You can run from your destiny, but you can’t hide...

Ivy thought that she and Adrian had conquered their fates. Yet with thousands of innocents still trapped in the demon realms, she’s determined to locate the final hallowed weapon and harness its unparalleled power to free them. But the last relic nearly put Ivy in the grave—there’s probably no coming back from this one.

Adrian’s dark lineage has made him the most powerful of his kind, yet even his incredible abilities might not be enough now. Instead, the treacherous fate he has fought so hard to escape might be the only way he can save Ivy. Their undeniable bond has been tested before, but never with so much on the line. Now fate will come head-to-head against true love, and nothing they’ve endured can prepare Ivy and Adrian for the unthinkable choices they’ll face...

Don’t miss the earth-shattering conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Broken Destiny series!

Praise for New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost

“Jeaniene Frost is blessed with a creative soul.”

—Sherrilyn Kenyon, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Jeaniene Frost brings her signature wit, sizzle and extraordinary imagination to this epic new series. I was addicted from page one.”

—Jennifer L. Armentrout, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on The Beautiful Ashes

“[A] pure stunner... Frost skillfully balances passion and peril in an attention-grabbing story that’s exciting from the first page.”

—Publishers Weekly on The Beautiful Ashes (starred review)

“Books don’t get much more fun or action-packed than this.”

—RT Book Reviews on The Beautiful Ashes

“If you prefer nail-biting, otherworldly suspense, and adventure with your love story, this one’s for you.”

—BookPage on The Beautiful Ashes

“I always open a Frost book with happy anticipation, and I’ve never been disappointed.”

—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Captivating romance and adventure all wrapped into one thrilling ride that will bind you until it drops you at the very last page.”

—The Book Whisperer on The Beautiful Ashes

The Brightest Embers

Jeaniene Frost

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To everyone who has faced long odds,

and kept fighting anyway.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

I WALKED INTO the museum with a half demon holding my hand and a gargoyle waiting for me back at our car. As a history major, I’d often dreamed about going museum hopping throughout Europe, but not once had I pictured doing it like this.

“We’re here for the four p.m. tour,” Adrian, my new husband and the aforementioned half demon, told the museum attendant.

“The four p.m. tour group is over there,” she said, pointing toward a small cluster of people about a dozen feet away.

As we walked off, Adrian traced the braided rope tattoo on my right hand. My sleeve hid the rest of it, just like my high-necked blouse and long pants hid the remains of the other hallowed weapon that had supernaturally merged with my flesh. If the hallowed weapon we were looking for was here, I’d no doubt end up with a third supernatural tattoo.

Of course, that tattoo might one day end up decorating my cold dead corpse.

“Feel anything, Ivy?” Adrian asked in a low voice.

I directed my senses outward and felt the distinct vibes that meant this was hallowed ground, as well as extra brushes of power from the various religious relics in this museum. But I didn’t feel anything potent enough to punch a hole through every demon realm in existence, and that was the specific ancient relic we were after.

“No,” I said, frustration coloring my tone.

I hadn’t felt the power we were seeking when we were at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome last week, or the Hofburg Palace in Vienna earlier this week. Now we were at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin complex in Vagharshapat, Armenia. This was the third place in the world claiming possession of the spearhead of Longinus, aka the Holy Lance, aka the final hallowed weapon that I was supposedly fated to wield. The third time was, unfortunately, not the charm according to my lineage-derived radar. I could sense hallowed objects, and the famed spearhead wasn’t here, unless wards were messing with my ability to feel it.

I wasn’t optimistic about our chances. “I suppose if the real spearhead was at one of the places it was supposed to be at, demons would’ve stolen it centuries ago,” I said.

Someone close enough to overhear that gave me a startled look. I just waved at her. I wasn’t worried about shocking her with the truth about demons, demons’ minions, Archons—better known as angels—or any of the other supernatural creatures I now knew were real. I could spend the next twenty minutes telling everyone here that all these things existed, and no one would believe me even if a bunch of demons were breathing down their necks while I spoke. I knew that from experience.

Adrian drew me closer, brushing back my dark brown hair. “We had to check out this museum to be sure the spearhead wasn’t hiding in plain sight. Besides,” he murmured, leaning down until his mouth nearly touched mine, “this might not be a successful relic hunt, but it’s turning into a great honeymoon.”

My cheeks weren’t the only parts of me to grow warm at his statement, yet instead of leaning into his lips, I pushed him back. The look in his eyes said he was about to kiss me in a way more suited to our bedroom than a museum located on the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Still, Adrian was right. We might have struck out at finding the third hallowed weapon, but other than that, this had been the best month of my life. I’d used the second hallowed weapon to close the gateways between the demon realms and our world, effectively locking the demons out. That made it a thousand times safer for me, Adrian, my sister, our friend Costa and every other person in the world. Only demons’ minions were left on this side of the realms, and with their demon masters locked up, the minions seemed to be running scared instead of terrorizing anyone.

“Kiss me later. Let’s do the tour now,” I told Adrian. “I might not feel anything, but the last weapon’s power was blocked by wards. Maybe the spearhead is here, and I just can’t feel it yet.”

“Maybe,” Adrian said, his light tone belying the sudden darkening of his sapphire-colored gaze.

Then he straightened, and just like that, the teasing, passionate man I loved was replaced by a hardened fighter who’d been raised by demons to be the world’s most effective killer. I took in a deep breath, reminding myself that the demons’ efforts had backfired. Now Adrian used all of his amazing abilities to fight against them instead of for them.

Besides, he was only gearing up in case the spearhead was here. If so, its incredible power would compel me into attempting to use it on the spot, and I wasn’t ready to do that. Not yet. That was why Adrian would fight to the last ounce of his demonically fueled, destiny-enhanced strength to stop me.

Because if I did use the spearhead now, it would kill me.

* * *

AS IT TURNED OUT, neither one of us had anything to worry about. One glance at the relic should’ve been enough to prove that it wasn’t the real deal. Touching the glass around it to make sure it hadn’t been protected by wards had almost been redundant. A first-century Roman spearhead wasn’t a short, flat, ornamental object that looked better suited to be a necklace than an ancient tool of war. It was a nasty, two-foot iron shank crowned with a sharp, pyramid-shaped point designed to impale someone even through protective armor.

No, this was another replica, and now we had no idea where to look for the real spearhead. Adrian wasn’t nearly as upset about that as I was, and he wasn’t even trying to pretend otherwise.

“You could at least fake some disappointment,” I said as we left the museum and walked toward our rental van.

He gave me a sideways glance. “Then I’d be lying, and I thought we agreed there would be no more lies between us.”

We had, but he didn’t need to rub in how he’d much rather that I never found, let alone wielded, the spearhead. I could understand his reasons, but if I gave this up, then the demons would win and thousands of innocent people would die.

“And I thought you agreed to support me,” I said, the weight of all those lives making my tone sharper.

Adrian stopped and turned to face me. The sun was starting to set, casting artificial shades of red across his golden hair. His towering height, impressive physique and gorgeous features had turned countless heads as we walked, but he didn’t seem to notice anyone else. Adrian stared at me as if I was the only person on this massive complex.

“I do support you.” The smoothness in his tone didn’t fool me. Unbreakable ties could also be made of finest silk. “My every action is driven by my undying love for you, in fact. What more do you want?”

Put that way, what more could I want? Yet something still felt...off, as if what Adrian wasn’t saying was more important than his words.

Underneath my joy this past month, I’d also had a nagging feeling that I was missing something important. Of course, it could be that I just didn’t know how to truly be happy. I’d never had a real relationship before. Plus, until six months ago, I and everyone else who knew me had believed I was crazy.

“I know you’re not chomping at the bit to find the spearhead because using it is dangerous for me,” I said, exploring that nagging feeling. “But I’ve survived lots of risks before, remember? I’ll come out on top this time, too.”

Adrian opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it. “I know you will,” he said, still in that smooth, easygoing tone. “You’re just not ready to wield it yet. That’s why I’m glad none of these relics have been real. Later, when you’ve had more time to train, you’ll be prepared to handle it.”

“Yeah, well, later better end up being sooner,” I muttered. All the people still trapped in the demon realms couldn’t wait years for me to bulk up on my supernatural fortitude.

“Don’t worry,” Adrian said, intensity deepening his voice this time. “I’ll keep you safe. I promise.”

I gave him a lopsided smile. Yes, between Adrian and our good friend Costa training me, my stamina, strength and skills had grown by leaps and bounds. Eventually, with more training, I was counting on it being enough to keep me alive when I attempted to wield the final hallowed weapon—assuming we ever found it.

I shook off that nagging feeling. It had to be me projecting my own paranoia onto Adrian. After all, aside from our fight when I’d decided to go after the spearhead, Adrian hadn’t argued with me about it. He’d arranged these trips, helped me train and been nothing but supportive. So, even though I felt like I’d grown an inner “trouble brewing” sensor in addition to my hallowed one, it had to be in my head.

“Fine,” I said, my tone brightening. “Since the spearhead is a bust, do you know any good restaurants around here?”

I stopped speaking when Adrian flung me forward. He’d shoved me so hard that I would have hit the pavement facefirst if not for all the training I’d undergone. Instead, I rolled, muscle memory taking over. Several loud pops sounded in quick succession above me, as rapid as fireworks, yet when they were followed by screams, I knew what they really were. Gunfire.

“Ivy, run!” Adrian shouted.

I darted toward the nearest car for coverage. I didn’t have to worry about Adrian—bullets weren’t lethal to him. He hadn’t joined me behind the car, but he’d run in the direction of the shots. That would be suicidal for anyone else, but his half-demon bloodline meant that only another demon could kill Adrian.

“I’m good!” I shouted so Adrian wouldn’t worry about me.

The car window above me shattered from another round of gunfire. Worse, the angle from that shot had been completely different. That meant we were being attacked by two shooters.

I hit the ground and began to crawl toward another car, shredding my knees on the concrete, but not caring about the pain. Another shot hit the ground only an inch away, and I lurched forward to avoid the next one.

“Larastra!” I shouted to Brutus, using the Demonish command Adrian had taught me. I hoped the gargoyle could hear me. Our rental van was on the other side of the parking lot.

A familiar roar responded to my shouted command, followed by a much louder crashing sound. I fervently hoped it was my pet who’d caused that noise instead of a third attacker joining the mix, but I didn’t dare pick my head up to look. I stayed as low as I could, hunkered behind a truck that should be wide enough to protect me.

New screams jerked my head around. A blonde girl knelt next to a nearby car. She was shaking all over, yet her gaze appeared almost blank when she looked at me. She also wasn’t crouched low enough to be safe.

“Get down,” I hissed.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t move. Maybe she couldn’t. I’d seen shock freeze people before, but she needed to get down or—

“Dammit!” I shouted when blood bloomed on her shoulder after another burst of gunfire. She shook harder yet still didn’t drop down low enough to avoid another hit. I glanced in the direction where the shots were coming from. I was no expert, but from the angle, the shooter was probably on a roof. That would give him a great view of the parking lot and me, if I came out from behind the truck to help her.

I’d get shot if I did that. That was probably the gunman’s plan: wing the blonde in order to lure me out. Well, I had news for him. I was staying right here.

“Help me,” the blonde girl whispered.

She had blue eyes like my sister. She looked to be about Jasmine’s age, too. And she was caught up in a war she didn’t even know existed.

Stay where you are! a dark sense of self-preservation urged me. If this girl can’t duck, that’s her problem, not yours!

Don’t you dare! my conscience snapped back. She doesn’t deserve this. These shooters are here for you, not her!

This might be reckless, but I couldn’t leave her out in the open. If the gunman had winged her once to get my attention, he’d do it again, and she might not survive the next one. I rose from my crouch to get better traction, then stared at her.

Here I come, I mouthed.

CHAPTER TWO

I LUNGED FORWARD with all the speed of my supernatural lineage. It still wasn’t enough. Pain erupted in my calf and I heard another loud crack, but I was still able to tackle the girl and get her all the way behind the car. Then I placed her hand over her gunshot wound.

