Burned Chapter 27: Does Hitting Count as Abuse?

Now we’re with Heath, lamenting how Zoey is quite literally falling apart. He tries talking to her, but she’s inconsolably upset.

Zoey burst into tears. “I can’t, Heath. It’s gone on too long. I can’t bring my soul together. I can’t remember things – I can’t focus – the only thing I know for sure is that I deserve this.”

“You do not deserve this!”

Then Heath punches a tree and makes his knuckles bleed, which is pretty much fine since he’s dead and no longer needs blood. The shadows whisper to him that he needs to bring the pieces of Zoey’s soul back together so they can be together again, which is what he’s been trying to do for this entire book, so…. that’s useful information. But this information causes Heath to have a sudden, obvious, revelation.

All he had to do was make Zo listen to him, and he’d always been able to do that, even when he’d been acting like an asshole and drinking and messing up in school, and she’d tries to dump him. He’d always been able to bring them back together – to keep them together.

And that’s when Heath recognized his Goddess-given affinity. For abuse. With the power of unhealthy co-dependency Heath and Zoey can be together. Miserable and using each other for their own selfish gratification for all eternity.

Then Stark shows up to talk to Heath, but he doesn’t want Zoey to know that he’s there, so he hides when she shows up again.

When she hesitated, and it was obvious she was going to start that freaky circle pacing around him again, which would take her too damn close to Stark’s hiding place, he added, “Hey, maybe it’d make you feel better to move real fast. Why don’t you kinda run, or float, or whatever it is you do for a while, and then come back here.”

She started to float away, and Heath called after her, “Don’t go too far, though! And don’t forget to circle back here.”

Can we please not use the “c word?” It’s making me nervous. We wouldn’t want anybody to get any ideas and then have to spend three chapters looking for colored candles in the Otherworld.

Stark tells Heath that Zoey can’t stay with him in the Otherworld, or the world will be destroyed. This eventually convinces Heath that he has to leave Zoey behind.

But when his gaze went back to Stark, he knew the absolute truth: Zoey would hate it if her friends were destroyed.

What a unique personality trait.

Then they start talking about the strange darkness that has been following Zoey and Heath around. They figure out that it was probably Kalona trying to get Zoey to stay in the Otherworld. Stark says that as long as he can keep Kalona away from Zoey until she gets back to her body, then she will be safe, but Heath disagrees.

“Nope. Sorry to mess up your plan, but if that was the deal. Zo wouldn’t need you to protect her.”

Does she really need Stark to protect her, though? She has super powers. She’s killed before, and she’ll probably kill again. She doesn’t need protection; everybody else needs protection from her.

They find Zoey walking around a cedar tree in a forest full of not-cedar trees. This is notable because Heath and Stark won’t stop talking about it. Heath prepares to leave Zoey behind forever.

“I’m getting ready to leave the only girl I’ve ever loved to you even though I knew she needs me bad.”

Oh, come on, Heath. You’re like 16 years old, and dead. Find other things to worry about. Stark comments that he wishes the only thing he had to worry about was being jealous of Erik.

“You don’t have t be jealous of Erik. Zo will never be with any guy very long who’s a possessive turd.”

What, like you? Or does manipulating someone into being with you despite your alcoholism and their constant attempts to get away from you not count as being a “possessive turd?” Then again, Erik did protest the idea of being in a polyamorous relationship without at least talking about it first, which is pretty much crossing a line.

Speaking of Erik, Zoey’s love quadrilateral is running out of people, and I’m getting really worried. Because if Zoey ends up with Stark and he gets stuck as a main character for the rest of these books, I am going to lose my mind.

“Make sure she knows I don’t want her to be all snot crying and freaked about me. Remind her for me that she’s seriously unattractive when she’s like that.”

I love the way this series empowers women.

Heath finally tells Zoey that he has to move on without her, but he says that someday he’ll be reincarnated and he’ll find her again. This would but cute if I didn’t hate him so much.

Burned Chapter 26: Stupid Stark

So Stark has to fight himself to get into the Otherworld, which seems pretty obvious to me, but apparently the concept is lost on him.

The two Warriors circled each other warily. “What the fuck are you talking about? You’re me. So if I get in there, how can you die?”

I’m getting a little tired of how actually stupid Stark is. Other-Stark explains to Stupid-Stark that he’s the “not-so-nice” part of Stark. Then they fight each other for a hot minute before Stark gets inconveniently awoken by Aphrodite. She hastily tells him that he has to get Heath to leave in order to get Zoey to come back to her body, and then Stark immediately goes back to the Otherworld. I question whether these books were actually planned or just hastily written as ideas popped into the author’s head.

