Page 78 of Infernal

Alrighty then.

I wasn’t sure what hurt more. The fact that she’d answered yes or the fact that she didn’t even remotely hesitate.

“You could’ve at least pretended to think about it,” I said, shaking my head at her.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t love you, Jemma. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do everything I knew of to try to save you first. But if I came down to you or the rest of the world, you would lose. You would have to—as would I. That’s just the way it is. One person, no matter how much we love them, cannot overshadow everyone else.”

Tears were stinging the corner of my eyes, because while I hated what she was saying, I also knew she was right.

“I think we should break for the rest of the day,” she said, glancing away from me. “It’s a lot for you to take in.” For the briefest of seconds, I thought I saw some emotion in her eyes, though it could have just been a piece of dust.

“Thanks,” I said, grateful for her reprieve. I was going to need a hell of a lot more time to process this.

“Yeah, well, what are sisters for, right?” she said as she stalked to the sword and unceremoniously picked it up.

The minute she took the sword back, something inside of me broiled to life, and suddenly, without even meaning to, I’d reached out and snatched the sword back from her, once again igniting its power in my hand.

Woah…Why the hell did I just do that?

“That’s really cute,” said Tessa, though nothing about her face was saying she was amused. “Now hand it over,” she said, holding her hand out to me, palm up.

I shook my head, clutching the sword by my side.

“Stop playing around,” she snapped. “Give it back.”

“I’m sorry, Tess, but I don’t think I can do that.”

Narrowing her eyes, she moved to take it from me, but I quickly stepped back.

I could hear her grinding her teeth, and even though I knew that was a bad sign, I refused to give it to her. The truth was, there wasn’t a single person in the entire universe I trusted to carry this thing, and that included my sister.

“You’re going to give me that damn sword,” she said and then tried to snatch it out of my hands again, but I seemed to be one step ahead of her each time.

“That’s not happening, Tessa.”

“I swear to God—”

“The only way you’re getting this sword from me is if you pry it out of my hands,” I interrupted her calmly, knowing full well that she didn’t have a chance in hell of taking it from me.

She paused, assessing me as though seeing me for the first time. She was probably deciding whether or not she could take me. Hell, she probably could, one on one, but not when I had this kind of magical advantage over her.

Realizing she wasn’t going to win this one, she shook her head at me and dropped her hands. “You realize you’re putting a target on your back by carrying that around with you?”

I had no doubt of it.

“It’s not the first one I’ve had, and I doubt it’ll be the last.”

I waited for an answer, another argument, and when none came, I released the breath I’d been holding. Bending down, I pulled my pant leg up and revealed my own holster—the one Dominic had given me—and then carefully slid it into the sheath where it belonged.

“I really hope you know what you’re doing.”

“So do I,” I said and straightened myself out. There was no point in denying it. I was in way over my head and didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to do. The only thing I knew for sure was that there wasn’t a damned person on this entire planet who was going to take this sword out of my hands.

In fact, I really wanted to see them try.

28. COUNTDOWN

Tessa and I rejoined Dominic and Gabriel in the upstairs den shortly after our little standoff. Neither one of us had bothered to share what had happened in the basement, and I was relieved not to have to live through it again. I didn’t particularly enjoy pissing off my sister, especially when I already had so many people against me, but there was no way in Hell I was going to let that sword out of my sights. The truth was, while I’d taken the sword and agreed to be trained by her, I wasn’t letting go of hope that our plan would work—that we would find a way to save Trace and bring him home again. As far as I was concerned, using the sword was an absolute-no-other-choice last resort.

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