Page 111 of The Devil and His Sparrow

He took my hands in his and squeezed. “Everything here is yours. The house. The car. This piano. I’ve made sure everything, even my money, goes to you. You won’t ever have to want for anything. And now your sister is safe. Everything is going to be okay now.”

I could barely hear past my pounding heart. I pulled my hands back and stood on shaking legs. I stared down at him and demanded, “What’s going on, Zagan? Why—Why are you talking like you’re leaving?”

His jaw worked, but he didn’t look away from me this time. His throat bobbed on a hard swallow before he answered, “I couldn’t let you lose your sister.”

I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell that had to do with anything when a sultry voice chuckled, “Yes. You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

I whipped around to find Babette, the red-headed Bargainer demon who owned Hell’s Gate. She was dressed in nothing but a bra-styled top and leather pants, and she stood in the center of the ballroom. The mischievous grin she wore made ice fill my insides, and her hip popped out as she surveyed me with unimpressed violet eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I questioned.

Zagan growled and rose from the piano. He came to stand beside me and glared at the newly arrived demon. “Babette, can you give us a few minutes?”

My frantic gaze darted between the two of them, and I demanded, “What’s going on?”

“It’s so sweet, really,” Babette cooed like she was talking down to a child. “Zagan knew he couldn’t heal your sister, so he came to me.”

“Babette!” Zagan roared.

She ignored him. “We struck a little bargain. I healed your sister from her current illness, any future one, and made her stronger than ever before. Again, you’re welcome.”

I stopped breathing. My eyes watered as alarm settled in my stomach like a cinder block in the ocean. I slowly turned to look at Zagan and whispered, “What did you offer in exchange?”

Zagan’s eyes tightened, and he started to reach for me. “Iyla, I—”

Before he could touch me, the space where he’d been emptied. He vanished right before my eyes, and I turned toward Babette right as Zagan reappeared beside her. She flashed me a wicked grin and draped her manicured hand over his shoulder. “He offered himself.”

A plume of shadows burst in the air around him, and when it cleared, heavy black chains linked his wrists together with a leash that ended in Babette’s hands. The blood drained from my face, and Babette laughed at my horror before waving her fingers at me in farewell. “Bye, human.”

“No!” I screamed, running toward them as fast as my legs could carry me.

Zagan’s blue eyes stayed locked on mine. They were pinched with something—longing, pain, grief—I didn’t know. My own feelings were too lost to panic as I reached for my demon. He gave me the smallest smile and opened his mouth like he was about to say something just as I reached for his bound hands.

I fell through suddenly open air and crashed to my hands and knees against the marble. I whipped my head around, but there was nothing there. No Babette. No Zagan.

He was gone.

Chapter 35

Iyla

FIRST CAME DENIAL. THIS WAS Zagan. He was a demon. Nothing could fucking hold him down. Any minute, he’d reappear with a chuckle, explaining that he had a plan to escape all along. It wasn’t like Babette could get what she wanted out of him. He could only have sex with me, and the second she realized that, she’d return him to me.

After an hour passed, the grief swept in. He’d done this, traded himself in as a sort of prisoner, all to save Gemma. He’d given himself up for me. All the time we’d spent together, all the memories we’d made, all the experiences we’d given each other. They flashed in my mind, and I cried as I revisited each one, wishing I’d been brave enough to tell him how I felt back then. I pressed my forehead to the cold marble floor of the ballroom and broke for the love I’d just realized and lost. I’d never get to see his mischievous smile, hear his enchanting voice, feel his body against mine as we danced or fooled around.

He was gone.

Another hour passed, and that was when all the agony inside me engulfed in raging flames. From those ashes rose fury. I beat my hand against the marble and screamed out my acrimony. It wasn’t fucking fair. He’d made this choice to sacrifice himself without telling me or giving me the choice to bargain with Babette. And why? To protect me?

Then he played that song for me, knowing he was about to be taken away.

Coward.

He should’ve said the words to my face, but we’d both been too afraid. I refused to let it end this way.

Zagan was my bond.

Zagan was my demon.

---