eyes seemed to turn to ice. “I don’t care. He’s destiny-bound to betray you and everyone knows it. If it were up to me, he wouldn’t be anywhere near you, but Zach insisted.”

I didn’t know what surprised me more, the harshness in her voice, or this latest revelation. “Zach? When did you talk to him about Adrian coming with us? When I was packing?”

She gave an impatient swipe. “After you left to look for Brutus. Zach showed up and said that you’d be back with Adrian. I begged him not to lift his restriction on Adrian, but you can’t tell an Archon to do anything he doesn’t want to—”

“You knew about Zach supernaturally preventing Adrian from contacting me?” I cut her off. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Jasmine’s expression hardened. “Who do you think asked Zach to do it in the first place? Zach agreed that you needed time by yourself. I was hoping you’d get over Adrian if he was forced to leave you alone, but ever since he showed up, it’s obvious that you haven’t.”

I stared at her in disbelief. The blond-haired girl across from me looked like my sister, but the Jasmine I knew was sunny, playful and impulsive. Not manipulative, hateful and hard.

“Jaz,” I said softly. “What’s going on?”

She let out a sound that was half scoff, half sob. “You mean, why do I hate him? Maybe it was seeing my boyfriend tortured to death in front of me in Adrian’s former realm, or seeing how demons treat people worse than cattle, or being their caged trophy for weeks. Maybe it was finding out that minions murdered our parents while I was away, or maybe it’s the fact that both demons and Archons believe that Adrian absolutely will fulfill his destiny by betraying you! You’re all I have left, Ivy.” Her voice broke. “I can’t stand to lose you, too.”

I felt so ashamed. Here I’d thought that Jasmine had been doing better over the past several weeks. She’d seemed like she’d been coping after her ordeal, but she hadn’t, and I’d been blind to it. Seeing Adrian again must’ve felt like salt in her wounds, and she had already suffered so much.

“You don’t have to worry,” I told her, my voice rough from holding back tears. “If Zach hadn’t made him come, Adrian wouldn’t be here. Anything I felt for him before...it was just our supernatural tie because we’re the last of our lines. Adrian even warned me about that when we first met. It might have felt like real emotions, but it wasn’t, and I’m over that now.”

I managed not to choke on the lie. Oh, if only what I still felt for Adrian was the same emotions that had drawn Davidians and Judians together for over two thousand years! Those had been compassion, empathy and the need to save. What I felt was different—stronger and deeper—and as much as I might want to, I couldn’t blame any of it on my lineage.

“You don’t have to be afraid of Adrian betraying me again,” I went on. I won’t let him, I silently added, but Jasmine needed more reassurance than that. “The day I wiped out the Bennington demon realm, Zach told me that Adrian had a chance to beat his fate. So, the demons might believe that Adrian is their weapon, but when you take someone’s best weapon away from them, it just makes them easier to kill.”

I was paraphrasing Adrian’s words from this morning, not that Jasmine needed to know that. She just needed to believe it, and despite all my issues with Adrian, I still did believe that he could overcome his fate. I just wasn’t willing to bet my life on it anymore, let alone my heart.

I went over to Jasmine and took her hands. She couldn’t know that I still had doubts. She was too fragile. “I’m 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.