“Stay down and keep pressure on this.”

She still looked like she was numb from shock, but her hand stayed where I’d put it, and she didn’t try to get up. I gave her a firm nod for encouragement.

“Don’t move. Help is on the way.”

Another explosion of glass followed my promise, then another one, and another. The shooter was trying to blast his way through the car to get to us. We were sheltered now, but the car could only take so much before one of those rounds made it through.

I looked at my calf. Blood flowed freely from a nasty hole that hurt as bad as it looked. When I tried to put weight on it, I had to bite back a cry. I could walk on it, maybe even run, but not fast enough to avoid getting shot again.

I was weighing my options when a massive winged beast landed on the car behind us. The hood crumpled like a tin can under his weight, and I had only a second to hear the car alarm go off before the gargoyle’s roar deafened me to everything else.

“Good boy!” I said to Brutus in relief. “Who’s getting steak tonight?”

My pet gargoyle, Brutus, spread out his leathery wings as if he knew I needed the cover. I ran to him and scrambled onto his back, using the harness he always wore now.

More cracks of gunfire sounded. From the way Brutus jerked, they’d hit him. His scaly hide was too thick for the bullets to really injure him, but they must’ve stung. Brutus let out another roar, his talons shredding the car’s hood in outrage. Then a beat of his mighty wings had us airborne. I didn’t want him to merely fly us away, though. I wanted to stop this shooter before he hurt anyone else.

I pulled on the reins, directing Brutus to fly nearly straight up. Then I angled him downward toward the roof of the museum Adrian and I had recently left. There was a small structure on that roof, like a short turret, and I glimpsed the barrel from a long sniper rifle protruding from its open window.

I gave it a vengeful look, then patted Brutus’s side. “Let’s get him, boy!” I shouted, and steered Brutus right at that window. Then I hid behind the gargoyle’s wide back.

Brutus knew what I wanted him to do. He drew in his massive wings at the last moment, leaving his body streamlined for maximum velocity. I braced when we burst through the window, his body taking out a lot of the wall, too. We landed with a thump that made all my bones rattle.

I forgot about that when I opened my eyes. Brutus had landed on someone hard enough to make the guy’s guts burst out of his sides. I was worried until I saw the rifle in the dead guy’s hands. When the shooter began to turn to ash, my suspicions proved correct.

Only minions and demons turned to ash after they died. Since demons were locked away in their realms, not to mention we were currently on hallowed ground that demons couldn’t cross, the dead gunman had to be a minion.

Brutus spun in a half circle, his long, leathery wings shooting out. Until then, I hadn’t noticed the second guy crouched on the far side of the room. He sprawled forward under the blow, looking stunned as well as terrified. Light rolled over his eyes, as if he were an animal caught in a car’s headlights. That inhuman trait outed him as a minion, too.

“N-n-nice birdie,” he stuttered at Brutus.

Thanks to Archon glamour, he didn’t see a massive, nine-foot-tall gargoyle with dragon-like wings and grayish-blue reptilian skin. Instead, he and everyone else saw only a fluffy-feathered seagull. Granted, one that had somehow flown through a window and stomped his buddy to death, all while carrying a passenger on his back. No wonder the minion looked as if he didn’t know whether to scream or to faint.

“Davidian,” the minion said. “Have mercy.”

“Mercy?” I repeated in disbelief. “You mean like the mercy minions show humans when you enslave them for your demon masters? Or the mercy demons showed my adoptive parents when they murdered them and pinned their deaths on me? Or maybe you mean the mercy demons showed my sister when they used her as bait in one of their countless attempts to kill me?”

He glared at me almost sullenly. “Who are you to judge? You’ve murdered hundreds of people.”

“No, I’ve killed hundreds of demons,” I corrected him, waving my tattooed right hand at him. “King David’s ancient slingshot turned out to pack quite a punch, but I’ll tell you what. I’ll show you the same mercy you just showed me when you watched your friend use me as target practice.”

His look became hopeful. “You’ll let me run for it?”

“Make it to the door and you’re a free man,” I told him, loosening Brutus’s reins. “I promise I won’t stop you.”

He whirled around—and Brutus lunged forward, biting him in half with one vicious snap of his huge jaws.

“Details matter,” I said under my breath. “You should’ve made me promise not to let him stop you, either.”

Once, I would have been horrified by seeing a man bit in half, but that person was long gone now. She’d been replaced by the new me, and the new me had been hardened from grief, betrayal, survival and a whole lot of destiny and death.

Plus, if I’d let the minion go, he would have destroyed more peoples’ lives. Now the only thing he was destroying was the carpet as his ashes stained and smoldered on it.

“Good boy,” I said again to Brutus, holding on tighter when his instant, happy wiggles were enough to almost unseat me. Brutus loved praise more than he loved life itself. “Now you’ll get two steaks for dinner tonight.”

CHAPTER THREE

I HAD BRUTUS fly us down from the back of the roof, where there were the least amount of people. Sure, someone would still swear that they saw a woman and a seagull jump from the second story, but no one would believe them. Just like no one would believe that a seagull had carried a woman on its back up through the tower window in the first place. I wasn’t being naive. I’d seen cell phone videos of a demon realm spilling onto a college campus be dismissed as “fake,” let alone eyewitness testimony from hundreds of people be discredited as “mass hysteria.”

The bottom line was, most people refused to believe whatever they didn’t want to believe, and no one wanted to believe in demons, let alone demon realms existing alongside our world. I hadn’t wanted to believe in that, either, and my lineage had caused me to see through demon glamour my whole life. I’d only accepted that I wasn’t suffering from hallucinations, as doctors had long told me, after minions tried to kidnap me. Adrian had saved me, then had taken me to meet a powerful Archon named Zach, who told me I was the last descendant of King David’s line and thus destiny-bound to fight demons with three hallowed weapons.

Even then, I’d still hoped that I was hallucinating. Especially then.

Still, I wasn’t going to push things by having Brutus fly me back to the parking lot in full view of all the spectators there. Instead, we ran with me under the protective canopy of Brutus’s wings. I didn’t hear more gunfire, but the fight might not be over. Brutus and I had taken out one gunman and his henchman. Where was the other shooter?

And where was Adrian? Bullets might not be able to kill him, but they could injure him, and I couldn’t risk him being carried off in an incapacitated state. If there was one person minions wanted to cart off to their demon masters more than me, it was Adrian. He was the last descendant of Judas who’d refused to fulfill his destiny by betraying me unto death.

More people were hiding behind the first couple rows of cars we ran past. They didn’t know I’d taken care of the roof shooter. My heart began to pound when I found a blood trail that started at roughly the same point where Adrian and I had been standing when the first shots were fired. The splatter thickened as it led deeper into the parking lot. That wasn’t my blood or the girl’s blood. We’d been shot on the other side of the parking lot. Please, I found myself thinking. Don’t let Adrian be badly hurt!

I burst around the next row of cars...and skidded to a stop in relief. Adrian had a blond-haired minion pinned beneath him, and while Adrian had a bullet wound hole in his shoulder, he must not be too injured. Not from how he was pounding the stuffing out of the minion he’d tackled.

“You tried to kill Ivy. Why?” I heard Adrian demand between brutal rib punches.

I would’ve thought the “why” was obvious. The minion must’ve thought it was a stupid question, too. He let out a pained laugh and said something in Demonish, which was what I called the strange, harshly beautiful language that demons spoke. Whatever it was, it pissed Adrian off into a whole new level of outrage.

“Fuck you,” he snarled. Then his fist slammed into the minion’s face with such force, it went all the way through to the back of his skull. I winced, both at the instant gore splatter and at the impact as concrete finally stopped his blow. If Adrian’s hand weren’t broken after this, it would be a miracle.

“You murdered him!” a woman screamed, coming out from behind a nearby car. Then with shaking hands, she pulled out a Taser from her purse and pointed it at Adrian.

Brutus let out a warning chuff and squared off on her. He wouldn’t tolerate anyone threatening us, human or otherwise.

Something about the noise he made caused the woman to blanch, as if on an instinctive level she sensed the predator he really was. If she could see Brutus’s real form behind the seagull disguise, she wouldn’t just pale. She’d piss herself.

“No,” I told Brutus, yanking on his harness for emphasis. To the woman, I said, “You’re in shock. He didn’t kill anyone. There’s no one else here but the three of us.”

“There is!” she snapped. “He’s right there—”

She stopped in midsentence when the minion crumbled into ashes before her eyes. Adrian got up, shaking the blood off his right hand while brushing the ashes from his jeans with his left. Soon, the blood on him turned to ashes, too, and all of those dark specks began to slowly blow away in the breeze.

“That’s...that’s not possible,” the woman whispered.

“Like I said, you’re in shock from the shooting,” I went on. “The mind plays tricks on people when that happens. Go home, be with your family and don’t think about this again.”

More people were starting to peek around the cars they’d been hiding behind. It wouldn’t be long before an ambulance showed up, which would be good for the wounded girl, but the police would soon follow, and that was a hassle we didn’t need.

Adrian knew it, too. “Time to go,” he said, taking my arm. Then he stopped, cursing when he saw my leg. “You’ve been hit.”

“Flesh wound,” I said, which was true, although it didn’t help with how much it hurt.

Adrian picked me up. “There’s manna in the van,” he said, striding away from the onlookers. “We’ll get you fixed up on the way to the hotel.”

We’d parked the van at the back of the lot, where a big tree had shaded it from the sunlight Brutus hated so much. One look at it, though, and I knew we wouldn’t be leaving in that.

“Brutus killed it, too,” I said, sighing at the missing side door and the long, rending claw marks. No way were we getting our security deposit back.

Adrian set me down and pulled our duffel bag out of the ruined van, then emptied the glove box of our paperwork.

“Brutus can fly us back,” he told me, taking the small plastic bag out of the duffel bag. It looked like it contained crumpled-up sugar cookies, but the substance that Adrian smeared on my leg wasn’t baked goods. It was the famed bread of heaven that had sustained the Israelites for over forty years in the desert. Only, manna was good for a lot more than food. It could also heal anything except for a mortal wound.

I cast a dubious look at the not-quite-dark sky. “That’s a lot of exposure. Why risk it when we can take a cab?”

“We need to get back before dark,” he said, picking me up and carrying me even though the manna would heal me in another few moments. Brutus easily kept pace with Adrian’s rapid strides, his big head swiveling around to check for danger.

“What’s the rush? We don’t have to worry about being outside after dark anymore. There are no more demons in our world, remember?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he responded, his pace increasing. “It’s possible some of them managed to stay behind here.”

“What?” I burst out. “How? You told me demons couldn’t stand our realm for long. It’s been over four weeks since the gateways slammed shut, so any demons stranded on our side should be dead by now!”

“Not if they’re on cursed earth,” he countered, heading for a cluster of trees. “You remember the demon I trapped beneath that old chapel? I cursed the ground he was on so he could stand being in our realm, even beneath a church. Demons had advance warning that you were going after Moses’s staff, and they knew it could close the gateways. Some of them could’ve cursed sections of ground in this world as safe places in case you succeeded, which you did.”

This was the first I was hearing about the possibility of demons still being in our world. Why hadn’t he told me before?

I didn’t have a chance to ask that, let alone any of the other questions that sprang to mind. Adrian hoisted me onto Brutus’s back with a muttered “Damn, sun’s almost down.” Then he jumped behind me, grabbing the reins and shouting, “Tarate!”

The gargoyle took off, leaving the Mother See’s complex of buildings, churches and museums below us. The sky stretched out in front of us, the few remaining dusky shades of sunset darkening into the bluish-black haze of night.

I told myself it looked nothing like when a demon realm swallowed a place in our world, and mostly, I was right. Still, I couldn’t shake my feeling of foreboding as the darkness spread until it snuffed out the last remains of the light. Something bad was coming with that darkness, I could feel it.