Stark continues fighting himself, and Other-Stark continues hurling insults at Stupid-Stark, until Stupid-Stark figures out that what he really has to do is to insult himself.

“Yeah, well, that’s one of your problems; you’re too damn arrogant. [. . .] No, it’s not that you’re too damn arrogant. It’s me. I’m arrogant. [. . .] I’m selfish, too.”

Don’t forget stupid.

“That’s how I killed my mentor. I was too selfish to let anyone beat me at anything.”

Don’t be silly Stark. As we’ve learned from these books, murdering another person in cold blood is just a natural part of life. Everybody does it. The majority of the main characters have done it at one point or another. It’s totally normal and not at all alarming.

They fight for a while longer like this, and then Stupid-Stark finally wins, and Other-Stark impales himself on Stupid-Stark’s sword for… some reason.

In the raw intimacy of the moment the Other exhaled, so close to him that Stark breathed in the last of the Other’s sweet breath.

So Other-Stark is dies…

“I’ll see you again, Warrior, sooner than you think.”

Just kidding he’s actually still talking…

Without thought, without emotion, he used the arc of a crescent moon to deal the killing blow, crashing the blade sickeningly into the Other, slicing him cleanly from skull to crotch.

Okay, now he’s dead for real this time…

Stark feels bad about killing himself, but comes to terms with it when he realizes that a true Guardian “didn’t deny brutality; he wielded it with honor.” Because sometimes… most of the time… violence is the answer.

Stark enters the Otherworld determined to find Zoey. But then he changes his mind and decides he actually needs to find Heath, but then a minute later decides that if he finds Zoey he will find Heath, so actually he’s going to find Zoey. It’s really high-quality reading material.

He hated to admit it – it broke his heart to admit it – but Zoey loved Heath, maybe even more than she loved him.

But really, truly, deep down inside, the person Zoey always loved the most… is Zoey.

Then Stark says “For a Guardian, honor is stronger than love.” and a shiny quest path appears leading him straight to Zoey.

Burned Chapter 25: Aphrodite Wastes Everyone’s Time

Seoras continues repeatedly cutting Stark because he has to keep him on the cusp between life and death in order for Stark to stay in the Otherworld. Meanwhile, Sgiach suggests that Aphrodite do something to actually help Stark, but Aphrodite says that she doesn’t know what to do. But she and Darius go into their bedroom so Aphrodite can continue not knowing what to do, but in privacy.

Aphrodite and Darius have a conversation about how she’s a bitch, but Darius loves her anyway, and it’s legitimately kind of nice. Then Aphrodite lies on the bed so she can say a prayer. You know, one of those prayers where you just bluntly ask for what you want and then Nyx shows up right in front of your face to grant all your wishes and solve all your problems leading all of us to wonder why you didn’t just do that earlier?

So she does that and Nyx magically whisks her away to see the Otherworld, where Heath is trying to make Zoey feel better. Aphrodite tries to talk to them, but they can’t see or hear her.

“Great. I’m Christmas Carol-ing like the damn ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and whatever. They can’t hear a fucking word I’m saying!”

It’s future. There was literally one other option for what the other ghost could be, but good try, anyway.

Zoey and Heath then talk about how Zoey needs to pull her soul back together so that they can both live together forever in the Otherworld.

“Okay, I don’t understand. Z pulls herself together, but she stays here with Heath instead of going back to her body?”

In this version of the future, yes.

Aphrodite thinks that as long as Zoey is happy, it’s fine, but Nyx explains that if Zoey chooses to stay the entire fate of the earth will change. Then she shows Aphrodite a vision of Neferet burning the earth and drinking Kalona’s blood. Then Stevie Rae shows up with Rephaim and an “Indian kid” who is clearly supposed to be, like, the human version of Rephaim, or something? But then human-Rephaim and Raven Mocker-Rephaim start fighting each other. I don’t really get it, but whatever.

The vision ends and Aphrodite wakes up.

“I have to talk to Stark. Now.”

I mean. Could you have not done this earlier? We have had an entire book during which Aphrodite could have gotten this information. It’s not like the information she got is even that helpful. If Zoey doesn’t come back to her body everything will be bad. Great. The entire reason anyone was going through this process was to bring Zoey back to her body, so I’m not sure how this helps?

So Seoras wakes Stark up, halting the difficult and incredibly dangerous process of sending him to the Otherworld so that Aphrodite can tell him something he already knew after she said a prayer that she could have said at any point prior to now. It’s like this book is trying to waste my time.