The Sweetest Burn

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Adrian floored the gas. “This area is being swallowed by a demon realm.”

CHAPTER TEN (#u48afa9c7-b74b-5e17-b7e5-5036678b5d86)

I’M THE FIRST to criticize when people ask dumb questions during a crisis. Seriously, I can’t count the times I’ve thought, Just shut up and run! while watching a horror movie. In reality, stupid-babble was a side effect of shock, and despite all that I’d been through, I still wasn’t immune to it.

Take me saying, “What? How?” while dialing Costa’s cell phone with shaking fingers.

Adrian didn’t take his eyes off the nearest lightning storm, which he was driving us straight toward.

“Told you, demon realms are created when they cause parts of their world to slam into ours. I’ve seen it done before, and this is what it looked like.”

Yes, he’d explained realm creation to me months ago. Not that understanding it helped when a nightmare-black sky was bearing down on us like a giant foot about to squash an ant. Costa answered on the second ring, and I didn’t wait for him to say hello before blurting out Adrian’s instructions.

“Drive for the lightning. A realm’s coming down on us!”

“What?” Costa demanded. See? Stupid-babble.

“A realm is about to swallow us,” I yelled. “The only way out is through the lightning, so drive, drive, drive!”

I heard Costa shout something to Jasmine, then the line went dead. I checked the phone. No bars. With two worlds about to collide in the same space, that wasn’t a surprise. Darkness had now completely enveloped the area around us, making it difficult to see the bands of lightning we were headed toward. Without our headlights, we’d be driving blind, and we needed to see or we’d crash into one of the area’s many boulders. When we’d gone on our joy ride, we’d driven well away from the bus, not knowing that there would be any consequences. Now, I only hoped that Costa and Jasmine were closer to the lightning belts than we were, because despite Adrian pushing the muscle car to its limit, the horizon around us was turning completely black.