Professor, we’ve arranged for a meet with Divina and Damien now at Beast Clearing.It’s our last chance to get her back. I don’t dare ask for your help when I haven’t given you any. I don’t know why I’m telling you either. I guess I just want you to wish us luck. We need all we can get.
I’d never been happier to hear Inferno’s voice.
Laughing, I tilted my head back and let the sun shine through me. “Sorry, not sorry, Heaven. Hold off the champagne. Our ride isn’t over yet.”
Chapter 42
Belle
Technically, I wasn’t breaking my promise. They didn’t vote not to visit Beast Clearing.
I told an angel to fly me and go back before my family noticed my absence. I had to come down here. Like Inferno said, this was the last chance. I stood up to the devil and slapped him in the face to save Divina and Rina Beastly once. Today, I could do the same. No one could stand up to Damien like I could.
Except I was wrong. By the time I’d reached the willow tree, no one was there. The clearing was empty, and Inferno delivered the news.
They’d managed to get Divina back.
My help wasn’t needed after all. They stood up to him on their own, and there was something about another deal with a fae. It didn’t matter to me how they did it. The Darkborn and the king of Hell no longer joined dark forces. The blackness that had been eating me alive had fallen to pieces.
Damien was furious, though, and since the deal she’d struck with him became void, the war on the supes had restarted. Starting now, every supernatural was on the run, aiming to hide.
For me and my family, it was no big deal. We’d been hiding for thirty years. The problem was the other supernatural. How and where were they going to hide? And how long before they’d break in hiding and give up? How long before they’d turn on each other and give Damien the Darkborns again?
How long before the never ending loop repeated itself and tore me apart?
I stared at the willow tree that forever changed my cursed life into one even more cursed. “When does it end?”
“If you came to gloat, have at it while you can, but we both know it’s not over. It will never be over.”
I twisted to see Damien in the flesh, where he, too, could see me. Where my body disobeyed my brain and reacted to the toxic beauty the devil, my king, possessed with familiar sinful throbs.
My heart thrashed as he stared at me, his face missing the regular smirk and evil indifference. For the first time ever, I saw Damien Pattisonhurt.
“You haven’t changed at all,” he said.
“Neither have you.” Whether it was the looks or the psyche. I tried not to think about the other things that hadn’t changed between the two of us, like our desire for each other that was boiling under both our skins or what was really in our hearts for each other…
“True. The Devil never changes.”
“You could if you wanted to.”
He snorted. “Cut the crap, Professor. Nobody ever really changes, not me, and certainly not you. I told you you’d be bored. I told you you’d miss the darkness that was part of you.”
“I didn’t come here to see you, Damien, or go back to Hell. My family means everything to me now. Nothing is gonna be more tempting than staying with them and keeping them safe.”
“Well, good luck with that. Divina is not the only Darkborn I can use. She has a sister. I’ll get my way with her, and if I didn’t, I’ll make new Darkborns to counter and defeat your little Belles. The question is, how long can you keep hiding them beforethey’dget bored in their isolation and come down on Earth?”
My hands balled into fists. “It’s your turn to cut the crap. All this, the war you’ve waged, tricking the Darkborn into one of your deals, all was to lure me out.” I stepped toward him. “It’s me you want, Damien, not the Darkborns, not the Lightborns, me.”
He examined me with his gaze, seeing right through me. Then he lifted a finger and reached for my hair. I didn’t move back. I should have, but I stayed put as his fingertip brushed a lock of my hair ever so softly. “It’s always been you, darling.”
A shiver ran through me, but I let it pass. I couldn’t lose focus, and even thinking about what his touch could do to me for a split-second could fuck everything up. With a deep breath, I took another step, staring into his eyes without a speck of fear or hesitation. “Here I am, Damien. Take me. Leave them the fuck alone and take me.”
He cocked a brow. “You will come with me?”
“Yes. If you leave all the supernatural out of our dance, it will be just you and me in Hell.” I shouldn’t have said that because just saying it was a relief and it could open the fiery gates I’d long closed. But I had to say it. “Will that ever be enough for you?”
His palms set on either side of my face, his eyes killing me with their stare. “Yes.”
