Page 83 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“You want our father’s crown? It’s yours,” I tell her. “You already won it.”

“Oh, big brother. You think too small. Why stop with the hell dimensions? I’ll rule all the realms. Or whoever’s left once I’ve finished conquering them.” With a flick of her wrist, she closes the portal, knocking Dupree’s body on our side along with the writhing remains of the snake.

“Ew,” Val says.

Understatement of the century.

“You okay?” she asks.

Okay? No.That’s the understatement of all time. But yes, physically… “I’m all right.”

“Now what do we do?”

Now what, indeed.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Val

Propped on too many pillows like a spoiled little demon princess, I push away the third healing potion Theo tries to force on me.

“I don’t need another,” I insist, although I feel crappy.

This whole wielding magic thing rocks when I get it right, but theafterpart sucks with how it wrecks my body. Monty playing chase with the toy unicorn doesn’t even perk me up.

Nor does the magical hedgehog who stowed away in a pocket of my utility belt on our trip home from the Valley of the Gods. The cutie now floats upside down in a tub of water nestled next to me, his tiny legs limp and his eyes closed in bliss. I stroke two fingers along the hedgehog’s belly before scooping some water over him. The happy purr and snuffling noises he makes soothe some of my freak out, if not my physical pain.

My robe gapes to my navel, covering only the naked bits Theo insists he’ll gouge out people’s eyes if they see. Cool compresses, aloe vera, and a glowing gel Ora sent in with promises it didn’t contain actual monster parts—not reassuring—have done zero to numb the burn. Even Theo’s venom hasn’t eased the pain.

Yet I can’t down another puke-inducing potion.

“Drink up,” he insists. “Now.”

I look past the gross healing potion to my mate. “I’m more worried about you.”

He scowls at me. “Take it, or I’ll carry you to the infirmary. Do you really want an orc who studied medicine three hundred years ago working on you?”

“No, but…” I forget the completely rational arguments I’d planned to make. Hell, I zoomed past overwhelm so long ago that all my senses ping like a hyperactive pixie cheer squad.

Having half of Shadowvale camped out in our suite doesn’t help. While the castle plays relaxing views of its exterior battlements against a cloud-filled sky on the wall to remind me I’m not in a windowless hotel room, it’s not like I can forget we left Toto, Dorothy, Kansas, and everything I’d thought to be normal far,farbehind.

Ora, her dragon not-a-friend, and a team of witches re-up the wards while a group of gnomes spills salt in intense patterns on the floor. Pixies tend to the Brimstone Bell flowers since we’ve gone from a few blooms in all the hell dimensions to an entire garden in the bedroom alone, and tech gremlins have taken over part of my lab. Theo insists they keep the DNA project going for genealogy purposes even if we already know who has been opening the portals. My stomach flips with any thought of Gilly’s epic betrayal.

“But?” Theo prompts. When I stare blankly at him, he tries again, “You were saying?”

Nope, still no idea what I’d meant to say. I improvise instead. “If I take this last—and I do meanlast—potion, you promise to talk about what happened with Gilly?”

“Ye—”

I hold up a finger, needing to add a qualification before he answers because dealing demons negotiate details more ruthlessly than Ava’s mom. Who I still can’t get over being a sea witch. But right now, I refuse to be sidetracked by all the supernatural stuff. “Which means you have to talk about your actualfeelingson the subject.”

Theo makes a face that probably mirrors my own every time he shoves a healing potion down me because whatever Ora mixes in those tastes vile. “I don’t require a therapy session.”

“Gonna have to agree to disagree on that. We have a deal or not?”

He rakes a heated look along my body that would make me jump him if my skin didn’t feel like it’s on fire. “Are you attempting to out-deal a dealing demon, Vicious?”

“Yep.”

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