33. Jasmine
JASMINE
“Thank you for coming for me,” I whisper into Jake’s chest, thankful I don’t have to speak loudly in order for him to hear me.
Jake moves a hand from my back to run his fingers through my hair and it’s the one thing keeping me put together. The movement is an anchor.
“I would tear the world apart to find you.”
He presses a kiss to my temple, content with sitting here with me for however long I need. But I know we need to get home. He’s not wearing any clothes and I know he’s uncomfortable, even if he doesn’t voice it.
I lift my head from his chest and do my best to look at him. “We can go. You need to get warm.”
“I’m okay,” he says, but I don’t believe him. The bond between us tells me a different story, one full of worry and pain.
“Come on.” I ignore him, untangling my body from his. He grabs my outstretched hand, and I help pull him to stand, giving him a look when he winces. “I have salve at the apartment.”
“I remember,” he says with a small smile.
A few more minutes of walking, and we’re finally at my apartment. We go up the stairs, and when the main door opens, I forget the mess I left the room in.
“Um—”
“It’s okay, I don’t care.” Jake interrupts my apology, and I shut my mouth.
“Let me grab the salve. Just push everything to the floor.” I don’t care if I step on papers or books as I make my way to the bathroom to grab the jar from the medicine cabinet under the sink.
When I get back in the living room, Jake is lying on the couch with a blanket covering most of his body and his foot propped on a pillow.
He did as I said, and all papers and books that were where he is are now on the floor.
It isn’t anything important, anyway. None of the books I received over the last week helped me in my search for a way to talk to the Council or some other alternative.
I sit on top of the papers on the coffee table, again not caring about those, and unscrew the jar.
“I can do that,” Jake says.
I wave him off. “Let me.”
He doesn’t argue, and I go ahead with dipping two fingers into the salve, then do my best to gently apply it to his ankle. As I rub small circles to dissolve the thick paste, he moans in relief. The swelling goes down almost immediately, the redness of his dark skin fading within seconds.
“God, that feels good,” he mumbles.
I have to bite my lip to stop a remark from leaving my mouth. Instead, I apply a second layer of the salve, hoping it’ll heal the underlying problem quicker with more medicine on him.
Between moans of relief and sighs, Jake says, “I talked to your sister.”
“You talked to Marisole?” My gaze whips to him.
He does his best to nod. “She’s…”
“A lot, I know.” I chuckle. I screw the lid back on the jar and set it down, then turn my body so I’m facing Jake.
Jake sits up, letting the blanket fall off his torso, and I have to remind myself to keep my eyes on his face, otherwise I’ll think of ways to take my mind off of every single terrible problem in my life.
“She cares about you,” Jake muses, knowing where my thoughts ventured, but I’m thankful he doesn’t say anything about it. Instead, he pats the seat next to him.
I can’t hide how much I want to be close to him, so I don’t deny myself shifting from the table to being by his side.
Jake moves the pillow from the couch to the table, then rests his leg on top of it.
Thankfully, his movements are smooth and he’s not grimacing anytime his foot’s position alters, so the salve must be working quick.
“Marisole is one of the few people in this entire universe that cares about me,” I say.
“I care about you.” Jake bumps his shoulder against mine. “Even if you hid that you’re a demon princess.”
I pout. “I wanted to tell you.”
“I know. I realize that now, how much you would have risked to tell me. I may not fully understand everything, but talking to Marisole helped me with why you hid it from me.”
I nod.
“But,” Jake continues, “she also told me about the bargain.”
“Ah.” I laugh. “Right, the bane of my existence. It’s not worth talking about.” I shake my head. “It’s not a viable path anymore.”
I can’t help but fidget with the hem of my shirt with my hands, but Jake’s large hand wraps around them both and stops them.
“There’s a way. That’s what I was trying to tell you when we were outside.”
I flit my gaze to his. “No. If there was, I would have found it. Marisole must not have told you everything.”
“Tell me, then. You tell me everything, but I guarantee I have a way to help you with this bargain, if you’ll let me.”
I’m hesitant. It’s not that I don’t trust him, that I don’t want him to know, but I don’t want to drag him into this. He’s already too deep, and after talking to my sister, he’s now a target to anyone in the Underworld who wants to find someone in this realm to use as leverage.
But once I start telling him, I can’t stop. It’s as if I’ve turned on a faucet and am unable to turn it off, no matter how much I try. I start at the beginning, telling him about Marisole and my bargain with her: ten years of keeping my secret in exchange for half of my soul.
I tell Jake about living in Fernhollow and never running into another demon and about my time at Fernhollow Vet.
“Then you showed up.” Tears are falling again, and I didn’t realize how much I’ve been keeping in my emotions.
It’s like I blocked all the negative emotions from breaching my surface, hoping that if I kept it together for long enough, it’d all dissolve, but that didn’t work.
“You made me believe this could be possible. That the demons showing up didn’t have to be the end of my story, that I wouldn’t have to go back to the Underworld.
That I didn’t have to die.” I choke out the last word, still not believing we will find a way around this.
“And the bargain?” Jake asks.
I nod. “I’ve been trying to think of ways to live, to give us a chance to have something, anything. But every time I question what my dad would even want, there’s little a god needs.”
“But you found something?”
“Eh, an idea, more like. There’s little a demon needs to survive, besides souls.”
“And demons aren’t allowed to come to this realm.”
“But they do it anyway,” I remind Jake. “Except, as of late, they’ve been reckless, taking souls before they’re ready or taking too many.
And with their added mission to find me, it’s been worse.
So, I figured if I’m to bargain my life in exchange for something, why not offer a way for demons to have safe passage to this realm?
A way for them to collect souls safely?”
Jake’s face twists, and I know he’s following but is still confused.
I continue. “If I could give demons a spot on the Council, then they’d have some say in the transport.”
“The Council, yes, but why would the Council say yes? Demons have been banned for a really long time.”
“Yes, I know.” I nod. “The souls that are collected power the Underworld, and in exchange, the Underworld feeds the magic in the soil of this realm.”
Jake is silent for a beat, taking in what I just told him. It’s a fact that isn’t known by most and could be used as leverage.
“So…” Jake leans forward. “If the Underworld lacks souls, our world won’t have magic.”
I nod.
Jake takes another moment to take it all in, then he smiles. It’s not a small smile, either. It’s large, like he’s happy, even though I told him this realm could lose its magic.
“Why do you look like that?” I ask.
He takes my hands in his.
“I have a secret.”
“Um, okay. Are you going to tell me?”
Jake chuckles. “Of course. But know that this isn’t a guarantee, and it’ll cause us to do something really uncomfortable.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, so you know how I’m here on behalf of the Council and my alpha to take care of the demons?” I nod and he continues. “Well, it just so happens that this is kind of like a test for them to see if I’m capable of doing this job.”
“A test? Why?” I ask.
“Silas wants me to take the werewolf spot on the Council.”
My jaw drops. “What? Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Jake, that’s amazing.” I smile, and it’s a real smile. “You’d be great.”
He chuckles and squeezes my hand. “Thanks. But, um, for me to complete this job, gain the spot on the Council, and get acceptance for the demons to rejoin, I have to bring in Silas.”
“What do you mean?”
“We need to tell him everything.”