If Zach hadn’t abandoned him all those years ago, Adrian wouldn’t have learned how to be the insanely strong fighter that he was. He also wouldn’t have hated demons for their countless deceptions, giving him a reason to fight them in the first place. Then later, his hate ensured that he went with me when I was looking for the only weapon that could kill them. As I’d accused Adrian before, he wouldn’t have gone with me otherwise, no matter how Zach tried to persuade him...

Hope began to spiral through my wildly swinging emotions. That’s right, Zach had wanted Adrian to go with me, so maybe the Archon was using the supernatural tie between us to help Adrian, not to doom him. After all, if Adrian hadn’t gone with me to search for the slingshot, we wouldn’t have fallen in love. Yes, Adrian had horribly betrayed my trust, but I’d betrayed his, too, and he’d forgiven me. Could I really refuse to forgive him, if there might be a future for us after all?

I drew in a deep breath. I wasn’t ready to throw myself back in his arms, but what if the Archons were right? What if love was the wild card that gave us a chance to beat the demons, save the walls between the realms from crumbling and save ourselves from our fates? It was a long shot, true, but I now had a three-thousand-year-old weapon tattooed into my arm, so anything was possible.

I rose, giving the two Archons a nervous yet determined look.

“All right, when do we start?”