And if Adrian was right, that something might be demons.

CHAPTER FOUR

OUR HOTEL HAD been more than thirty minutes away by car. By air, it took less than fifteen. Adrian used the GPS on his smartwatch to find it, since you couldn’t see street signs from this height, then had Brutus land on the hotel’s roof. That allowed us more privacy for our unusual arrival. Even though there were other buildings around, most people didn’t spend their evenings staring up at the night sky.

“Did you try Jasmine and Costa again?” Adrian asked as one hard kick broke the lock on the roof’s only door.

“Yes. Still no answer.”

I tried to control my rising fear. Maybe they’d gone out on a date. My sister and Costa thought we didn’t know that they’d started seeing each other, but we did. We were just waiting for them to admit it to us.

“Wait here with Brutus,” Adrian said curtly. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. Any sign of danger, have him fly you away.”

“No way,” I snapped. “If a demon is somehow here, I’m not leaving you, Jasmine and Costa alone to deal with it.”

“If one is, you’re in the most danger,” he shot back. “If nothing’s wrong, you only waste ten minutes up here while I make sure that Costa and Jasmine are ignoring their phones because they’re too busy having fun.”

“But I’m the only one who has this,” I said, pointing at the slingshot embedded in my right arm. “This can kill demons, so I’m going with you. End of discussion.”

His features hardened in a way that said he wasn’t listening. I started to shove past him, but he pushed me back and said a word in Demonish I’d never heard before.

Brutus snatched me around the waist and pulled me back against him. His arms crossed around my midsection when I tried to wrest away, and pounding against them was as effective as trying to chop down trees with my bare hands.

“Ten minutes,” Adrian said over my furious demands to be released. “If I’m not back by then, leave.”

With that, he disappeared into the staircase. I continued my struggles while cursing both Adrian and Brutus. The gargoyle whined as if in apology, but his unbreakable grip didn’t loosen. After a few minutes, I realized that all my struggles were doing was giving me a nice set of bruises.

Still, I wasn’t about to give up. I was destiny-bound to save people, dammit! Not to stand by and let others do the fighting for me. Brutus apparently couldn’t be berated into releasing me, but maybe there was another way.

“Who’s a good boy?” I suddenly asked, ceasing my struggles.

Brutus’s whine changed, sounding less sorry and more hopeful. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I also felt his back end start to shift from side to side. Over the past couple months, I’d found out that Brutus loved being praised, to the point where when he got lots of it, he fluttered his wings and shook his butt as if he were wagging an invisible tail. Sometimes, he did both things with such fervor, he nearly knocked himself over. Watching a huge, right-out-of-your-nightmares gargoyle do that was hilarious, yet now it might also be exactly what I needed.

“Whooooo’s a gooooooood boyyyy?” I said again, elongating my vowels and increasing my pitch to a baby-talk voice.

I definitely felt a wag this time, and his wings began to inch up as if he were a peacock about to display its feathers. I increased my compliments, telling Brutus that he was the cutest, smartest gargoyle who ever lived. That got me more butt-shakes and wing-fluffs, but not enough to do what I needed.

“You know what I’m going to do?” I crooned, adding in bribes. “I’m going to give you five, no, six, no, seven, yes, seven big pot roasts tonight! Because you’re the bestest, most beautiful Brutus, yes you are, yes you are!”

His whole body began to shake with joyous anticipation. He might not understand tons of English, but he knew the words pot roast. It was his favorite raw meat. His wings began to flutter frantically and his butt wagged so hard, he almost knocked himself off his feet. Most important, his grip loosened.

I slithered beneath his arms and ran for the door as fast as I could. Brutus lunged, but it was too late. His overly delighted state had distracted him, costing him precious seconds, so his talons ended up grasping only air as he tried to grab me. The narrow space in the stairwell was too small for his wide body to fit through.

“Sorry, boy!” I called out as I ran down the staircase.

His betrayed-sounding howl chased after me, making me feel guilty, but I’d make this up to Brutus later. Now I had to make sure that Adrian, Jasmine and Costa were okay. Our rooms were on the fifth floor, only three floors down from where I was. It shouldn’t take me long to get to them—

Pain erupted in my right hand. Then the braided brown rope of my tattoo began to change color, lightening to a beautiful golden shade. Seeing it, my heart began to pound.

Only one thing in the world caused my supernatural tattoo to change color and burn like it had suddenly caught fire, and that was the close proximity of a demon.

CHAPTER FIVE

I GRABBED THE glowing etching and pulled. More pain shot through me, but I came away with a loop of rope as the ancient tattoo became as real as the danger I was in. I kept pulling, ignoring the increasing pain. By the time I reached the fifth floor, my whole arm throbbed, yet the entire length of the famed sling that David had used to slay the giant Goliath was now a real, tangible weapon.

A feminine scream caused panic to bolt through me. That sounded like Jasmine. I burst through the door leading to the fifth floor. As I ran down the hallway, I saw a large mirror propped against the wall. It hadn’t been there before, and since demons used mirrors as portals for travel, its presence was ominous.

In the short moment that I was distracted, a door opened and a guy pushed his room service cart right in front of me. I was running too fast to avoid it, and I hit it hard enough to knock it over. It fell with a crash, yet I barely registered that, or the startled yelp the hotel guest made. Something more important caught my eye.

The vase on the cart had been filled with decorative glass rocks, and those rocks were now scattered across the floor.

I snatched up as many as I could, not caring that I slashed my hands on the broken plates in my haste. I stuffed most of the rocks into my pockets, but I put one in the notch on my sling.

New crashing sounds and fresh screams turned my blood to ice. I ran toward the racket, wincing at how the other tattoo running along the length of my body now felt like it was burning, too. Moses’s staff, the second hallowed weapon that had melded into my flesh, must react to the presence of demons, too, yet I had no idea if it would manifest like the sling did. This was the first time I’d been near demons since I’d wielded it to close the gates between their realm and mine.

Adrian crashed through the wall about thirty feet ahead, grappling with someone whose long mass of reddish-black hair hid her face. I started to spin my sling. The unknown woman had to be a demon. A human or minion wouldn’t be able to take the punch he slammed into her, let alone to reciprocate with a block that knocked Adrian off his feet. She immediately jumped onto him, and I glimpsed a smile through her wild tangle of hair. Why did the demon look as if she were enjoying his fierce, bucking attempts to dislodge her...?

“Sonofabitch!” I spat, recognizing her.

I’d met this particular demon only once, but she was hard to forget, and that had more to do with how she’d been Adrian’s longtime girlfriend than it did with her looks. Some demons looked like normal people. Some appeared animalistic, right down to the cliché horns and hooves, and some, like Obsidiana, were so beautiful that it actually hurt a little to look at them.

“Get off him, you bitch!” I shouted.

She finally noticed me, and Obsidiana shot me a single, malevolent glare before jumping off Adrian. He seemed as surprised by her instant compliance as I was, but he leapt up just as fast, going right for her throat. He’d ripped it out the last time they’d fought, yet Obsidiana must’ve remembered that.

She dodged him with lightning-like swiftness, using his momentum to spin him into the wall. It dented from how hard he hit it, and before I could release the stone from my rapidly spinning sling, she had Adrian in front of her like a shield. Her blood-red nails shot out to the length of knives, and she jabbed them into Adrian’s throat.

“One more step, Davidian, and I rip out his jugular,” she said in a purr, her distinctive accent the same as Adrian’s.

I tried not to think about everything else they had in common. She’d been Adrian’s lover for longer than I’d been alive, and I wasn’t too proud to admit that I was ragingly jealous of her. But not enough to risk Adrian’s life. I lowered the sling and didn’t move. Obsidiana raked her topaz-colored gaze over me, taking me in from head to feet.

“Is this the real you?” she asked, arching a brow.

“In the flesh,” I said, arching my brow right back at her.

The other times Obsidiana had seen me, I’d been disguised by Archon glamour. I wasn’t now, and as her expression turned contemptuous, you’d think I had morphed into a dead mouse that some alley cat had dropped at her feet. Well, screw her. As I’d told her once, beauty faded, but Evil Bitch was forever.

“I can’t believe you left me for that,” she finally said to Adrian. “Honestly, darling, you’re punishing yourself.”

I wanted to flip her off with both hands, but I didn’t dare. If Obsidiana had harnessed enough dark energy to curse the ground in order to stay in our realm, she was a lot more powerful than I’d initially given her credit for. That made her even more dangerous to Adrian.

He didn’t seem to share my concern. He laughed, a low, vicious sound. “I hadn’t met Ivy when I left you, Obsidiana. I did it because I was happier alone than I had been with you.”

Ooh, burn! I thought, but still said nothing. Hell hath no fury like a demoness scorned. Didn’t Adrian realize that?

“I remember you being happy,” she said, her voice deepening into a seductive caress. “Many, many times.”

I stiffened, and from her smirk, she’d caught it even though she acted as if Adrian had her full attention.

“Too many times to count,” she continued, her other hand starting to play with his hair. “You hurl cruel words at me now, benhoven, but your cruelty only confirms the whispers I’ve heard. The man I love is still inside you. That is why I risked so much to see you. The little Davidian tried to turn you into something you are not, but she failed.” Obsidiana shot another hostile glance my way. “She just doesn’t know how badly she failed yet—”

Adrian grabbed her wrists, yanking them forward and bending over at the same time. The force he used flipped her over his head as if he were a professional wrestler. I let out a horrified gasp at the instant spurt of blood as her nails tore into his throat. Then I couldn’t see anything through her dark mass of hair and the tangle of limbs as he landed on top of her.

CHAPTER SIX

“ADRIAN!” I SHOUTED, running over to them.

Obsidiana screamed as my sling touched her, but I couldn’t even relish her pain. I was too frantic as a red gush flowed from Adrian’s throat. I tried to stem that flow, but unbelievably, Adrian shoved me away. Obsidiana lunged at me as much as she could while trapped under his body. Her daggerlike nails raked over my stomach, cutting through my clothes and into my flesh, then Adrian grabbed her by the throat and pulled. Hard.

Her body went limp, but blood didn’t gush out. Her jugular vein wasn’t in her throat. Demon physiology was different. Adrian had just ripped out her version of a heart, yet that would render her only temporarily unconscious. Not kill her the way her attack on his throat might kill him.

“Adrian, stop!” I cried, flinging myself at him when it was obvious that he intended to keep tearing at Obsidiana.

He swayed, then looked down at the curtain of red streaming from his neck as if only now realizing that it was there. I kicked Obsidiana’s limp body aside and set down my sling, then covered that gushing wound with my hands. I couldn’t risk touching Adrian with the sling. He was half-demon, so when it was tangible like this, it would hurt him, too, and he was already too injured as it was.

“Lie back,” I said, panic rising at how much blood he’d lost. “Don’t move—it’ll make it worse. Stay very still.”

“Oh, shit!” a male voice said, then Costa, our best friend, came out of a nearby hotel room.

Some part of me was glad to see that Costa was okay, but I was too worried about Adrian to feel any real relief. “Where’s Adrian’s bag?” I said urgently. “He brought it with him, and it has manna in it. Bring it to me. Now!”

I couldn’t get up to get it. If I didn’t keep pressure on Adrian’s neck, he’d bleed out right in front of me. With all the blood he’d lost, he still might. I tried not to burst into tears as I kept attempting to stem that horrible, pulsating flow. Don’t die, Adrian, please! I can’t lose you now!

Costa left, and I was vaguely aware of him cursing and overturning things in the nearby room. I also noticed that the fire safety sprinklers had activated, because water pelted me from seemingly all directions, yet I didn’t move to wipe it away even when it hit me in the eyes. I kept all my attention on Adrian as I tried to close the gaping wound in his throat.

“You’re going to be okay,” I told him, smiling so he didn’t know that I was terrified. Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die! I mentally screamed. You can’t! I love you too much!

“Ivy!” My sister knelt next to me. “What can I do?”

