Page 57 of I Accidentally Summoned a Demon Boyfriend

“Don’t touch me.” I scooted across the bed away from him.

“Why are you being so difficult?” He reached for me again but stopped when I pulled away from him.

“I’m not being difficult just because I don’t want your hands on me. Why have you kept so many secrets from me?”

“I told you there were things you shouldn’t know.” He straightened and watched as I continued to adjust myself without his help.

“And that’s fine when it’s all your shit, but it wasn’t, was it? You knew things about me, things that could put my life at risk, and you kept me in the dark. Tell me how the hell you think that’s fair?” I finally found a comfortable position with my back against the headboard. “And what the hell did your ex mean about the job you walked away from? You went to other worlds to take people to hell? You said you studied those worlds, not that you were kidnapping innocent beings.”

“It’s not that simple.” He sat in the chair across from the foot of the bed, giving me the space I clearly wanted. “And I did study the worlds when I went.”

“Give me a break!” I shook my head. “If it’s not that simple, explain it to me so I understand. No more secrets. No more pretending to protect me from the truth.”

“Where should I start?” he asked.

“The most important part.” My heart raced in my chest. I wanted to know the answers, but then again, I didn’t. I knew his answers could change the way I looked at him. “Why were you taking people from their homes?”

“Well, first, let’s get something straight. None of the people I took were innocent. They knew what would happen to them,” he explained. “They were magical beings, and by your standards, they were all evil. Each one of them made deals with who they thought was the devil. They made bargains, promising their souls to someone they didn’t know for temporary power, and they got that power. And when it was time for them to pay up, it was my job to go and retrieve them. When I took them to my home, it wasn’t an arbitrary kidnapping. It was picking up people who had a debt to pay and making sure they paid it.”

“So you’re like the errand boy for the devil?” My stomach twisted with a mixture of disgust and pity.

“I was, yes. That was my job. I got an assignment, was told my target, and I went and retrieved them.” He said the tasks as if they meant nothing to him.

“And one day, you decided you no longer wanted to do it anymore?” I watched him closely for any semblance of regret for what he’d done.

“Exactly. I had a change of heart,” he explained. “I didn’t want to do the job anymore because it didn’t feel the same. It was no longer just a job, so I had to walk away.”

“Why?” I leaned forward. “What changed? Why did you walk away?”

Metice took a deep breath and looked at me. I could see the internal conflict playing out in his eyes. He didn’t want to tell me, but he had to. How else could we move on from this? How else could I ever trust him again?

“I landed on a world devoid of water. I’m still not sure how the natives survive, but they do. My landing was rough, and I’m still not sure what happened. I blacked out, and when I woke, there was this old hag, my target, dragging me back to her home.” He sighed. “She knew why I was there, and yet, still she helped me. If it wasn’t for her help, I wouldn’t have survived. She waited for me to be better; she didn’t run like most do.”

“She wasn’t afraid of you?”

“No, she said she saw me coming years before I ever arrived.” He paused, choosing his words. “And then she told me something about myself, something about my future that I wouldn’t be able to run from. Those words changed everything. There was no way I could move forward the way I had been, not knowing the truth.”

“What did she tell you?” I wanted to know. What could have been so significant that it would change his very pursuit in life?

“I don’t know that I want to tell you that part.” He rubbed the back of his neck like he was burning from his own embarrassment.

“More secrets, Metice? Tell me what she told you. What could it have been to make you turn your back on everything you worked so hard for? What happened to your fiancée, and the life you wanted so much before you met her?”

“She told me who my soulmate would be and made it so I would feel them when they were ready for me. At first, it felt like she put a curse on me. When she told me more about the person, about who they would be and what they would be capable of, I realized this person was a lot like the ones I was tasked with bringing back to my world, and it felt like a punishment for what I’d done.” He rubbed his face, taking a deep breath before continuing. “For years, I carried that thought and felt this ridiculous guilt because how could my soul mate be the type of person who would make a deal with evil? Despite how much I wanted it to be a lie, it wasn’t. I knew that because I felt you, and it happened long before you did that spell.”

“What do you mean, you felt me?” I’m not gonna lie, that made me uncomfortable. Had he known about me since I was a child? Had he been waiting in the shadows for me?

“It was a few years ago. I have no idea what caused it, but I woke up one day, and I could feel you. Didn’t do anything about it, though. I could have sought you out, tried to learn more about you, but that just felt wrong. Instead, I ignored the feeling and found any and everything to take my mind off you. What I could tell was that you were here on Earth, which meant you were human. And I thought, hey, she’s human. She won’t live that long. I can bear this. It’ll go away. But then you did that spell, and I literally couldn’t stay away any longer.”

“So, you were sitting in hell knowing that I’m your soulmate and waiting for me to die?” I went from creeped out to irritated. Here I was, trying to find my love on Earth, and the man who was meant for me was ignoring my existence.

“When you say it like that, it sounds really bad.” He chuckled.

“Because it is really fucking bad.” I threw a pillow at him. “There’s nothing funny about it.”

“Okay. Yeah, maybe it is.” He caught the pillow and placed it at the foot of the bed. “But I’m a demon, and you’re a human. A magical one. I couldn’t risk it.”

“And what about your fiancée?” I moved the focus to the other question I had. “When did you end things with her, because she’s acting like it just happened?”

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