During the ride away from the battle, Resent had returned control to Rodrigo. Though the prince hadn’t shown any signs of panic like the rest of them, that he had nothing derisive to say and had been content to let the military and festered fight among themselves, spoke volumes.

Only when they were miles away did Adena gradually slow down, then pull the SUV to a stop in an outdoor parking lot. She released the steering wheel. “That was bad. I’ve encountered them over the years, but the fear could always be worked through. There were just...so many.” She was the closest to frightened Rodrigo had ever seen her. She wouldn’t meet his stare and seemed to be fighting the urge to bite her nails through her gloves. Seeing she was as human as the rest of them might have been endearing, if he and his family weren’t so reliant on her.

Adena took a deep, steadying breath. “Demon presence seems to have been lowered by the snow. While it’s still foreign enough to worry them, I’m going to find a building we can use. Anyone who wants to can come, too. Leila, stay here in case someone needs to drive.” She left the key and a fade periapt on the dashboard. With that and the windows tinted, they were just one car of dozens.

Apparently, that run-in with the festered had made the others feel a need to be proactive because only Rodrigo stayed with Leila. She had moved into the driver’s seat and was studying him in a way that was making him fidget. “I honestly don’t know how you do it.”

“Do what?” Rodrigo asked, turning to her.

“Not be afraid.”

“What are you talking about? I’m plenty scared, too.”

“Back in the hotel, you were. At least a little. But you’re not anymore. Like when the rest of us were losing it back there, you were still calm enough to take my gun from me.” Leila frowned, a look of regret crossing her face. “Sorry about hitting you.”

“It’s fine. You weren’t yourself and I’m used to worse.”

“You are?”

“Yeah. You know, from the demons,” Rodrigo amended. As nice as it might be to have someone to confide in about his disastrous relationship with his mother, he had no desire to be viewed as a victim in need of sympathy.

By the pity in her eyes, Leila had seen through the lie, though had the courtesy to not try forcing the truth from him. “Anyway, like I was saying, I get it with Adena. She’s been dealing with demons for years. You were new to them and it’s like you’ve already adjusted.” After a bit, she threw in, “It’s not, like, a bad thing, of course.”

“I don’t know. I mean, having Resent to talk me through things definitely helps, but it’s for Raquel and Carlito, too. I’m sure you know how it is with Hannah. When things get rough, you don’t want them to see you—”

“My sister’s dead.”

Rodrigo blinked. “W-what?”

“Hannah, my mom, and my dad. All dead for over a year now.”

Rodrigo’s throat tightened. He knew something was wrong by the evasive way she reacted to any mention of her family, but he was thinking something like a falling-out. While the rest of the Azars had faded from his mind with time, for years he had seen them regularly. He wanted details, but not if talking about it would bring her to tears.

Sensing his concern, Leila said, “It’s okay. So, in sophomore year, there was this boy in my grade named Vincent. I didn’t really know him, but he had a crush on me for a while, apparently. He wasn’t bad-looking or anything, but he was, like, so awkward. He wouldn’t even ask me out in person, he just got Bianca to text me this soulless poem he scribbled in the middle of class. Then when I turned him down, he followed me and her to my house with a gun and...yeah.”

Shame engulfed Rodrigo. She had persevered through tragedy, one of such a magnitude that he couldn’t say he’d be strong enough to do the same in her shoes, and he had been hassling her about elementary school nonsense. “I’m so sorry...Did he, uh, get arrested?”

“He shot himself before the cops showed up.” Leila paused, her eyes starting to glaze over. “Bianca made it even through all that. She was the only person who actually still knew me and now she’s gone. Feels like I’m next.”

Suddenly, Rodrigo clasped her hand in his and locked eyes with her. “I know you, and I won’t let that happen. I’ll protect you.”

Leila re-focused her attention on him. “Can you promise that?”

“You shouldn’t,” Resent warned, and on a rational level, Rodrigo knew the prince was right. He was dealing with forces so far out of his control that he couldn’t even guarantee his own safety.

But the longer he gazed into those large amber eyes, the less rational he felt. “I promise, if you die, it’ll only be after I died doing everything I could to prevent it.”

“Or, we could shelve the doom and gloom, both try to stay alive, and see where that leads us,” Leila said softly. She broke eye contact and started taking glances at his mouth. He felt his face heat as she snickered in that cute way of hers. Then she was looking at his lips again.

Was she expecting him to make the first move? He didn’t have the skills for this. Almost always concerned about Raquel and Carlito, outside of school, he spent little time with kids his own age. Especially girls. He had kissed a grand total of two, and neither of them were anything like Leila. Not just in age or appearance, but there weren’t years of history and feelings connecting them. While he was nervously contemplating his strategy, she became impatient and leaned in.

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The back door swung open and Rodrigo pulled away so fast he banged the back of his head against the window. Leila laughed hard, only barely controlling herself to avoid attracting attention to their vehicle.

“Hey,” Raquel greeted as she sunk into one of the individual seats. But then as she looked from the giggling Leila to the flustered Rodrigo, she said, “Oh, well, excuse me. I just came back to take a nap. I can get out if you lovebirds want?”

Rodrigo chuckled at the absurdity of the suggestion, knowing full well that if it wasn’t life or death outside, he might have taken her up on it. “It’s fine.”