As if on autopilot, I answered, “Smash the mirror in the hallway.” Otherwise, more powerful demons could use it to get here.

Jasmine ran off, and I heard the sound of glass breaking moments later. Then, so faintly I almost missed it, I heard Adrian’s voice.

“Have to...kill her, Ivy.”

I couldn’t believe Adrian could talk with his throat half ripped out, and I tried not to panic at how more blood spurted through my fingers from his efforts.

“Don’t talk,” I urged him before yelling, “Where’s the fucking manna, Costa?”

Adrian grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly strong. “Kill...’er,” he repeated, jerking his head toward Obsidiana.

His movement sent another spurt of blood free. Now a strange wind began to blow my hair back, but I paid it no mind as I put more pressure on Adrian’s neck.

“As soon as you’re healed,” I promised him.

Adrian grabbed his neck, blood making his hands slick enough to slide beneath mine despite the pressure I’d been applying. With his throat in a tighter grip than I’d dared, he stared at me, his sapphire-colored gaze seeming to burn.

“Now.”

Didn’t he know he was inches from death himself? Yes, Obsidiana would wake in an hour or so, but until then, she wasn’t a threat.

Or was she? She’d been strong enough to survive on this side of the realms when the gateways had sealed. Maybe Adrian knew she’d wake a lot sooner than I expected her to.

“As soon as you get the manna,” I said. I refused to endanger Adrian’s life by killing Obsidiana now, even if it meant that waiting would endanger mine. I’d take that risk.

Adrian made a frustrated sound and tried to get up. I pushed him back, gasping, “Don’t!” in horror. He only gestured angrily at Obsidiana. Kill her now! that wave demanded.

Costa finally came out of the hotel room, a heap of manna in his hand. I was so relieved; I couldn’t tell if I started crying or if it was the water from the sprinklers.

“Move,” he ordered, pushing me and Adrian’s hands away.

I watched Costa smear the manna over Adrian’s throat and found myself praying. That odd wind increased, until between that and the sprinklers increasing until they jetted out like fire hydrants, it was getting hard to see. If Adrian’s injury was fatal, the manna would do nothing because it didn’t work on mortal wounds. If he’d lost too much blood while waiting for Costa to find the manna, I’d have to watch him die.

The clump of manna over his throat immediately turned crimson, the flow of blood turning from paste into freely running liquid. I was shaking so hard, it felt like the whole hotel was shaking along with me.

“Ivy,” Adrian whispered, his voice fainter as that merciless red flow continued down his throat. “Please...kill her.”

Adrian couldn’t be dying...but if he was and this was his final wish, I wouldn’t fail him. The last thing he’d see was me killing the bitch who had done this to him.

I stood up and looked around almost blindly for the sling. Then my shaking hands caused me to miss it twice before I grabbed it. “I love you,” I told Adrian, tears choking my voice.

I spun the sling as I kicked Obsidiana’s body a safe distance away from Adrian, then I hurled the glass stone it contained at her. Even with my vision blurry and my whole body shaking, the stone hit her right in the chest.

Her body burst into ashes as if I’d thrown a dozen supernatural grenades at her. The instant cloud of embers was caught by that strong breeze and rolled over us like a fog, coating me, Adrian and Costa in its dark wake.

For a moment, I stood there, not looking away from the ashes wetly falling to the carpet. I’d faced a realm full of demons and minions determined to kill me, yet I had never been more afraid than I was now. What if I turned around and saw that the manna hadn’t worked? How could I bear it if the last seconds I’d spent with Adrian were the final ones we’d ever get?

I tried to breathe, but my chest ached too much. The wind picked up and the sprinklers began shooting out as if trying to douse a five-alarm fire. Please don’t let this be the end. Please, please, please!

“Ivy.”

A sob escaped me when I heard Adrian’s voice. I whirled, my paralysis vanishing. I fell to my knees next to him, an incoherent sound escaping me as I saw him brush the remains of another clump of manna from his now-healed throat. Then hard arms pulled me to him, his lips found mine and I kissed him until I couldn’t breathe for a different reason this time.

When he finally lifted his head, he was smiling. “I love you, too,” he murmured. “More than you will ever know.”

“I’m glad I get the chance to find out,” I said, so overcome I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

I thought a shadow crossed his features, but it must be remains of the wet ashes. “One day, you might.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

ADRIAN KISSED ME AGAIN. I could’ve stayed that way for the rest of the night, but Costa cleared his throat in a manner meant to get our attention. When Adrian and I both ignored him, he tapped us on the arms. Hard.

“Guys,” Costa said through gritted teeth. “Security’s here, and they look pissed.”

I looked up to see three uniformed men glaring down at us. Then they looked around in a disbelieving way at the holes in the wall, the dark stains on the sodden carpet, the broken mirror farther down the hallway and, finally, the blood still staining Adrian’s clothes.

“What in hell happened here?” one of the guards asked in heavily accented English.

From the other people peeking out of their hotel rooms, they weren’t the only ones who wanted to know that. Adrian got up, bloody droplets accompanying his every move, and reached into his pants pocket.

“Don’t worry—I’ll pay for all of it,” he said, pulling out a credit card with a ridiculously high charging limit.

That was one way out of this situation. The security staff no longer looked as if they were about to tackle us, but they were still clearly pissed.

“You’ll pay on your way out,” one of them growled before giving another disgusted look around. “This flooding will take days to clean up!”

“Hey, that’s from your sprinklers,” I corrected him.

“What sprinklers?” the guard snapped.

I pointed at the ceiling, but the word “Those!” died on my lips. The hallway had several smoke alarms, but unbelievably, I didn’t see any sprinkler heads. Now that I was thinking about it, the water had seemed to come from the sides, not just from the ceiling, and I still had no explanation as to where the strange, strong wind had come from.

“Don’t say anything else,” Adrian murmured, taking my hand.

I looked down at our clasped hands. I hadn’t noticed the slingshot melding back into my flesh, but it now once again resembled a tattoo instead of the ancient supernatural weapon that it was. That awful burn running along the right half of my body had stopped, too, so the staff was no longer reacting to the presence of a demon.

Wait a minute. The staff... “Oh, shit,” I whispered.

My sister, Jasmine, slicked her wet blond hair back before giving me a supportive, if somewhat pitying, smile. “Guess we now know what your other tattoo can do.”

Guess we did. Then again, Moses’s staff was famous for supernatural weather events, hence all those plagues against the Egyptians that resulted in the Israelites’ exodus several thousand years ago. Next to that, a little indoor rain and wind was pretty ho-hum.

“Get the rest of our stuff,” Adrian said to Costa and Jasmine. “We’ll meet you downstairs.” To the guards, he said, “Feel free to escort us to the front desk, if you’re worried about our skipping out on the bill.”

He received a barrage of Armenian for his reply. I was glad I didn’t know the language, because I was sure I wouldn’t have liked what was said. One of the guards stayed with Costa and Jasmine while the other two took Adrian up on his challenge and escorted us all the way to the front desk.

Once there, we waited while the manager checked out the fifth floor and returned to chew us out in very good English. When it was all said and done, Adrian paid the hotel an amount that could have also purchased a great used car.

“Once again, sorry for the mess,” he told the manager. “The wife and I just love to play with Super Soakers.”

“And paintball guns,” I added, since Adrian’s shirt was still stained with red.

“You forgot smashing mirrors and putting holes in the walls,” the manager said sourly.

Adrian flashed a grin at him. For someone who had been inches away from death less than an hour ago, he looked like his usual cocky self now. “What can I say? It’s our honeymoon.”

The manager gave him an extremely unamused look. “Congratulations. Now, get out.”

We met Costa and Jasmine at the front of the hotel. They’d brought our bags and were in the process of trying to hail a taxi, but the sight of those smaller sedans made me remember that not all of us were here.

“Brutus,” I said with a gasp. “I left him on the roof!”

“I figured as much, so I went up there when I was getting the bags and told him to stand by,” Costa said.

“But you’re afraid of him,” I blurted, then could’ve kicked myself. No guy liked being called out on his fears, especially in front of his not-so-secret girlfriend.

A hard smile ghosted across Costa’s lips. “If you’d been trapped in a demon realm with Brutus as its flying guard, you would be, too. But these past few months have shown me that Brutus isn’t evil. He was just being directed by evil people.”

Adrian looked away, and now Costa was the one who looked like he was mentally kicking himself. He might not have meant to bring up the fact that Adrian had been ruling the realm Costa had been trapped in, but now it hung in the air like a cloud of sulfur. Costa continued to shift uncomfortably, while Jasmine cleared her throat and found something fascinating to stare at.

I squeezed Adrian’s hand. He rarely talked about the guilt he felt for all he’d done when he’d been brainwashed by demons into believing they were good and people were monsters, but I knew it still cut deeply.

“Brutus wasn’t the only one being directed by evil people,” I said, addressing the unspoken tension. “All of us have our reasons for being in this fight.”

“Damn straight,” Costa said quickly.

A humorless smile played on Adrian’s lips. “Don’t ever feel bad for bringing up the past, Costa. You’re not the only one who isn’t able to forget it.”

“Yes, but none of us are going to let it define us anymore,” I said, then tried to change the subject. “I didn’t get a chance to say this before, but I’m so glad you and Jasmine are okay. I freaked when I heard those screams.”

“Oh, that was me,” Jasmine said, shooting a quick glance at Adrian. “I don’t know how that demon found us, but she burst into my hotel room and went right at me. She must’ve thought I was you, because she kept calling me Ivy. If Adrian hadn’t plowed into her before she could reach me, I might not be here.”

I gave Adrian a grateful glance as I remembered Obsidiana asking, Is this the real you? “I’d been disguised by glamour the other times she saw me. That’s why she thought you might be me.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad the bitch is dead,” Jasmine said shortly. “Scared me shitless to see a demon again. I thought they couldn’t get to our world anymore.”

I’d thought that, too, and I intended to find out more about the ramifications of cursed earth allowing some to stay behind in our world as soon as I had Adrian alone.

“Apparently, there’s a loophole,” I said. “Either way, it’s not safe for us here anymore. We weren’t just attacked at the hotel. Minions tried to take us out at the museum, too.”

“Oh no!” Jasmine said, running her hands over my shoulders as if belatedly checking me for injuries. “That’s—”

“Why we have to leave now,” Adrian interrupted, stepping out into the middle of the road. The taxi that had been about to sail by us was forced to slam on its brakes or hit him. The driver chose slamming on his brakes.

“Thanks,” Adrian told him, ignoring the driver’s angry sputters as he opened the passenger door. Costa flashed a wry smile at Adrian and grabbed our luggage.

“You should call Brutus down so you can tell him to follow us by air. Otherwise, he might get restless and eat a hole through the roof looking for you.”

Adrian snorted. “He only eats meat.”

“That reminds me!” I said, smacking my head. “Wherever we’re going, we have to stop at a grocery store first.”

Adrian arched a brow. “What for?”

“Pot roasts,” I said succinctly. “I owe Brutus seven of them.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

WE ENDED UP taking a train from Yerevan back toward Europe. Flying would have been faster, but that was impossible to do with Brutus, and our former tour bus was back in the United States. It would take days, with lots of stops along the way, but I intended to enjoy the long trip through countries I’d never seen before. Most important, since the train was in near-continuous motion, we didn’t have to worry about demons popping up. We would be much harder to track when we were never in the same place.

Brutus was in one of the luggage cars, since he was far too bulky to fit in one of the small first-class passenger cabins. Costa and Jasmine were a few doors down in their own cabins, so after the attendants checked our tickets, Adrian and I finally had some privacy. Ever since the hotel attack, we’d been careful to go from plot of hallowed ground to plot of hallowed ground while waiting for the train that would take us out of here. Now that we were all finally safe, I intended to find out why Adrian hadn’t warned me that demons were still in our world.

Adrian, however, had other intentions.

