Her laugh came out cracked. “Of course. Because this week wasn’t surreal enough already.”
He smiled, slow and devastating. “And based on that spell? You’re drowning in unmet needs.”
Blair crossed her arms over her towel.
“I am very satisfied. Thank you.”
“Don’t lie. The scent of your unmet needs is stronger than that pumpkin spice wax burner.”
He gestured casually to the wax melter bubbling beside her microwave.
She didn’t scream, mostly because her vocal cords were playing dead, and also because, if she was being honest, he was stupidly hot. Not gym-bro hot, not movie-star hot. More like: if every forbidden fantasy she’d repressed since puberty formed a union and took human shape.
He looked human, at first, until you noticed little things.
The way his tattoos shifted, like ink suspended in water.
The flicker in his eyes.
The way his presence filled the room, not like a person, but like a weather system.
“Okay,” she whispered, inching toward the coat rack. “Okay, okay. This is a dream, or some delusion, or I fell asleep watchingSupernatural, and this is my brain’s messed-up fanfic.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“You called. I answered.”
She caught her reflection in the dark window—mascara streaked, towel slipping, glitter clinging like cosmic dandruff.
Maybe I didn’t summon a demon to destroy my ex,she thought.Maybe I summoned one to stop destroying myself.
And perhaps that was worse.
She shook the thought off before it could settle too deeply.
“No, no, no. I drunkenly cursed my ex’s dick with a birthday candle. I did not invite a six-foot-tall demon thirst trap into my home.”
He sniffed the air likea sommelier.
“There’s also wine. And a whiff of self-loathing.”
She grabbed her Swiffer and pointed it like a cross.
“Back. Back, foul creature!”
He blinked.
“Is that a mop?”
“It’s lemon-scented justice, asshole!”
He bit his lip to keep from laughing. Or from something else entirely. “Do you want me to go, Blair?”
She hesitated. “Wait. Go where? How are you even here?”
“You summoned me.” He moved forward, slow, like gravity bent toward her. “And I’m bound to fulfill the desires you haven’t been given. You’re not satisfied, are you?”
Something inside her clenched. Because no, she wasn’t. Not emotionally, not sexually, not spiritually, not even metaphysically.
