Zach made a dismissive motion. "Don't worry about him."
"Oh, sure, a demon with enough power to spill realms onto us or sweep them back up is nothing to be concerned about. His being Adrian's biological father and my superevil arch nemesis is just the icing on the relaxation cake."
Zach's mouth twitched at my acid tone. "As I told you before, your mind and your willpower needs to rule your circumstances, not the other way around."
"And as I told you, easy for you to say," I muttered, but Jasmine and Costa's return had us leaving it at that.
"Is this enough?" Jasmine asked, holding a bundle out.
Zach glanced at the blooms that were shaped like a trumpet's horn. Costa had taken his shirt off and used it as a basket, allowing them to collect dozens of the white flowers.
"This will do," he said. "Crush them together. The pollen will coat the petals and turn the entire mixture into manna."
"Can I keep your shirt?" I asked Costa. I had nothing else to use as a container while I crushed the flowers. This realm might be stunning, but it lacked some basic conveniences.
"Of course," he said. "Need help?"
I spread his shirt flat on the ground and began crushing up the flowers. "I've got it."
Jasmine looked around, her expression reminding me of when we were kids and our parents took us to Disneyland. "This place...it's so beautiful, it doesn't even seem real."
"Yes," Zach agreed, with none of her awe. "That is why we took the survivors from the Bennington realm to these worlds. Their tranquility assists with the healing process."
Costa made such a bitter-sounding noise that I looked up from my task. "I don't remember getting any angelic rehab after my time in the demon realms," he said in a steely tone.
"Me, neither," Jasmine added, her expression hardening.
Zach's arm swept out in a wide arc. "If you feel cheated and you want to stay in this one, then stay."
I paused in crushing the flowers. "Are you serious?" Jasmine and I asked at the same time.
Zach's stare was level, and uncompromising. "Yes. In fact, any of you can stay here as long as you wish, but remember, by doing so, you lose your chance to be a participant in this war."
I began crushing the flowers with more force than necessary. "That's not a real offer for me. I'm the last Davidian, so if I sat this war out by staying here, the realm walls would crumble and countless places around the world would look like the campus we just left."
"Correct," Zach replied in that infuriatingly calm tone.
I glared at him. "That's no choice, and you know it."
Zach glared back, only his eyes had lights shimmering in them. "It is a choice, and it comes down to this. You living happily here, or leaving this place to save strangers who will never even know what you did, let alone thank you for it."
"Demetrius, is that you?" I replied mockingly. "Because Zach, Archon Who Only Follows Orders, would never try to talk me out of fulfilling my much-anticipated destiny."
"Do you remember my telling you that Adrian's fate was in his own hands?" Zach replied, his tone far more sharp. "So is yours. The Creator gave all humans free will, and that gift is so strong, not even destiny can overcome it."
Everyone's eyes were suddenly fixed on me. My heart began to race, but I tried not to show how affected I was as I crushed the last of the blooms into the sticky, crumb-like substance. Then I spread some onto Adrian's head and stomach while my thoughts careened over this unexpected offer.
What if me, Adrian, Jasmine and Costa did ride out the fall of the realm walls in a beautiful world where demons could never harm us? As I well knew, even if I found the staff, I might not be able to wield it long enough to fix the walls. The more likely scenario was my touching it, falling over dead and having demons dance around my corpse as they used the staff to send all the realm walls crashing down.
In fact, might it be better for everyone if I stayed? Sure, some realm walls would crumble, but not all of them, and if only some fell, then the majority of people would live. After all, if I stayed here, then the staff stayed lost. Demons had already struck out for millennia trying to find it on their own and I doubted their luck would change anytime soon. If I stayed, then demons couldn't find the staff through me, and if Adrian, Costa and Jasmine happened to stay with me, well, what was wrong with that? Weren't they also entitled to a little happiness after everything they'd been through?