He pulled me to him before I could speak, his mouth slanting across mine while his hands ran over me as if this was the last chance he’d ever get to touch me. My urge to talk died away and another urge rose, fueled by the knowledge that a short time ago, I thought I’d lost him. I hadn’t, and the taste of him, the feel of him, was a larger-than-life reminder.

He kissed me, hot and desperate. I kissed him back with the same feverish desperation, tugging at his bloodstained shirt and pants in wordless demand for him to take them off.

He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. My ruined blouse and bra followed suit, as did our pants and underwear. When he laid me against one of the cabins two narrow bunks, I let out a sound of unabashed need at the feel of his hard, naked body on top of mine.

He kissed me while his large, skillful hands teased my nipples until they were tingling. Then his hot, seeking mouth replaced his hands and turned those tingles into throbs. I was already breathing in gasps by the time he left my breasts to slide lower down my body. When his mouth found my center, I gave up all attempts to keep my voice down despite the cabin’s thin walls.

After several mind-blowing minutes, I was gripping his head as tightly as he held my hips. He didn’t stop until I was panting from a rapidly approaching climax, then he abruptly pulled me up and lifted me until I was straddling him. I gasped at the suddenness of his movements, then that small sound turned into a shout as he thrust deeply inside me.

If I hadn’t been so wet, taking all of his long, thick length at once might have hurt. Instead, my overstimulated nerves clenched with such rapture that I came. I clutched him as those inner tremors shook me, lasting longer from how he hit all the right spots as he moved against me.

“I love feeling you come,” he growled against my neck, moving his arms under my hips until he was supporting me. Good thing, too, because my body felt like it was turning into warm caramel.

“That makes two of us,” I said, the words breathless, since I was still panting.

His low laugh teased my neck, then he tightened his grip and began to move with toe-curling intensity. The pleasant lethargy that had followed my orgasm began to change, turning back to desire with each deep thrust. I was still on top, but he was the one in control, using everything from the angle of our bodies to the rocking of the train to maximize each sensation.

Soon, I was back in a state of mindless, passionate need, crying out against his mouth when he kissed me, or his neck when I pulled away to breathe. I don’t know when he switched position and got on top, but when I came the second time, I raked my nails down his back from his shoulders to his ass. When Adrian finally came, he gripped me to him so hard that I felt every spasm as it shook him. Even when his grip eventually loosened, he didn’t let me go.

* * *

A THUNDEROUS BOOM woke the woman and her baby. They’d both been sleeping in the backseat, but at that sudden noise, her baby began to wail. The crashing sounds that followed only made it worse. She tucked the blanket around her baby, gently shushing her before leaving her in the backseat to investigate. Something awful had to have happened, and though it was daylight, she had to make sure it was a natural awful and not something else.

The brush she walked through was tall and thick, which was why she’d chosen this spot when she’d stopped late last night. Not only did it hide her car from prying eyes, at some point, it had also been a cemetery, though the headstones were long gone.

As soon as she glimpsed the highway, the source of the loud commotion was obvious. A tractor-trailer was turned over on its side in the middle of the road, with multiple cars piled up behind it and around it. Each passing second brought a new screech of tires and screams. She winced as she watched more cars slide helplessly into the wreck. The suddenness of the accident combined with rush hour traffic resulted in a horrible domino effect as people were unable to stop in time.

Then the back of the trailer burst open, and people scrambled out. Some disappeared into the tall grass that lined the road, while others limped a few feet before collapsing, clearly too injured to run like their companions had.

The tractor-trailer must have been smuggling undocumented immigrants over the border. She started forward to help the ones who were hurt, then forced herself to stop. The police would be here soon, and she couldn’t afford to be questioned. No one could know where she was. The creatures who hunted her were relentless, and if they found out about her baby...

She hurried back to her car, not caring that the tall, prickly brush tore into her from how fast she ran through it. She needed to get out of here before the police showed up. Quickly, she opened the backseat door and began to strap her baby into the car seat. She was halfway finished when a familiar voice seemed to whisper across her mind.

You cannot take the child with you.

She stopped and spun around. The entire sky was thick with clouds that looked ready to burst from rain, but in the middle, a brilliant ray of sunshine broke through. It streamed down to touch the side of the road where she’d been standing before, and though the implication was clear, she shook her head.

“No. No, I can’t leave her.”

If you want her to live, you must, that voice whispered while the light grew brighter. Then another sunbeam appeared, and another, all illuminating the same spot, until the brightness was so intense, she could barely stand to look at it.

No! she screamed in her mind. Tears began to stream down her face. She couldn’t leave her baby alone here! She was too young, too small, too fragile, too helpless, too...too hers!

I’ve done everything else you asked, but I won’t leave my little girl. I can’t!

You must, that whisper repeated. No sunbeams touched her, but she suddenly felt enveloped in soothing warmth that spread from the top of her hair all the way down to her feet.

She stood there, every maternal instinct fighting against that voice. How could abandoning her daughter be the right thing to do? How could she bear it if she never saw her again? How could she live with herself if she walked away without even knowing if her child was safe?

Trust me, that voice whispered insistently.

Heaving back a sob, she took her baby out of the car seat and began walking toward that stream of light.

“Promise me she’ll be safe,” she choked out when she laid down the child in the illuminated section of grass alongside the road.

I promise, whispered across her mind.

She kissed her baby on her soft, velvety cheek, saying, “Te quiero, hija mia,” before grief made it impossible for her to speak. As if she knew she was being abandoned, her baby started to wail again. The sound made that burning in her chest worse, and she turned and ran back toward her car. If she didn’t leave now, this second, she wouldn’t be able to at all.

She tore up the brush from how fast she spun the tires when she peeled out of her former hiding spot. When she made it onto the highway, she cut across all the lanes in a dangerously reckless move that nevertheless put her ahead of the jackknifed tractor-trailer and the cars piled up behind it. Once she was clear of the accident, she looked back, craning her neck to see, since her rearview mirror was gone.

A blond-haired woman rushed out of her car, heading toward the small, precious bundle she’d left alongside the road. The last thing she saw was the fair-haired stranger bending down to pick up her daughter, then tears stole her vision away...

I woke up with my heart pounding. I’d had this dream before, too many times to count, yet never so vividly. The other times, I could only see what the pretty Latina woman had been doing. I hadn’t known what she’d been thinking, let alone feeling, and the intensity of her emotions had me fighting back tears.

It would be silly to be so affected, except I had it on good authority that this was no ordinary dream. Zach, the Archon who at turns both helped us and hindered us, had told me my recurring dream was an actual account of what happened when my birth mother abandoned me. I’d always thought she’d done so because she’d been one of the undocumented immigrants who’d fled the scene after the accident, and I’d understood that making a run for it with a baby would have been impossible.

Yet the day I’d met him, Zach had said I was wrong and my birth mother hadn’t wanted to leave me. If this far-more-detailed dream was true, he was right. I fought another shiver as I remembered the strange voice telling the woman—my mother?—that she had to do it or I wouldn’t survive. Was that true?

I only knew one thing about my birth mother: that she was dead. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be the last Davidian. Yet this new, possible insight left me with a thousand questions I hadn’t allowed myself to wonder before. Had she been hunted by demons, too? If the dream was real, the lack of a rearview mirror would indicate that, as would her choice to stay on hallowed ground. And who—or what—was the voice in her head? Delusion? Angelic interference? Something else?

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Adrian murmured.

“Hey,” I said almost distractedly. He was sitting on the small berth across from mine, and I blinked at the curtains behind him. They looked much darker than when I’d seen them before, and it took me a second to realize why. The sun was no longer shining through them. I must have slept the day away.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked in surprise.

He smiled. “Why? You’re so beautiful when you sleep.”

Liar, I thought, but smiled back. Then my smile faded as I glanced again at the darkened windows. Somewhere out there, demons were still prowling around. We were safe now, but eventually, we’d get off, and we couldn’t just park ourselves on hallowed ground forever.

Thoughts of hallowed ground brought me back to the dream, which wasn’t hard. I still ached inside due to the loss she’d felt. For years, I’d tried never to think about my biological mother because it hurt me too much. Now I was feeling all of her pain, and it left mine in the dust.

But I couldn’t focus on that right now. There were other, more important things than the past to dwell on.

“Adrian, why didn’t you tell me some demons could’ve stayed behind in our world after the realm gateways were sealed off?”

CHAPTER NINE

HE STARED AT ME, and I realized the emotions the dream had brought up had sharpened my tone, until my question was more accusation than query. I faked a cough to lessen the tension.

“Granted, that should have occurred to me because I met the demon you held captive on cursed earth beneath the church, but for some reason, it didn’t. You had to have noticed that, yet you never corrected me about it. Why?”

He sighed, getting up and pulling down one of our suitcases from a small, overhead bin. I hadn’t seen him put them up there, but from his change of clothes and freshly showered, damp hair, he’d been awake and getting stuff done while I slumbered.

“I didn’t think it would be a problem,” he said, setting the suitcase on the end of the futon. It was mine, and yes, I would need it soon so I could change, but I wasn’t putting off this conversation any longer. Adrian had a very disturbing tendency not to tell me important things if he thought I couldn’t handle them, and that had to stop. Now.

“How could you not think that?” Demons being loose in our world was always a problem, and I had the entirety of human history as my Exhibit A on that point.

He sighed again. “Only very powerful demons would have access to relics strong enough to curse large patches of earth, and what were the chances of lots of them being on this side of the realms when the gateways closed? Yeah, I knew a few might, but I thought they’d be stuck in a small spot, unable to move or be a threat, like Blinky when I had him trapped. I certainly didn’t expect Obsidiana to rally minions to attack you, or to use mirrors to come after you herself.”

Mirrors might not be the same as the now-closed demon realm gateways, since they didn’t act as a bridge from one realm to another, but with demons still in our world, they were dangerous. No wonder Adrian still smashed the mirrors in our hotel rooms. I’d thought he’d done it solely out of habit.

“I hadn’t expected that, either,” I said. “And you should have told me it was possible.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, closing the distance between us. “If I’d thought for a second that you would get hurt—”

“You got hurt,” I interrupted, the memory of him nearly bleeding to death hardening my voice. “And Jasmine and Costa almost did, too. It’s always made things worse when you keep things to yourself. You know that, so why did you do it again?”

He looked away in obvious guilt. “Not that the attacks were your fault,” I hastily added. “Whether you had told us or not, we still would have gone looking for the spearhead. I just hate that you’re still keeping secrets. I might have had a hard time dealing with things when we first met, but I’m not that same girl anymore.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, and it took several seconds before he met my eyes again. When he did, his jaw was set in granite, yet flashes of pain skipped over his expression.

“Fine. Then there’s something else you need to know, and you’re not going to like it.”

“Tell me,” I breathed, my breath hitching. This had to be the unspoken issue I’d been feeling between us. It wasn’t just paranoia—he had been holding something back!

Adrian stared at me, his fists clenching and unclenching as if he were fighting a terrible inner battle.

“The truth is...” He stopped, took a deep breath, then said the next part in a rush. “You can’t beat the demons, Ivy, no matter what. You closed their realms off for now, but demons don’t age or die of natural causes, so they’ll just wait until the realm walls eventually weaken and the gateways reopen. When that happens, they’ll go back to enslaving humans and making more minions, so even if you find and wield the spearhead, they still win.”

I stared at him, my jaw feeling like it had dropped into my chest. “You can’t believe that.”

His gaze hardened until his eyes resembled silver-encrusted sapphires. “I lived with demons for over a hundred years. Yeah, some want to kill you because you murdered hundreds of their kind, but most demons aren’t sentimental. Hunting you puts them at risk, since you have a weapon that can kill them. But leaving you alone only costs them their current slaves if you succeed with the spearhead, and none of them think you will.”

He didn’t say it, but I could hear, And neither do I, in the silence that followed. I’d always known that my chances weren’t good, but I hadn’t given up hope that somehow I’d pull off saving those trapped people. Had I only been fooling myself by training to build up my strength? Had it all been a waste of time because I never stood a chance? And was it pointless anyway because, no matter what, the demons would win in the end?

