“It… oh. Shit, Violet. You’re right.” She ponders it a bit more, then shrugs. “I’m not sure what loophole he found, but obviously it worked out. The spell was broken when you found out about getting that money.”
“But that makes no sense, either. If it was just about the money, why didn’t the spell break the moment Brandt sent the second email? Or when Devlin convinced him to give me the grant in the first place, which happened the night before? The money was a done deal at that point.”
“Violet, I see your number-crunching wheels turning, but… I don’t know. Maybe I misunderstood something about the spell. It was complex magic.”
“No, you were right about the spell. It couldn’t be broken without a genuine, non-manipulative unlocking of my heart’s desire. That much, I could feel.”
“So what are you saying,? That Devlindidn’tuse his influence to save the café?”
“No. I’m saying my heart’s desire—my truest heart’s desire—wasn’t to save the café. It… it was love.”
“What?”
“I remember it now. I’d just gotten the email saying I won, and I ran to Devlin to share the good news. We ended up… celebrating. Horizontally celebrating. And I realized I was in love with him. I confessed it.That’swhat broke the spell.”
I fell in love with you too, Devlin Pierce. Accidentally and completely…
Tears fill my eyes, my heart pounding. “I fell in love with the Devil, Olivy. And unlocked my heart’s true desire.”
Olivy squeezes my hand, her eyes shining—veryout of character for my typically stoic sister. “This is a good thing, isn’t it? I mean, I still want to flay him alive for hurting you, and may do just that, but… you love him. He loves you. There’s gotta be a way to figure this out.”
“But… but what does it say about Kettle and Cauldron—my life’s dream—if Devlin was my true heart’s desire?”
Olivy smiles, her energy so full of love and happiness it has me tearing up again. “It says that you’re a witch and a woman who deserves to find true love, andalsohas big, important, amazing dreams. These things are not mutually exclusive, Violet, and I’m sick of society trying to tell us that they are. You don’t have to choose between them. You just have to choose what you want, and ruthlessly go after it.” She tugs on one of my curls and laughs. “A wise witch once said that even when you falter, even when you fail—you find a way to get back up and try again. Whatever it takes, you find a way.”
“Thatispretty wise.” I nudge her in the ribs. “Maybe I should write that down.”
Olivy’s grin stretches wide, that all-knowing spark shining in her eyes. “Ididcall this, remember.”
“No, you said Devlin and I would—and I quote—bone. You never said anything about falling in love, because if youhad, I would’ve saved everyone the trouble and kicked him out right then and there.”
“You are so full of cow shit, I’m surprised you’re not mooing.”
“I amnot. I’m done with love. All it ever does is get people in trouble. They say magic has consequences? No it doesn’t. Love has consequences. From now on, I’ll be smartly avoiding them. Not worth it, I’m telling you.”
“No?”
“No freaking way. See this face?” I point at myself with both thumbs. “This is my no way, no how, no love face.”
“Well, I’m so glad we had this little chat, Violet, becauseyou’vegot a visitor. And to think… This time, you didn’t even have to get drunk and screw up your spreadsheet to summon him!”
I follow the direction of her gaze to the courtyard, where I see—sitting on the same bench where he patiently waited for me after my post-kiss Halloween freakout, dressed in a charcoal gray suit and crisp white button-down that has every passerby swiveling for a better look—the man with the power to steal my breath, my heart, and the entire downtown pep squad with a single raised eyebrow.
The Devil himself.
Chapter Thirty-Six
DEVLIN
Violet enters the courtyard like a vision in dark jeans and a pink blazer, her Make Like a Tea and Leaf shirt peeking out from beneath the lapels.
I miss those birds. The gnomes. The mushrooms.
I missher.
When she reaches me, my heart stutters.
I haven’t stopped thinking of her since we parted ways. Haven’t stopped dreaming of her, haven’t stopped revisiting my memories of her as I walked the dark and lonely corridors of Hell, night after endless night.
