The Sweetest Burn (Broken Destiny #2)(67)

Costa looked as surprised as my sister did. "Why?" he asked. "Ivy didn't have any trouble pulling all of us through."

A muscle flexed in Adrian's jaw. "If you're my friend, Costa, don't press this. Just stay here."

"I'm asking," Jasmine said, striding over to Adrian. "Why?"

I'd assumed it was to keep them safe since demons might be waiting for us there, which was why Adrian's reply stunned me.

"Demetrius dropped a realm on us within a few hours of our arrival in Death Valley. Then he leaked one onto us only a few hours after we showed up at the campus." Adrian's voice, already sharp, became harder than diamonds. "Once is coincidence, but twice is a pattern, and both times, the two of you were conveniently out of harm's way. That's why neither of you is coming with us now because I don't know which of you has been going behind our backs with Demetrius."





  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

AFTER A MOMENT of shocked silence, I found my voice. "That's impossible. Neither of them would ever do that." Then, louder, "Jasmine, Costa, tell him you'd never do that!"

"Of course I wouldn't!" was my sister's immediate response. "You know how horrible I felt about what I told the demons when they tortured Tommy. Do you think I'd ever do anything even resembling that again?"

The stare Costa leveled at Adrian was full of anger. "After all these years, I never thought I'd have to say that I wouldn't betray you," Costa bit out.

"See?" I said. "You're wrong, Adrian!"

Adrian turned to Zach, who I just realized had remained ominously silent. "Well?" Adrian asked. "You know almost everything, so tell me, am I wrong?"

Zach let his gaze rest on each of us before replying, and though it only took moments, the tension grew and stretched, until my nerves felt as if they were about to snap.



       
         
       
        

"You are correct. One of you has been alerting Demetrius," Zach replied.

An explosion seemed to go off in my mind, making Jasmine's sputtered denials and Costa's angry protestations fade into white noise. As if I'd never seen them before, I stared back and forth between the sister I loved and the friend I trusted. I didn't want to believe it was true, but Archons never lied, and if I didn't focus on how this bombshell ripped me apart emotionally, I'd recognize that each of them had motive.

Jasmine had made it no secret that she lumped Adrian together with demons, to the point where she partially blamed Adrian for her boyfriend's death as well as her awful treatment in his former realm. What if that hatred had driven her to do something terrible, like trying to get him killed? It wouldn't be hard for her to reach Demetrius. All she would've had to do was say his name in an unbroken mirror, and he would appear.

Costa knew that, too, and as he'd told me recently, he still had difficulty forgiving Adrian for what had happened to him while he was enslaved in Adrian's realm. Hadn't Costa also said that he'd do anything to avenge his friend Tomas? Tomas had died trying to help Adrian and me, and while it was minions who'd shot him, maybe Costa blamed Adrian, too. After all, Tomas wouldn't have been in Mexico to get shot if not for Adrian asking for Tomas's help.

It had to be Costa, I decided, reining in my spiraling emotions. Jasmine might hate Adrian, but she'd never risk me getting killed, too, and she knew I was number one on the demons' hit list. Costa might like me, but if he was that determined to punish Adrian by turning him over to Demetrius, he wouldn't call it off on my account. We'd been though a lot, but at the end of the day, I didn't mean nearly as much to him as Tomas had.

"...this is bullshit!" my sister was saying, and her screech cut through my inner wrestling match.

"You bet it is," Costa flared, his dark brown eyes almost flashing in his agitation. "I know it wasn't me, and I was with Jasmine both times, so it couldn't have been her, either!"

"You sure about that?" Adrian asked, his tone softer, but no less harsh. "She never left your side to go into another room for a moment? Would you even remember if she had?"

My gaze swung to Adrian. "It's not her," I snapped.

From the pitying look he gave me, he'd also come to his own conclusions about who'd done it, only he'd landed on Jasmine. 

"It's not her," I insisted. "Jasmine would never do that to me, and Costa admitted before that he's still pissed at you! Hell, he's also never believed I'd be able to wield the staff without getting killed, so it's not like he'd think my death would take the rest of the world down with me. He already thinks everyone is doomed."