Page 109 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

“Briar thinks my power might lie in my food,” I said, then held out the plate with the slice of cake. “We can always have you eat this and see what happens.”

I had thought of Onyx while making the cake, putting the love I wished him to feel in every stir and whisk. Wishful thinking, probably, but worth a try.

“I’ve eaten your food several times, little bird, yet the curse remains.” But he came over anyway and sat beside me on the bench, keeping a gap between us. He accepted the plate and cut off a bite-sized piece of cake before eating it.

I waited with bated breath, watching him chew.

The tiniest hint of a smile touched the edge of his mouth, one joined by a sad pang in his eyes. “It tastes lovely.”

“Not lovely enough to break a curse though,” I said with a sigh. “Take another bite. Maybe you have to eat the whole piece for the magic to work.”

He didn’t get the chance. Right as he stuck a second bite into his mouth, an orange fuzzy lump leapt up and snatched the rest of the cake, scurrying off into the bushes.

“Pumpkin!” I called after the arbordu. “You little stinker!”

Onyx laughed.

The sound had me whipping my head back around to him, my heart squeezing in my chest. Tears sprang to my eyes.

“Why do you cry?” Onyx asked, the remnants of his laugh fading. He reached forward and touched my jaw in his familiar way. The brush of his knuckles over my skin sent tingles all throughout my body.

“Because I love you,” I said, draping my hand over his and leaning more into his touch. “And it’s not fair that you can never love me back. That you have to close yourself off from the world.”

Onyx watched me, his expression hovering between sorrow and confusion. “Then use that love to take this curse from me.”

I stilled. “You really think I can?”

“What I believe doesn’t matter. The sacred willow believes you can.” He moved my hand to the mark over his chest—over his heart. “But if you’re unable to do so, you must swear to me you’ll finally spread your wings and fly away, little bird.”

His woodsmoke scent wrapped around me, bringing more tears to my eyes. Within that smokiness, I caught whiffs of something peppery. Rowan must have moved closer to us. Just as a precaution.

My hand trembled as I flattened my palm over the mark. The heat of his skin seeped into me, igniting a fire in me as well. One that burned for the demon lord like the blaze of a thousand suns. I closed my eyes and visualized the power flowing through my veins, willing it to surge forward.

Take this burden from him. I repeated the words in my mind over and over again.

Something stirred inside of me, hovering just under my skin. I sensed it. Sensed the zaps of those blue sparks. I focused on that feeling and begged for it to sink into Onyx’s chest and break the curse that’d caused him so much loneliness and grief.

“Evan,” Onyx softly said, resting his hand over mine. I opened my eyes to find him staring at me with a look of resignation. “That’s enough.”

Nothing had happened.

“But I felt the surge of power inside me,” I said, my chest aching something fierce as frustration and desperation twisted together. “I told it to take away your curse. Begged for it to. Why didn’t it work?”

Onyx brought my hand to his lips and kissed my fingertips, one by one. “Perhaps some things simply aren’t meant to be.”

My chin wobbled. “I know I can do it, Onyx. Just give me more time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know.”

“Rome?” He pressed my hand to his cheek and held it there. “A realm from your other world?”

“This is my world now,” I told him. “And you’re part of it. Letting you go isn’t an option.”

Onyx turned away from me… but not before his expression started to crumble. He stood from the bench and kept his back to me, hands formed into tight fists at his sides. “Rowan? Take him. Now.”

The shadows beside me swirled before Rowan appeared and grabbed my hand. He dragged me toward the exit without giving me a chance to argue. I glanced back right as we reached the set of doors where my other men waited.

Onyx stared after me with the saddest eyes I’d ever seen before he stepped into the shadows of the nearest tree and vanished.

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