“Thanks for telling me this,” I said in a very calm tone. “Now, I’m going to get dressed and check on Brutus.” I’d been intending to do that anyway, and after these revelations, I needed to be by myself.

Adrian’s hands closed over my shoulders. “Ivy, wait—”

“It’s okay,” I said, shaking him off. “You told me the truth, and I’m glad. I just need a little time to let it sink in. Come on, we’re on a train, so you know I’m not going anywhere. Besides, you’re not the only one who’s allowed to storm off to be brooding and moody.”

He didn’t smile at my halfhearted attempt at humor. “Fine,” he said, moving so he no longer blocked the small door. “Take as long as you need.”

CHAPTER TEN

BRUTUS SEEMED TO love being in the luggage car of the train. It had no windows, so he wouldn’t have had to hide from the sun during the day, and he’d perched himself on top of a pile of soft-sided luggage like a king on a throne. Add that to the large cooler full of raw meat that Adrian had left for him, and I could see trains becoming the gargoyle’s preferred mode of travel.

I spent about fifteen minutes with Brutus, petting him and praising him while my mind was a million miles away. Then I left the luggage car, but I didn’t head back to my cabin. I was still too upset. My new, overwhelming sense of futility was now matched by an anger darker than I’d ever felt.

What was the point in my bio mother going through all that pain to give me up, if I wouldn’t be safe like she’d been promised? What was the point in breaking Adrian’s heart by dying trying to wield a weapon that would probably kill me long before I was able to free the trapped humans? Worse, what was the point in anything I’d done? I’d closed the realms, but as I now knew, that only amounted to a “pause” button for the demons in those worlds. As for the ones in this world, thanks to cursed earth, they could wait it out. Then they’d be right back to enslaving and killing humans, and everything I’d done to stop them would be no more than a punch line on my deluded, very short life.

Perhaps worst of all, I was endangering everyone I loved to keep looking for a weapon I might never find. It was one thing when I thought we were searching for the spearhead in a demon-free world. Now I knew that demons could pounce around any corner. How could I do that to my sister and Costa, who’d already suffered too much at demons’ hands? How could I do that to Adrian, who’d nearly died more times than I could count in these quests? I wasn’t risking only my life by searching for the spearhead—I was risking all of theirs, and the deck was more stacked against us than I’d realized.

Besides, if anything happened to Adrian or my sister, it would break me. Then I wouldn’t be able to keep looking for the spearhead anyway. But would I really not stop until one or both of them were dead? How could I do that to people I loved?

I was so engrossed in my thoughts, I didn’t think anything of the young man I passed on my way through the dining car until he touched my hand. Startled, I jerked away, only then registering the familiar faded blue hoodie he wore. He tipped it back, revealing close-cropped black hair, dark brown skin, handsome features and brown eyes. Nothing remarkable, unless you looked into his eyes. Then you’d feel what it was like to have a real-life celestial being see past all your defenses and stare straight into your soul.

“Hi, Zach,” I said, wondering why I was surprised to see him. Didn’t he always show up at pivotal points in my life? If I’d been thinking things through, I would have expected him.

“Ivy,” he greeted me, glancing at the seat across from him. “Won’t you have a seat?”

“Ooh, asking me to do something instead of ordering me,” I remarked, sounding flippant even though I felt anything but. “What’s with the new niceness?”

The faintest twitch touched his mouth, his version of a full-fledged grin. “You must have grown on me,” he said dryly.

I batted my lashes. Being a smartass was better than what I was feeling now. “Stop with the compliments. You’re making me blush.”

There was the look I was used to: half censure, half annoyance. “I am not here for meaningless banter. I’ve come to see if you’ve chosen to abandon your pursuit of the spearhead.”

That was right to the point. Normally, Zach was as cryptic as the day was long. “You’ve been here long enough to read my mind, haven’t you?” Mind reading was one of his talents as an Archon, and he had never shied away from doing it before. “Or did your ‘boss’ tell you that I was reconsidering this quest?”

His shoulder lifted in a half shrug. “Does it matter?”

“Not really,” I said, and sat down. I hadn’t wanted to finalize such a momentous decision right now, but when had life ever waited until I was ready? “Is Adrian right?” I asked, meeting Zach’s piercing gaze. “Will demons just reopen shop again eventually?”

“Of course.” Not only was there no sympathy in his tone, it actually had a faint tinge of amusement. “Did you really believe that you, a human, could defeat all the dark legions of the underworld permanently?”

Put like that, it did sound delusional, but I hadn’t thought I’d be able to kill them all or anything grandiose like that. My big hope had been to save the humans still trapped in the demon realms while also keeping others from ever being enslaved or killed by demons again. That had been worth dying for, but this?

“So what’s the point of me risking everyone’s lives to hunt for a spearhead that—in all likelihood—will kill me, if everything is only going to go back to horrible demonic normal one day anyway?”

Zach leaned forward. Tiny lights seemed to glow in the dark depths of his gaze as he stared at me. “Your best-case scenario was only ever to possibly free the thousands still trapped in the demon realms, if you found the final hallowed weapon. Not to defeat the demons or keep them from ever harming people again. That is a fight for Archons, not humans.”

“Let’s talk about that, too,” I said, gripping the side of the table so hard, my hands hurt. Still, better to feel physical pain than the hurt frothing inside me. “No one thinks I’ll be able to free the humans even if I do find and wield the spearhead. They think I’ll drop over dead as soon as I touch it. You just said ‘possibly’ free them, so you sound doubtful, too. Well? Am I strong enough to do it or not?”

Zach didn’t say anything. My anger grew, a welcoming balm over the pain.

“I’m going to die for nothing, aren’t I?” I said sharply. “And you don’t care, because you’re an Archon and humans are like ants to you, but Adrian cares. It ripped my heart out when I thought he was dying earlier, yet you want me to rip his out by dying in this quest because Davidians are supposed to die for their destinies, right?”

Again Zach said nothing. He wasn’t denying any of this, and since Archons couldn’t lie, not denying it was the same as admitting it.

A toddler suddenly scrambled out of her chair and darted over, tugging on my pants and saying, “Up!” with adorable demand. Almost as quickly, her mother ran over and swept her up.

“So sorry,” she said, then grabbed those chubby little hands before they could snatch at my hair.

I stared at the little girl. Her eyes were brown, not hazel like mine, but for a moment, I could see myself as this child. Except by the time I’d been her age, my mother had been forced to abandon me.

The dream with all its agony roared to the forefront. I barely noticed the woman leaving with her little girl. All my attention was on Zach. He hadn’t moved. Neither had I, except for my hands. They felt like they’d left indentions in the table that I was gripping as if my life depended on it.

“What about my mother?” My voice was thick with everything she’d felt that day. “Did this destiny kill her, too? Or what about my bio father? Did he have to watch her die the way you expect Adrian to watch me die?”

“Your biological father was murdered by minions years before your mother’s death,” Zach replied with infuriating coolness. “And your mother took her own life.”

I closed my eyes, my breath hitching between a gasp and a sob. I’d known that she and all her blood relatives must be dead, but I’d hoped...what? That somewhere in this world, I still had family? How naive of me. Anyone close to a Davidian was a demon target. It should come as no surprise that my bio father had been murdered. My adoptive parents had been murdered, too. Now I had no one left except for Adrian, Jasmine and Costa, yet if I continued on this quest in a world still filled with demons, they might get murdered, too.

“Tell me it’s not all for nothing,” I said, opening my eyes and staring at Zach. “Tell me that if I use the spearhead, I will save those people. Tell me, or I am walking away from this. I refuse to sacrifice one more person for a destiny I didn’t ask for, or a quest I have no chance at succeeding at.”

“I will not tell you,” Zach said, his brown gaze turning hard. “You do not get to demand answers in advance of efforts. Either continue without knowing your quest’s resolution, or do not. The choice, as always, is yours.”

I let go of the table to bang my fists on it. “You call that a choice?”

“It is,” he said, steel coating his words now. “In fact, it is a choice at its most unbiased.”

My anger rose again, dark and deep. Did he really think I was like him? That I’d blindly obey “orders” without question or care about how it affected those I loved? “Then I choose to take my chances living instead of dying,” I said, rising from the table. “That means this is goodbye.”

He said nothing for so long, I thought he was waiting for me to leave. I started to, then I felt his hand on my arm. When I looked down at him, I expected to see anger, condemnation or his usual Archon smugness in his gaze. Instead, I saw pity, disappointment and an utter lack of surprise.

“Then this is goodbye,” Zach agreed softly.

I nodded, looking away to swipe at a tear that appeared for no reason. When I glanced back, Zach had disappeared. No one else in the dining car seemed to notice that a passenger had suddenly vanished into thin air, either. They were all too busy living their own lives, as I’d decided to do.

More tears escaped. Why did I suddenly feel bad about this? No matter Zach’s claims, he’d left me no real choice. Hadn’t I saved enough lives despite the risk to myself? It was thanks to me that most demons were locked out of our world now! Otherwise, the realm walls would have continued to crumble, and I’d seen firsthand how horrifying it was to have one of their worlds spill out into ours. Now no one would have to worry about that happening for a long, long time. Shouldn’t that alone have earned me the right to a little happiness?

It did, I decided, brushing back my tears. In fact, I’d probably saved millions of lives by sealing off the realms. I would’ve kept trying to save more, too, if Zach hadn’t arrogantly refused to tell me if I had a real chance at freeing those trapped in the realms. Why should I be the one feeling guilty? All I’d asked for was the knowledge that I wouldn’t be risking my life and everyone else’s for nothing—

Agony shot up my right arm, forcing a scream from me. Demon! I thought, expecting to see the tattoo turning a warning gold color. Yet aside from the awful burn that felt like it went straight through to my bones, the tattoo looked the same.

Then, to my shock, the braided rope etching began to fade. I grabbed it as if by doing so I could stop it from disappearing, but even as I snatched and pulled at my skin, the ancient, hallowed sling continued to dissipate, until finally, it vanished from sight. When another spine-deep pain ripped through me from shoulder to ankle, bringing me to my knees from the intensity of the invisible blow, I ripped open my blouse with a combination of agony and desperation.

The gnarled wooden outline of the staff that had marked the entire right side of my body since I’d wielded it was now fading, too. As I watched in disbelief, it disappeared until nothing but smooth skin remained. When it vanished, so did the pain, leaving me staring at my body with a stunned sort of understanding.

I’d chosen to renounce my destiny, so the hallowed weapons that had merged with my flesh had apparently chosen to renounce me.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

NO ONE ELSE around me cared that I’d experienced a supernatural and existential crisis. That was clear when the nearest train attendant grabbed me, keeping me on the floor while calling out for help. He probably thought I was having a psychotic breakdown. That would be the most logical explanation for someone suddenly screaming and tearing open her blouse in the middle of the dining car, and if he’d known my mental health history, he would have really believed that.

Since I didn’t want to experience Europe’s version of a padded cell, I quickly fabricated a story about being allergic to bees and saying I’d thought one had gotten inside my blouse. Not the most ingenious excuse, but luckily, the attendant spoke English, and my story was enough to stop them from continuing to restrain me. I was in the middle of getting up and apologizing to everyone when Adrian stormed into the dining car.

“I heard you scream. What happened?” he demanded.

I held my torn blouse together with one hand and patted him with the other. “Nothing. I thought I saw a bee, and I panicked. You know how allergic I am.”

He pulled me close, his gaze flicking around in a predatory manner. He knew I was lying, so he was coiled and ready to attack.

I couldn’t tell him what had really happened here, so I tugged him toward the back of the dining car. “I’m so embarrassed. Let’s just go back to our cabin now.”

He glanced down—and froze. A hiss escaped him as he stared at the newly blank skin on my right hand. “Ivy—”

“Cabin. Please,” I repeated, tugging him harder.

He grasped my hand and walked out of the dining car. I had to nearly run to keep up with his rapid strides, not that I minded. I wanted to get away from all the stares leveled my way.

