Because the idea that he once placed his filthy hands on my soft, sweet, perfect little mushroom incites within me a murderous rage the likes of which I haven’t felt since the betrayal that banished me from Hell in the first place.
Because I’m the fuckingDevil, darling, and I do whatever I damn well please.
But in the end, all the bluster and fury fade away. The mask of lies I once so easily donned is gone—she shattered it the night I took her into my lap and confessed my love, leaving the old Devlin Pierce behind.
So now, I take what remains and offer it to her without expectation, without demand, hoping only that she’ll accept it for what it is.
The truth.
“Because for the first time since the dawn of Hell, you and your family allowed me to be part of something infinitely smaller yet unfathomably bigger than I’d ever experienced before or since. Because Wayward Bay needs the café, just like it needs Glaze for Days and Emmilou’s Sweet-N-Savories and Darla’s magical stories and all the other gifts its residents have to offer.” I take a step closer, gazing down into her face. Risk a touch, tugging on one of her curls—my favorite one—and looping it around my finger. “Because on one rainy autumn night, a shy, awkward, all-powerful, curly-haired witch drunk-summoned the Devil with naught but a candle, a Tarot card, and a spreadsheet function, and I stupidly, madly, irrevocably fell in love with her. Which means there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to support her, nothing I wouldn’t do todestroythe man who stands in the way of her dreams. And you can be mad at me all you want—you have every right to be. I’m sorry I went behind your back and went against your wishes. I’m sorry I caused you to doubt my unwavering faith in you, even for a moment. But hear me, Violet Pepperdine. I would do it again without a thought. I would fight dirty, I would manipulate, I would terrify, I would cross lines so forbidden they don’t even exist yet. I would doallof that, again and again and again, just to keep you from feeling anounceof pain or rejection. Just to keep that smile on your lovely face, because the world is a cold, dark place without it. So, fine. Maybe that makes me evil, just like the stories would have you believe. Maybe it just makes me a regular old arsehole desperate to do the right thing, cursed to cock it up time and again. But it also makes me a man in love with someone he’d doanythingto protect. To cherish. To make her understand the depth of his feelings because in all his immortal years, no one else has ever held a candle.”
Tears spill down her cheeks, the silence simmering between us, her eyes as blue and fiery as the sapphire lake in the Desolation Mountains, and in them I see the interplay of every emotion she’s feeling—sadness and anger, frustration and regret, fear.
And then—right there at the end, just when I think I can’t bear it another moment—love.
“How do you know it’s real?” she finally asks, her voice breaking. “You say you feel all these things—all these intense, amazing things—but the magic bound us first, Devlin. What if it’s all just… just a remnant from the spell?”
“Ah, Violet.” I tuck the curl behind her ear, searching her face. Her heart. “Have you ever watched a storm approach?”
She nods. “There’s a spot at the aunts’ place. Top floor balcony. You can see all the way to the Bay from there. I used to love watching the storms come in across the water.”
“It’s only at a distance that we can appreciate the beauty of something so powerful, so chaotic. But up close?” I shake my head, fighting back a shiver. “I feel as if I’ve spent my whole life with that storm right on my heels, desperate to outrun it. I was terrified if I slowed down for even amoment, the chaos of my own pain would finally catch me and devour me whole. But then I met you. And for the first time, I wanted to stop running. I didn’t care that the storm was still on my heels—in some ways, it always will be. But it no longer matters. You’re my calm, right in the chaos of everything else. From the very start, you saw me. The truth behind all the lies. The man behind every mask I’ve worn. Behind every delusion I’ve so desperately tried to cling to. You saw all of it and made me feel like I could finally stop pretending. Stop running. Stop everything and just… justbe.” I cradle her face in my hands, catching every tear with my thumbs, whispering against her lips. “The magic bound us first and foremost. That is true. But everything that came after? That was you and me. You ask how I know what I feel for you is real? Because for the first time in this impossibly long existence,Iwant to be real. Realwithsomeone.Forsomeone.Becauseof someone. And it’s you, Violet. It’s always been you. I’m inlovewith you, and that’s all there is to it.”
She’s crying again, her eyes so big and blue, her tears endless rivers. “I… I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you want me to stay here in Wayward Bay. Tell me I’m yours. Tell me you feel for me even afractionof what I feel for you, and I’ll spend the rest of my life making things right between us. Earning back your trust. Proving to you that I reallydobelieve in you, that I’ve got your back, that I’llnevergive you a reason to doubt me again.”
She closes her eyes, her sigh as heavy as the end of the world.
“What’s the point?” she whispers. “You can’t stay here anyway, Devlin. You have to return to Hell, or you’ll be turned into a mortal man, cursed to die just like the rest of us.”
“Cursed tolive.”
“If you call a few more decades living.”
“The expiration date is precisely what makes it so worthwhile. It makes every day a gift.” I laugh and roll my eyes. “Fine, put that on a greeting card if you must. But it’s true.”
Violet smiles through her tears. “Gigi used to say that. ‘Every day is a gift, Violet. Find the joy in this one. Do that every day, one after the other, and your entire life will be filled with beautiful blessings.’”
“Smart woman.”
“Very.” Violet wipes away her tears and exhales slowly, the gears of her logical mind already churning. “I know you’re saying this is what you want, but giving up your immortality isn’t something you can just wake up and decide to do. I can’t ask you to make a sacrifice like that for me, Devlin. It’s—”
“Already done,” I say softly. “After innumerable centuries trying to get back to Hell, I’ve gone and cast myself right out again.”
“But… what?”
“I told you once I want back to Hell, I wouldn’t be able to leave. Not without relinquishing my throne and my immortality.” I shrug. “So I did.”
Violet gasps.
“It was the only way I could leave on my own terms,” I say. “And Ihadto leave. I had something very important to attend to today.”
“You… you gave up all of that just to tell Mayor Singh about Brandt’s dirty deals?”
“No. I gave up all of that just for achanceto see your sapphire eyes again. To hear your laughter. To wrap my favorite curl around my finger and whisper against your lips and make you blush that lovely shade of crimson. You’ve already given me that, Violet. You already made the trip worthwhile.” I smile, my heart breaking all over again. “Cast me away now, and know this: it was still worth the trip. Still worth the sacrifice.”
She turns away from me to collect herself. Giving her space, I step out from behind the counter and take a seat, watching the rise and fall of her shoulders as she steadies her breath, my heart pounding like an ancient drum.
