When Jessamine landed in his arms, Avery's first instinct was to recoil, to panic. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been red with fury, her soul black with chaos. She'd been a woman trapped inside herself with monsters, her screech echoing in his ears as if it were now a part of him. She'd been blood embodied—a walking, clawing creature who sought to drink it, become it. Her energy was dark, heavy, petrifying; and his attraction to her was deep, sickening. Too much to remember all at once.

But he let the truth weigh down on him, helping him not let go of Jessamine. Because now, she was a frazzled mess, a frail thing collapsing into his embrace, nestling her nose into his shirt. She was pallid, shaky, but overall alive; a wounded warrior who'd been through hell and back. A human, devoid of cruel creatures that were eating her on the inside.

The force of Jessamine's return to the mortal world had sent them both toppling backwards. Avery was sprawled on the concrete, Jessamine in his arms, her body between his legs. And she was holding on to him for dear life. Her breaths were sharp, but she was jumpy. Her eyes were closed, and he feared watching for when they'd open; last he'd seen them, they were venomous with crimson rage.

He peered instead at the portal that he'd witnessed Ada being sucked through. He'd overheard snippets of the conversation on the other side—Jessamine's panic at not being able to open the door, and the demon urging her to hurry. Seconds later, the door blasted open in his world, and Ada was gone. No goodbyes, no good luck for the rest of your life, no apologies for all her wrongs, her lies. Nothing. Where once her blue glow had graced the world was nothing but an empty space.

It was an emptiness Avery should have enjoyed, as he'd wanted nothing more than to be rid of Ada. For her to die, disappear, or simply no longer be in his life, he didn't really care; but this? Her now dwelling in the demonic world she was so afraid of? He wasn't sure what to think about all of it. She was a liar, a contributor to the world's problems, but she'd tried with all her might to save the realm. To save Jessamine, to save Avery.

And he hadn't gotten a chance to thank her for that. He'd instead been shoved backward as Jessamine fell onto him, and the door slammed shut, hopefully to never open again.

Strangely enough, the door's redness dimmed; the gruesome glow from behind it no longer blinded the eye. The whispers had long since stopped, but after all this, they hadn't resumed. No noise peppered the air in the basement—nothing but Avery's thumping heart-beat and Jessamine's heavy breathing.

The door's frame seemed to melt into the wall. It was still there, but inactive, no longer a usable portal; at least, not on this side. The atmosphere was mild: not hot, not chilly. No muggy, blood-soaked air, no stench of death. Nothing. Avery smelled nothing.

Jessamine fidgeted in his embrace. With a wince, he glanced down at her, prepared for her bloodshot eyes to pierce his soul. Prepared for the demons to soar out of her and cackle at him, telling him he'd made a mistake, they'd tricked him, they were back.

But as her eyelashes fluttered, all he saw was green. The grassy hue of a spring meadow, the swirls of emeralds, a pinch of ocean blue spotting the corners, a dark forest outline. Her eyes—the real Jessamine. The eyes he'd fallen in love with without even knowing.

Her breathing was still ragged. He propped her up to ensure she was able to let oxygen in and out of her lungs properly. She blinked, squinted, turned her neck here and there to gather her bearings.

"Hey," said Avery, immediately flinching at his lackluster choice of a greeting. "You okay?"

She rubbed her temples and leaned into his arm, which he was using to help keep her upright. "I'm... no, not really."

He understood exactly what she meant—he wasn't okay, either. He probably never would be. "No, but I mean... you, you're here, you're okay? Physically intact?"

"I'm alive, if that's what you mean," she said, scrunching her nose. She shifted from side to side, and Avery realized she didn't need his arm as support. Her body was warm, gaining strength. Her temperature heated Avery's icy skin; he'd been in Ada's frosty presence for too long. But with her gone, her frigid energy no longer cooling everything she came into contact with, he felt... fine.

"Yeah." He stopped himself from caressing her back, from using any gestures that'd be too intimate, too soon. "That's what I meant."

"Avery." She spun to him so fast he was winded. Her gaze glued to his with an intensity that briefly reminded him of her demonic alter-ego. How it had forced him to look at her, and how he'd been weak in the knees and terrified all at once. But this was her, Jessamine. No blood-thirst, no grating, borderline sexy slur to her words. "Ada, she... she said something to me as we crossed paths."

Avery sat up straight. "What? You... you saw her?" He could have sworn Jessamine came tumbling out the door seconds after Ada had been slurped up. How had they had time to pass each other? And for Ada to speak to her? "What... what did she say?"

"It was... cryptic, but I weirdly remember it word for word. Like she implanted it inside my brain or something." Jessamine grimaced, pulling her knees to her chest. For someone who'd spent one day too many in a brutal realm of violent creatures who wanted to eat her soul, she smelled like a fresh forest of pines. No coppery odor, not even a trace of excess sweat or that saltiness of fear. She was her, the beautiful woman he'd fallen for and thought he'd never see again.

Avery let out a chortle. "That's an accurate description of the kind of shit Ada does." Jessamine cocked her head and studied him, but he waved in dismissal. "Stories for another time. What did she say?"

Jessamine gulped. "And so the sacrifice of good will seal the demon doors completely, its realm never to be found again, its evil spirits never again to be revealed. Until such a time that the worlds be rattled again." She spoke concisely, no breaks in her speech, no hesitation. Ada had imprinted the knowledge into Jessamine's mind. "Then she... walked away. Floated off. Vanished. So easy."

"Wait..." Avery's jaw unhinged, and he had to put it manually back into place. "What? She... that sounds like a prophecy. Like a vision, a prediction."