We ran into Jasmine and Costa in the hallway of our train car. Costa’s hand was in his jacket pocket, and I saw a very suspicious bulge protruding from the fabric. I realized he’d heard my scream and jumped to the wrong conclusion, too.

“Put that away,” I hissed. All we needed was for someone to glimpse the outline of the gun and assume that he was about to commit a terrorist attack.

“What happened?” Costa said, eyeing me and Adrian.

Our cabin was small, but I waved everyone inside. It was standing room only once we shut the door, yet my decision affected everyone, so they all deserved to hear it.

“I have something to tell you,” I began. “I’ve—”

“What the hell?” Jaz exclaimed, grabbing my right hand. “Ivy! Your tattoo is gone!”

Costa muttered something in Greek as he stared at my hand. Adrian didn’t look away from my eyes, even when I pulled back my torn blouse to reveal that the staff tattoo was now gone, too.

“I know,” I said, forcing the words out despite my throat closing off with a surge of unexpected shame. “I’ve been thinking a lot about things since the attack yesterday, and I think...”

I stopped and dropped my eyes. Jasmine and Costa had both been terribly abused in demon realms, so my choice to bow out might come across like I was saying what happened to them didn’t matter to me anymore. Oh God. What if they hated me for this?

“Think what?” my sister asked impatiently.

Adrian slipped behind me and drew me into his arms. Those thick, warm bands and the solidness of his body soothed my sudden case of trembles.

“I’m not going after the spearhead anymore,” I said bluntly. “I’ve been kidding myself about being able to survive it long enough to save those people. I also learned that the realm walls will eventually weaken again, putting demons right back in business. So, I don’t see a point in risking everyone’s lives trying to find a weapon that’ll kill me before I can help anyone anyway—”

Jasmine threw her arms around me, cutting off the rest of my explanation. Her hug was so welcome and unexpected; I didn’t care that it was difficult to breathe between her tight frontal embrace and Adrian gripping me from behind.

“You’re not mad?” I got out, wiggling to get more room.

“Why?” She drew back, showing that her face was now wet from tears. “I never wanted you to do it in the first place! Each time you left to look for the staff or the spearhead, I’ve been terrified that you’ll never come back. It’s all I’ve been able to do to hold myself together these past few months. Good God, Ives, I have a white streak in my hair and I’m not even twenty! No, I’m not mad that you’re stopping. In fact, I’m so happy—” her voice broke “—I’m so happy I can’t even stand it.”

She dissolved into tears, and Adrian let me go so I could hold her. I stroked her hair and whispered reassurances that everything would be all right while, over her shoulder, I met Costa’s eyes. They were shiny with tears that didn’t hit his cheeks, yet his jaw was set in a hard line as he nodded at me.

I understand, that nod said. I didn’t know if he agreed like Jasmine did, but right now, his understanding was enough.

“So, your tattoos vanished after you decided to stop looking for the spearhead?” Jasmine asked with a final, teary sniff. “Guess that’s the supernatural version of having security throw you out after quitting.”

I let out a breathy laugh even though I felt more conflicted than amused. “Guess so. I saw Zach right before they disappeared, so I’m guessing he had something to do with it.”

“Zach was here?” Adrian sounded more surprised by that than by my decision to abandon my destiny.

“Yeah,” I said, giving Jasmine a last pat as I turned toward him. “He was waiting for me in the dining car after I checked on Brutus. He somehow knew what I’d decided, too. Guess he’d gotten a cosmic heads-up or something.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “And he had nothing to say to you?”

I glanced away. I didn’t want to repeat what Zach had said. “Not much,” I settled on. “And it ended with ‘goodbye.’”

I could feel Adrian staring at me, measuring my words and locating the gaps between them. I tried to mentally erase the guilt, second-guessing and other emotions from my expression, but I must not have been that good at it.

“Give us a minute, guys,” Adrian said, opening the cabin door. Jasmine and Costa filed out after Jaz gave me a final hug. Adrian locked the door behind them, then turned around to face me.

I waited for him to speak, but without a word, he drew me into his arms. For several minutes, he held me, his warm, strong hands caressing away the bone-deep tension I hadn’t known was there until I finally felt it begin to loosen.

I closed my eyes as I rested my head against his chest. Oh, how I’d needed this! With every stroke of his hands, brush of his lips and tightening of his arms, Adrian was telling me that he loved me. Me, not the person other people wanted me to be, or what I was supposedly destined to be, or what I could be, if I only tried harder. Me: flaws, fears and all.

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thank you.”

His short laugh was muffled against my neck. “For what?”

“This,” I said, drawing back to look at him. “I needed it.”

He stared at me, his eyes appearing bluer from the intensity in his gaze. “And I need you. That’s why I’m thrilled about your decision. I never thought the payoff was worth the risk.”

“It could have been,” I said, thinking about all the people still trapped in the realms. As soon as I did, that deep-seated tension returned, as did my guilt. Quickly, I tried to brush both aside. “But it’s not,” I continued, reminding myself as well as saying it to Adrian. “Zach all but confirmed that I had no chance to survive the spearhead long enough to save them.”

Adrian sighed, then rested his forehead against mine. “Don’t beat yourself up. You saved lots of other people, and you tried to save them, too. You’ve done enough, Ivy.”

I mustered up a shrug that looked far more laid-back than I felt. “The former hallowed weapons would seem to disagree. I abandoned my destiny, so they wasted no time in abandoning me.”

He pulled me back into his arms, lifting me until my feet were off the floor and our faces were level.

“Screw Zach and screw them,” he whispered fiercely. “They might have left you, but I never will.”

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him, needing his strength, his unconditional love and acceptance, and the passion that flowed between us, covering my guilt, doubt and second-guessing. Right now, all I needed to be was me. Right now, the only thing that mattered was the two of us. In his arms, everything was finally as it should be.

“I love you, Adrian,” I told him between searing kisses. “You’re my only destiny now.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

WE ENDED UP going back to Vatican City, and not because I had fallen in love with it when we were here looking for the spearhead. The entire mini, walled city was on hallowed ground, and it had tight security due to its many famous treasures. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that Obsidiana had waited until we were away from Vatican City to send her minions to attack us, let alone come after us herself.

The added safety of the enhanced security combined with extensive hallowed ground had Jasmine visibly relaxing, and she wasn’t the only one. Adrian was as chill as I’d ever seen him, and I didn’t know if that was because of our surroundings or his relief over my decision to abandon the spearhead quest.

They weren’t the only ones basking in a newfound sense of relief. I didn’t fear the coming of night anymore, and I’d even taken to going on solo walks during the day. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone somewhere for the sheer, simple pleasure of it. Yet despite my newfound sense of security, all wasn’t entirely well.

I tried to hide my lingering feelings of guilt from Adrian, Jasmine and Costa, telling myself that it would go away in time. In the interim, I’d focus on being grateful, which was easy to do with the man I loved, my sister and our best friend at my side. Adrian had rented a lovely little villa inside the city walls for all of us. Everyone enjoyed it so much that our stay stretched from one week into two, and then two weeks into three. Even Brutus seemed to love it, staying inside during the day and then using his seagull disguise to fish from the nearby Mediterranean Sea at night.

By our fifth week, I was starting to feel good enough to confront one of my guilt-ridden phobias. “I’m going for a walk,” I told Adrian.

Both golden brows rose. “A little overdressed for that, aren’t you?”

I looked down at my lavender silk dress and my high-heeled sandals as if just now realizing I was wearing them. “Eh, maybe,” I said with as much vagueness as I could muster.

Adrian got up, and his gaze raked over me with a lot more suspicion now. “What are you trying to hide?”

I almost said, “Nothing!” but then I stopped myself. Why wasn’t I telling him what I was really going to do?

“I’ve been avoiding churches,” I explained, beating back my inexplicable urge to lie. “Abandoning my destiny made the paranoid part of me wonder if I’d be smote on the spot if I entered one, but I know that’s ridiculous. So, I want to prove it to myself by going to one today.”

“Oh,” Adrian said. Then his lips began to twitch as if he were fighting not to laugh over my smiting fears. “I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to. This whole thing is silly.”

“Ivy.” The smile wiped from his face as he came over to me. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, taking my hands. “Silly or serious, if something is bothering you, I want to be there. Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.”

I squeezed his hands, once again wondering why I’d tried to hide this from him in the first place. “You’re right.”

Now he smiled, and it warmed me more than the bright day outside. “Let’s see, we didn’t spend much time in Saint Peter’s Basilica before, and it is one of the main attractions here.”

“Not there,” I said. The basilica felt more like an incredibly elaborate museum than a church. “Saint Stephen’s of the Abyssinians.”

That reminded me of a more antique version of the church my parents had occasionally taken Jasmine and me to when we were kids. After everything that had happened, I longed to feel the same sort of normalcy I’d felt back then.

“I don’t think that’s open to the public,” Adrian pointed out. “Unless you want to break in, you might have to pick another one.”

I gave him an arch look. “I have a way around that. You’ll have to dress up to make it work, though.”

He chuckled and went to get dressed. When he came out ten minutes later, he wore cream-colored pants, a matching open jacket and a pale blue shirt that made his eyes appear an even more vivid shade of sapphire. Combined with his golden hair, six-six height and face that looked half-angel instead of half-demon, he was so stunning, there was no chance of him going unnoticed.

“I might have to make you wait outside, or you’ll ruin my plans to blend in,” I said, giving him an admiring stare.

He came over and tipped the brim of my hat back. “You’re the one everyone will look at,” he said, and bent to give me a deep kiss.

I broke it off when I found myself thinking about abandoning my plan in favor of spending the day in bed with him. “Behave,” I told him, wiping a smear of my lipstick from his mouth even as it curled into a smirk.

“Who, me?” he asked with mock innocence. “Always.”

Right. Behaving wasn’t in his DNA, let alone his personality. Still, he could be incentivized. “You’ll be glad later if you do,” I said in my most suggestive voice.

Now his grin was every shade of wicked.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the small chapel. Saint Stephen’s of the Abyssinians might be closed to regular public foot traffic, but it could be rented out for private weddings. Late summer in Rome was apparently a popular time for them, and today had more than one nuptial on the docket. My plan was simple: pretend to be one of the many guests so I could sneak in. When a thick cluster of guests approached the chapel, I grabbed Adrian’s arm, pasted a smile on my face and followed them inside.

Adrian let me choose our seats, and I picked ones in the back. As I sat down, I found myself tensing. If any of my fears were founded, now would be the time for something awful to happen. Yet as the minutes ticked by, nothing did.

“See?” Adrian murmured, gently squeezing my hand. “You’re fine, Ivy.”

Now I felt even sillier for letting my lingering guilt make me so paranoid. “Let’s go, before someone notices that we don’t belong here,” I whispered.

We left the church. It had been a sunny, beautiful day ten minutes ago, and now that I’d left my irrational fears behind, it seemed even brighter and lovelier. Adrian and I were enjoying a leisurely stroll back toward our villa when I realized that I’d have to find a bathroom sooner rather than later. My previously bunched-up nerves must have given me an upset stomach.

“I need a bathroom,” I told Adrian. “Have you seen one?”

Thankfully, he had, and I almost ran inside it. A short time later, I was washing my hands when the bathroom mirror began to ripple in a frightening way.

I hadn’t broken the mirror when I’d entered because we were on hallowed ground, but it wasn’t too late to fix my mistake. I grabbed the nearest trash can, about to bash it into the mirror, when an all-too-familiar voice said, “Don’t!” Then it went on to say, “I believe we’re long overdue for a chat, Davidian.”

I paused in midswing. Demetrius, Adrian’s biological father and my arch nemesis, had never wanted to chat before. He’d tried to kill me more times than I could count and held my sister hostage as bait, but one-on-one conversation? That was new. Still, it was daylight and I was on holy ground, so if Demetrius did try to cross over in another attempt to kill me, he would fry as soon as he left the mirror. The thought of seeing him burning and screaming appealed to me so much, I lowered the trash can.

