35. Jasmine
JASMINE
“Any word from Silas?” I ask, chewing on the end of my nail.
“Not yet.” Jake is preparing breakfast for us as I sit on the couch. “It’s only been half a day.”
“You never told me how you talked to Marisole. Did she visit you somehow?” I yawn, taking a sip of the coffee Jake placed in front of me. “I meant to ask last night.” Instead, we both fell asleep before any conversations could be had.
“No, I visited Rebecca. She helped me contact her.”
“Do they both know everything about…?” I point to myself.
“I didn’t have a lot of options, Jaz.”
“No, I know. Rebecca could have guessed anyway after I visited her. I’m not upset more people know. But also, didn’t calling Marisole like that put the spell shop more at risk?”
“Well, someone was reckless, and I had to act quickly,” he muses.
I grimace, knowing he’s talking about me.
“And don’t worry.” He waves the subject away. “Silas stationed two werewolves that were close by there, so they’re protected. For now, at least.”
“Okay, so Hunter and Rebecca. Should we talk to them? I feel like I should thank them. Rebecca has done a lot for me and never asked for anything in return.”
My eyes dip to my mug, and I run my finger around the rim, losing myself to my inner thoughts.
“Hey,” Jake says, rushing to my side and gripping my chin to lift it so I’m looking at him. “Don’t. Don’t let those inner demons get you down. I did this because…” He stands and takes a deep breath. “Well, because I love you.”
“What?” My eyes go wide, and I nearly topple my coffee over.
He chuckles and palms the back of his neck. “That’s not exactly how I thought you’d respond, but, uh, yeah? I think I’ve loved you for a while and forced myself to ignore it because I didn’t want to get too hopeful for the future.”
“But what if we still don’t have a chance at a future, Jake?” I ask, my tone timid. “We still need to wait for Silas to come through with the bargain, and that’s only part of the solution. We still need to make it to the Underworld.”
“Hold on. I think we need to talk through this plan, because you want to go to the Underworld? Why not summon your dad here, on our land?”
I laugh until I see Jake isn’t laughing and I stop. “Oh, you’re serious.”
Jake gives me a duh look.
“He’s a god. He doesn’t bend the knee for anyone. He’d send some sibling or scouts to do the work, listen to our bargain, and relay it to him. I’m not going to let someone else be in charge of my future. I have to go to the Underworld, even if that means going alone.”
Jake shakes his head. “Nah, we go together. It’s our fight. Let’s eat, then we can plan for what’s to come while we wait on Silas.”
Jake comes to sit next to me, bringing our breakfast plates with him.
Before I eat, I turn to him and bump into his shoulder.
“Hm?” he asks, his mouth full of scrambled eggs.
I chuckle. “I love you, too, by the way.”
“Okay, walk me through the plan again,” Jake says, twirling a dry-erase marker and resting his feet on the chair next to him.
We figured that to plan a big job like this, we needed space. So, we chose a gigantic library room with a whiteboard, which gave us privacy and space to map everything out.
I let out a big sigh, tired of going through the same steps over and over, but Jake only shakes his head.
“We need to do this, Jasmine. We need to account for every scenario at every step. Okay? I’ve never been in the presence of a god, or a horde of demons with magic that can easily kill me before I get to tear them in half with my claws. So, we need a plan for every possibility.”
I tap the end of a marker to my temple, thinking that through.
Because he’s right, he wouldn’t be able to handle himself against even a group of three demons if they used their varying magics against him.
Between those with shadow magic and those with elemental magic, it wouldn’t be an easy fight.
So, we write down what he can face and what he can’t.
“I wonder if we can ask Rebecca for a temporary spell to grant you some sort of immunity from certain magic. There has to be something to at least protect your mind and heal you quicker so we can keep moving.”
Jake shudders. “Yeah, I don’t want what happened when I found you at the door to happen again. If a demon infiltrates my mind and plays nightmares again, I’m dead.”
I nod and chew on my lip, then write Talk to Rebecca with a star next to it so we remember to do that ASAP. If we can get her help, we’ll have one more piece of the plan.
“Okay, so let’s see. Assuming that goes to plan, we find a door and go through it—”
“Which will lead us…?”
“To where I intend the other end to be.”
Jake’s face twists. “That doesn’t sound like it’s easy.”
I shrug. “The door will open to where my heart intends for it to go, and since I’ve been thinking day and night about this bargain, I would hope the door would lead close enough to my dad but not too close that we’re caught immediately.”
Jake nods for me to continue.
“Okay, so we go through the door…” I follow the path on the whiteboard with my marker, pointing at each step and the scenarios underneath. We go through each one, making sure they’re solid. “And when we make our way to my dad, which I assume will be in his throne room, then we make the bargain.”
“And let’s hope he doesn’t kill us on the spot.”
I grimace. “He’ll hear me out. It’s been ten years, but he’ll know I wouldn’t come to him with you, an enemy of our kind, unless I had a reason.”
Jake clasps his hands and nods. “Let’s hope you’re right about that and we don’t run into any of the various negative scenarios.”