Jessamine shrugged. "Possibly part of our prophecy. She made it sound like she was aware she'd have to sacrifice herself in the end, yeah? That's how I'm interpreting this."

"She knew, yeah." Avery swallowed, bottling up all his frustration to not unleash it on Jessamine. One day, he'd tell her how much he and Ada butted heads, but not yet. Not when she'd only just made it back. "She'd have to enter the demonic realm to seal it completely, to save us from its after-effects."

They sat there for several minutes staring at each other in silence, processing. Ada knew—of course she did. She always knew everything. She'd hovered there, in front of Avery, pretending to go over options, feigning uncertainty when the whole time, every single second since he'd met her, she was well aware she'd be forced to offer herself in the end. With every action, with every event that happened, she had no doubt where it was all leading.

"That lying bi—"

Jessamine pressed a finger to his mouth, stopping his anger from pouring out. "She did what she thought was right, and... well, we're safe, aren't we?" She peeked at the door, then the stairwell; her eyes widened as she slowly twisted back to Avery. "And I think we're about to get more answers."

Avery whipped his head towards the stairs and saw what Jessamine had detected—blue beings descending, entering the basement with bewildered expressions. Some gawked at the dimmed demon door, whispering about its energy being diminished, gone. Some were fixated on Jessamine, who uncurled herself from Avery's arms, allowing their stares. And one looked at Avery, approaching cautiously. The young Guide Avery had teamed up with, wordlessly, to try to stop Ada from plunging to her doom.

"Faz," said Avery, getting to his feet to be level with Faz's floating body. He helped Jessamine up, and she, too, faced Faz, sliding her fingers between Avery's, squeezing.

Faz inclined his head at Jessamine. "Glad to see you safe and sound, at last," he said, staying low for several seconds, waiting for acknowledgement. But when Jessamine said nothing, Faz straightened up and addressed Avery. "We didn't go far; for once in our lengthy existences, we all opted to disobey Ada and linger to watch what would happen."

"And?" Avery felt the need to fold his arms, to cover up, to protect himself from these Guides as they filled up the room. Ada was one thing, and he tolerated Faz, but the others were overwhelming, their frigid energies infusing him, getting under his skin.

Jessamine must have felt it too; she shuddered and moved a little closer to Avery, glancing about the basement with apprehension. She wasn't as used to the Guides as Avery was. All the times he'd worked with them, been surrounded by them... Jessamine was used to demons, to dark, fiery energy. Not this cool, calming stuff. And she must have sensed their ogling of her, their questioning of her return. Her, the one predicted to end them all.

"And I'd like to give answers, like Jessamine implied." Faz wiggled his fingers, then steepled them. "Yes, Ada knew. She was very much aware of her own fate, of her tether to the prophecy. She's known for centuries that the prophecy was fractured, that it had many pieces that, when put together, would all make sense. And she must have figured it all out recently, but didn't want anyone to realize that she had." He sucked his lips in and dipped his chin. "She knew we'd try to stop her."

Avery's fist tightened, and he fought the impulse to raise it, to shake it in Faz's face. "Were you faking, then? Earlier, when we blocked her, got in front of her before she got absorbed into their world? Was that you playing along, still obeying her orders, though she was doomed?"

Faz shook his head. "No, I truly wanted her to stay here with us. I didn't want her to sacrifice herself. We exchanged a glance, her and I—one so quick it didn't register in your mortal minutes—and I knew, though. I knew, she knew, and it became a pointless battle. Ada is, was, stubborn, as you may recall."

Avery snorted. "That's putting it lightly."

The feel of the room changed. The slow, soothing cold became glacial, charged with... negativity? Anger? Avery couldn't tell, and he shivered. Jessamine let go of his hand to hug herself; he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Faz?" One Guide who'd been looming in the background came over, its eyebrows forming a V of confusion, of irritation. "Is this true? You knew about all this?"

"You were her confidante," said another, clearly not intending for the words to be a question. It was a confirmation of something they'd suspected, something some of them might have been jealous about. Did these beings vie for approval from their leader, to the point of bickering for her favor?

"I wouldn't say confidante," said Faz, frowning at his fellow Guides as they clustered around him, glaring at him. "Look, it is what it is. Ada gave me certain information and swore me to secrecy. Who was I to break her trust? You're all aware now. That's what counts."

"But you didn't try hard enough to stop her." A Guide with long, flowing hair swished forward. She had features so similar to Ada's that for a second, Avery's heart stopped beating. "You confessed it to the human—that look you and Ada shared, where she made it evident that this was the time, this was it. You were in on so much more of this situation than you let on, and you let her hop into the demon world. That's," she took in a deep breath, blew it out slowly, "unacceptable."

Avery held on to Jessamine, but she kept trembling, the shudders becoming violent. The room's temperature dropped so fast it coated his skin with ice, and his breath was coming out as smoke.

Whatever the Guides' issues with Faz were, they didn't concern Avery and Jessamine. More so if they planned to transform the basement into an ice cave; humans didn't need to be down here to become snowmen.

"Hey," he rubbed Jessamine's arms, "let's get you outside. We shouldn't be in here while they argue."

Jessamine nodded, her teeth clattering, her skin sheet white. She couldn't reply, her body so wracked with shakes. She clung to him as he used his arm to shoo the Guides out of his way.

"We're going outside. Once you figure your shit out," he sent a quick scowl at Faz, "then you can join us and tell us what the fuck happens next." Avery didn't wait for a response, and scrambled to the steps, helping Jessamine up.

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