Now that Raquel brought it up, Rodrigo noticed his own exhaustion. He had been awake for well over twenty-four hours and a great deal of that time had been occupied by running, fighting, training, or thinking about demons. “I’m going to join her for that nap. Will you be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Leila said with a smile. “Get some rest. You’ve earned it.”

With that, Rodrigo laid his head back against the seat’s headrest and finally allowed himself to drift off.

#

Leila watched Rodrigo sleep for a bit. Even while getting some shut-eye, peace eluded him as his left hand rested on his sword’s handle. Wild how he thought fear was something that could be flicked off like a light switch. Then again, growing up, that was how she remembered him. Horror movies, roller coasters, bigger kids throwing their weight around, like anyone else, all of it scared him. But not for long.

Funny how she was now relying on, and maybe even a bit attracted to, his capacity for violence, which she was so frightened of as a kid. Too bad it took losing her family to understand his desperation to protect his own.

Still, she had gotten caught up in the moment before. Once upon a time, when she used to date regularly, it was mainly with guys older than her. Rodrigo, who lacked even a hint of facial hair, was way too young.

Nope, that was a lie. Other than being adorably shy when it came to boy-girl stuff, he was more mature than a lot of the seniors in her high school.

He was the first person besides her court-ordered therapist she opened up to about the incident. Even if she left out how after she rejected Vincent, she told her friends about it, and they all laughed at him, except Bianca. Even if she forgot to mention how it spread around her school and resulted in him being constantly bullied for a solid two weeks, during which she didn’t lift a finger to stop it. Even if she hadn’t told him that she was the one who shot Vincent dead. Right through his stupidly grinning face. All because she didn’t want the way Rodrigo looked at her, like she was flawless, to change. If anything, it was probably she who was too immature for him.

A sharp rap at the window. She jumped in her seat, removed from her thoughts. She spun and saw Jett waiting outside. After Raquel had barged in on them, Leila decided to lock the doors.

Leila got out of the vehicle. “Where’s Carlito and Ms. winning personality?”

“Still checking out buildings,” Jett said, pointing across the street. “I dunno what exactly she’s looking for, but it felt like a waste to be there.”

“Kay. I need to stretch my legs. You know how to drive?”

Jett looked sheepish, which was a pleasant change from the constant melancholy and anger she’d seen on his face so far. “Yeah...well, good enough, anyway. I was taking lessons.”

“All right, hold down the fort. I’ll be back in a few.”

With what Jett had seen, she knew from experience that he wouldn’t be falling asleep anytime soon. After the massacre, she had stayed up for nearly three full days because every time her eyes were shut, she saw her family in the darkness. Or at least what was left of them. When his trauma wasn’t as fresh, hopefully talking to him about it could be of some help to them both.

Leila grabbed her shotgun, a 20-gauge Escort Gladius, and crossed the street. The real reason she was going was to try to build a better relationship with Adena. Leila realized Adena didn’t have much respect for her. And honestly, she was the type of girl a younger her would have loathed. Beautiful, intelligent, tough, and condescending all rolled into one tall package. Okay, maybe she didn’t like her much even now. But in this absurd new world, someone like her was exactly who you wanted on your side, and that meant putting in the effort to play nice.

Leila entered the apartment complex on the corner of the block. It wasn’t in as bad shape as some other buildings were, but the demons had clearly passed through.

She wondered, not for the first time, how Bianca’s parents were fairing. With how inseparable she and Bianca had been since middle school, they had been kind enough to take her in after her own parents were killed. Now she had to inform them that their only child was dead, through means that were somehow hazy in her mind, and the weight of that responsibility terrified her more than any demon.

Leila was approaching the staircase, picking up snippets of a conversation going on above her, when a vaguely familiar voice came through loud and clear. A voice too feminine to be Carlito’s and too high-pitched to be Adena’s. “I’ve already sent word. It shouldn’t be long now.”

Leila stopped in her tracks.

“I wish you hadn’t,” Adena responded. “It makes me look...uncooperative.”

There was a long pause before the other spoke again. “Dena, be a dear and take care of the eavesdropper below.”

Leila’s blood froze in her veins. She could scream, but she doubted the others would hear her over the noise of the city. She could run. She had a head start and as far as she knew, super speed wasn’t one of Adena’s many talents. But turning his back on a threat was exactly how a veteran like her dad got killed by an amateur like Vincent. And Adena was no amateur.

“Why are you just standing there?” the voice asked. “Don’t worry, it’s not Resent. It’s one of his little pets.”

Leila thanked God she still had her shotgun loaded with electric rounds and not fire or ice. She couldn’t imagine either of those stopping Adena. She tried to keep her hands steady as she braced the stock of the gun against her right shoulder and aimed up to the top of the stairs. Six shots should be enough. Right? No matter how capable she was, Adena was only human. Right?

Leila heard a drop of liquid falling to the tile floor behind her. She didn’t think much of it at first. Then she heard the sizzle. She spun around in time to see the ceiling melted through. In a panic, she squeezed the trigger and fired off three shots through the hole before getting even a glimpse of Adena’s bleached hair.

A fireball came through in retaliation, striking the barrel of Leila’s shotgun with pinpoint accuracy. She threw it to the ground with a curse as the weapon started to liquefy in her hands.

While Leila fumbled to free her sidearm from its holster, Adena dropped through the hole, landing nimbly a few feet in front of her. With some sort of gold knife in her right hand, she reached out to slit Leila’s throat.