“What did you want to talk about, Daddy-in-law?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

DEMETRIUS’S FULL APPEARANCE became visible in the mirror, so I caught it when he winced, as if being reminded of our new familial tie had caused him actual pain. I’d hoped it would. It certainly stung me a lot.

“Never call me that again,” he bit out.

“Believe me,” I said, glaring at him. “I find it mutually repellant.”

Demetrius was one of those demons who looked like a regular person. He had unremarkable features, black hair, pale skin and a wide mouth, so Adrian must have gotten his gorgeous golden looks from his mother. A closer inspection revealed that a writhing mass of darkness clung to Demetrius’s outline. His shadows had once been far larger and more impressive, and they weren’t Demetrius’s only trick. He was also a shape-shifter.

The first time I’d seen him, Demetrius had morphed into a huge dark cloud with flesh-ripping claws and teeth. That form had been beyond terrifying, which was why he’d chosen it. Demetrius was as cruel as he was inventive.

“What, no congratulations on the happy news?” I continued to needle him. “It’s a shame you missed the wedding. It was thrown together last-minute, but still, it was beautiful—”

“Speak softer, before Adrian hears you and storms in here,” Demetrius snarled.

He’d revealed a lot with that statement. While Demetrius could have guessed that Adrian was with me in general, he shouldn’t have known that Adrian was close enough to possibly overhear us. Unless...

“You have minions watching us right now, don’t you?” I said, trying not to show how much that freaked me out.

Demetrius rolled his coal-black eyes. “Of course I do.”

I casually crossed my arms behind my back so my hands were hidden from his view. Demetrius had never seen my staff tattoo, but he was well acquainted with my slingshot. I’d decimated his formerly immense shadows with it, and the last thing I wanted was Demetrius seeing that it was missing. Then he’d know that I’d lost my only deadly form of defense against him.

“If you’ve got minions tailing us, why haven’t you used them to try to kill me?” The danger I’d unknowingly put everyone in made my stomach roil, but I managed to ask the question as if the answer only mildly interested me.

Demetrius smiled, and the sight of it sent chills rippling over my skin. I’d never known that a smile could be a messenger of evil before I’d met Demetrius.

“Because at this particular moment in time, I’m not trying to kill you.”

“You’re not, huh?” I said while getting my rattled nerves back under control. It couldn’t be because he’d had a change of heart—Demetrius hated me. That was clear in his burning ebony gaze. But he must have something else up his sleeve. “I don’t imagine we have long before Adrian figures out that something else is going on besides me having digestive issues, so if you don’t want me dead, what do you want?”

“You’ve been here too long to still be searching Vatican City for the spearhead, so why haven’t you left?”

His arrogance was astounding. He thought I owed him an explanation for my recent activities?

“Yeah, this has been nice, but you can go fuck off now,” I said, heading for the door.

“Wait!” The command in his tone didn’t make me pause, but his next words did. “It’s because you’ve given up looking for the spearhead, haven’t you?”

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he sounded disappointed. I swung around in disbelief. “What’s it to you, demon?”

“More than you realize, Davidian,” he said, giving the same insulting emphasis to my lineage as I’d given to his species.

Why? Demetrius had pulled out all the stops to prevent me from finding the first two hallowed weapons. How could he suddenly have something invested in my finding the final one? “How so? I know you don’t care about freeing the trapped humans, and that’s all the third weapon’s good for.”

“Simple. Twit,” Demetrius said, sounding out each insult as if I wouldn’t understand them otherwise. “Did you truly believe that was the spearhead’s only power?”

I bristled. “Zach never said it could do anything else—”

Demetrius’s laughter cut me off. The demon even bent over, as if his spine couldn’t bear the weight of his mirth.

“What’s so funny?” I asked acidly.

He held out a hand as if too overcome to audibly ask me to wait while he attempted to control his mirth. Well, screw him! I was more than halfway to the door when Demetrius, still chuckling, said, “You can leave now, but Adrian’s life depends on you staying to hear me out.”

I stopped, still fuming, but unwilling to let my pride cause me to miss out on possibly useful information just because I hated its source. Demetrius was evil, but in his own twisted way, he loved Adrian. He’d even let me escape once after he’d gotten the drop on me because Adrian had been dying, and I’d had access to the manna that could save him. If Demetrius said that refusing to hear him out could cost Adrian his life...then there was a fifty-fifty chance that he might be telling the truth.

Besides, he knew where I’d been these past several weeks. Hallowed ground might stop him, but it was no barrier to minions, as the attack at the Mother See in Armenia reminded me.

“Make it quick,” I said shortly.

“Zach didn’t tell you that the spearhead has another, equally powerful function, but is that a shock?” Demetrius asked, his voice a taunting purr. “Archons might not lie, but even you can’t be so obtuse as to believe that one would tell you, a mere human, the entire truth if he didn’t want to.”

Zach did have an infuriating tendency to leave out a lot of important details. Case in point—Demetrius being Adrian’s father. Zach had kept that bombshell a secret for years.

“Fine. What else can the spearhead do, if I were to find it and wield it?”

Demetrius’s eye roll was contemptuous. “You? No one believes you could wield it long enough to do anything other than turn into a pile of bones.”

His continued insults had me tapping my foot to keep from hurling curses at him. “Don’t draw out the drama, Demetrius.”

He smiled, showing all of his teeth. “Let’s pretend a miracle happened and you didn’t die wielding it. You know that the spearhead would cause special, human-only gateways to open in all the realms, thus providing a way for those miserable meat bags to escape. But if a demon harnessed the spearhead’s power, another type of gateway would open in all the realms, and this one would allow my kind free passage back and forth again.”

I stared at him. Yes, I knew every hallowed item could be turned dark. That was why demons had wanted David’s sling. In my hands, it killed demons, but in their hands, it could kill Archons. Likewise, Moses’s staff had sealed up the realm walls when I used it, but if demons had wielded it, it would have sent them crashing down. In context, I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me that if the spearhead were turned dark, its other purpose would be the exact opposite of its hallowed one.

And if that happened, everything I’d done to help people would get undone. It would be hell on earth in no time, and here I was, without any hallowed weapons to fight it because they had disappeared when I’d renounced my destiny.

I was reeling from horror and guilt, but one question roared to the surface. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I don’t want that to happen.” After my instant scoff, he said, “Yes, under other circumstances, I would love nothing more than to have the realm gateways reopen. Aside from the obvious, I’m sick of being stuck in a small slice of your rotten world. However, whoever wields the spearhead would have complete control over the gateways, and that, my dear despised Davidian, I cannot abide.”

Now his concern made sense, and of course, his own selfishness was at its core. “That would make the spearhead-wielding demon top dog over you, wouldn’t it?”

He shrugged, but there was nothing casual in his gaze. “I’m not the only demon who doesn’t want a king. We had one once, and it did not suit. We might have minor power struggles, but no demon since Lucifer has ever had the chance to rule all of us. This would change that.”

I couldn’t care less if Demetrius chafed at the thought of being ruled. In fact, his misery would make my day, if it didn’t come at such a high cost. I couldn’t stand the thought of the demon realms reopening, and the demon staring at me knew it.

“So you want me to find the spearhead to stop another demon from finding and using it.”

“Yes,” he said, a nasty gleam appearing in his eyes. “And do try to wield it if you do. Having you implode from its power while simultaneously saving me from being under a king’s rule would be—what does your race call it?—a win-win.”

I almost flipped him off, but I stopped myself because I didn’t want to flash my non-tattooed right hand at him. “Yeah, well, I’m not going to do that,” I said shortly.

He cocked his head. “Which, go after the spearhead, or attempt to wield it?”

I glared at him. “Guess.”

He shrugged. “Could be either after your soul-tying to Adrian.” At my confused look, he said in an almost kindly tone, “You do realize that’s the reason for your newfound apathy toward the humans trapped in my realms, don’t you? Otherwise, you would have never abandoned those mortal meat bags to certain death just to ensure your own happiness.”

“I didn’t abandon them. I couldn’t have saved them, anyway!” I snapped, fighting a wave of familiar guilt.

“Oh, you are correct,” Demetrius said, coming forward until another inch would have caused him to breach the mirror. “You never stood a chance because you are weak, Davidian, and this only proves it. When you and my son wrapped your souls around the deepest parts of each other in that tethering ritual, his didn’t come away lighter, but yours came away darker, and that darkness only continues to grow.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I STARED AT HIM, my mouth opening and closing because I couldn’t think up a strong enough denial. That couldn’t be! If it were true, then I wouldn’t have decided to look for the spearhead after the soul-tying ceremony! But I had, so tethering my soul to Adrian’s couldn’t have had this kind of drastic, “darkening” effect on me.

“You’re wrong,” I said in a furious whisper. “For starters, I am not going dark side, and more importantly, Adrian might have half your blood and all of Judas’s remaining legacy, but he is nothing like either of you.”

Demetrius’s laugh sounded like a low roll of thunder. “The fact that you have no idea who Adrian is and what he is capable of only proves me correct. And you might not yet manifest the full effects of having your soul tainted with the essence of both demons and Judians, but give it more time, and you will.”

Was he implying that it was like an incubating virus? That was ridiculous! Yes, I hadn’t been thrilled about going after the spearhead even after I’d decided to do it, but hey, I hadn’t wanted to hunt down the slingshot and the staff at first, either.

Still...I hadn’t given up while searching for either of those, and doing so had been just as dangerous to me and Adrian as looking for the spearhead. Yet I had given up on that. I was also catching myself lying for no reason, and several weeks ago, I’d let that poor girl get shot before I finally helped her.

Could Demetrius be right? Could tying myself to Adrian’s admittedly darker soul have, well, tainted something in me?

Adrian had worried himself about that happening, saying he never would have done it if he’d known that he was half-demon at the time. Doing so had also cost me access to the light realms that were the beautiful, sunny counterparts to demon realms. What if—partially—Demetrius was right? What if... What if I was kinda evil now?

The thought was too upsetting to ponder more in front of Demetrius, so I moved on. “You said Adrian’s life depended on me hearing you out,” I said, abruptly changing the subject. “So far, I haven’t heard how yet.”

“Demons are naturally rebellious,” Demetrius said with a quick, feral smile. “And Judians betray. That’s why Adrian joining the Archons against us wasn’t a complete surprise. I’d expected him to do something terrible and backstabbing eventually.” He sighed. “I didn’t expect it to last this long. I was convinced he’d quickly grow bored with the endless rules and restrictions ‘good’ people are expected to keep.”

“Get to the point,” I said through gritted teeth.

He stared at me without blinking. “Adrian is my son, so I love him despite his murderous, extended treachery and rebellion. Oh, I’ll torture him for it—what self-respecting father wouldn’t?—but I won’t kill him, and that makes me in the extreme minority among my kind.”

I closed my eyes. “And if another demon is crowned king by controlling access to all the demon realms through the spearhead, he’ll likely rally demons to kill Adrian, both for his fighting against your people and for his refusal to fulfill his destiny by betraying me to my death.”

“Not entirely stupid, are you?” Demetrius said mockingly.

I did flip him off then, left-handed. He returned the gesture, with an added throat-slitting mime from the remains of his shadows that was a lot more ominous. I’d seen him cut someone’s throat for real with one of those dark, lethal wisps, and it was nothing I wanted to experience for myself.

“But the spearhead’s been lost for two thousand years,” I said, trying to find a silver lining in the choking darkness Demetrius had described. “Who’s to say it won’t be lost for another two thousand?”

Demetrius’s snort was scathing. “Hasn’t anyone told you about the countdown?”

Countdown? “What countdown?”

He chuckled, low and contemptuous. “You don’t know? Well, Davidian, then I’ll give you the respect that my son and that Archon obviously felt you weren’t deserving of. As soon as you wielded David’s sling, the prophesied countdown began. Do you want to know what it is?”

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