Jeaniene Frost - The Brightest Embers

“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.