Page 89 of Married to the Devil

Finally, my sluggish brain catches up. My eyes are wide when I look up, and he grins at me.

“Holy shit. This is what we needed. Ben!” My hand gestures before I take hold of the object with both hands with a little shriek. “Oh fuck! This could change everything.”

I throw my arms around him despite the presence of Stoneheart’s people and jump in place. Ben laughs and hugs me back. “I thought you’d appreciate it.”

I pull away. “Why didn’t you show me last night?”

He becomes stern. “You mean when you were dead on your feet from magic exertion?”

My lips twitched. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Ben barely keeps from rolling his eyes. “You need to take better care of yourself. You were already drained yesterday. I didn’t want to tempt you to push harder. Now you can start fresh.”

I do have a tendency to pour a little too much energy into my charms. I joke sometimes that I’m a professional napper.

“Let’s go to Rowan’s!” I say.

Exasperation flickers over Ben’s expression. “Finish eating your breakfast.”

I groan. “You’re not supposed to be the one bossing me around.”

But I shovel more of the cereal in my mouth, munching as quickly as I can without choking.

His lips twitch. He keeps the volume of his next words low. “I’m just looking out for you until we can both get bossed around.”

30

BEN

If watchingStella work her magic was hypnotizing before, that holds nothing to now. This is her completely in her element, crafting to reach a solution. She’s like an unstoppable force of nature. A goddess of chaos prepared to destroy anything in her path to find what she’s looking for.

Even if it’s currently escaping her.

She had a long conversation with Rowan’s brother, the ward master. I was surprised the man fit in this back room, but they spoke in depth about ward symbols.

My understanding of magic crafting could fill a thimble, but it seems like somehow the fae charm makes one of the symbols in witch wards…disappear? Makes the ward notseethem? It’s pretty confusing, but I’m not the one who needs to understand it. Stella is running a hundred miles an hour. The ward master left with a harsh grumble about figuring out how to craft a ward without the symbol in question, but Stella isn’t waiting for him.

Four prototypes have failed so far, but she doesn’t let up. When I stop her to eat lunch, I fear for my balls, but she shoves a protein bar in her mouth and guzzles a bottle of water before disappearing into her task again.

Connors is probably the wise one to walk the perimeter and watch the surroundings of the bookshop, but I’m fascinated by my witch. Because she is mine, even if for only a little while. I rub my chest, wondering if I’d give the same designation to a certain gargoyle when I’m distracted by the buzz of my phone which I silent before Stella can glare at me.

She gets testy about distractions when she’s like this.

I glance at the text message, expecting it to be Kalos, but freeze in surprise that it’s Stoneheart. Think of the Devil…

Stoneheart: Does she seem okay?

I frown and glance at Stella, thinking of the odd mood she’d been in this morning. Apprehension tickles the hairs on my neck. Something happened.

Me: Why wouldn’t she be?

It takes no time for his answer.

Stoneheart: No reason.

Bullshit. I blow out a breath, unsure how much of a right I have to demand a truthful answer. That’s incorrect. He’s given me the right. He involved me in this. Before I can inform him of that he sends another text.

Stoneheart: If you could keep her from the penthouse until five, it would be appreciated. I have people working on the bedroom.

---