Page 22 of Magic and Mayhem

Her nose scrunches. “Like sexually or by the police?”

“Either.”

She shrugs. “No.”

I chuckle and wave my hand over her. The ether that appears bends to my will, her once regal dress morphing into a revealing piece of lingerie made from the deepest violet, and two strands of rope appear in my hand.

“Let’s go see how it feels then, shall we?”

She looks down at her body, then with a face as red as an apple, she slaps me across the cheek. My eyes widen, and she looks just as surprised too, quickly covering her mouth with a gasp.

I’m in my human form, my perfectly tailored suit pressed to perfection, and a slight sting radiating off of my face. Touching it, I crack a smile.

Flames flare to life in my hands without my permission, and fear blazes in Evolet’s gaze.

“Do it again, Love. Show me how you really feel.”

Shaking her head, she backs away from me. I allow the rope in my hands to fall to the floor and keep her distracted while I begin to tie it with my ether where she cannot see.

“You can hit me, Ev. I swore I would never hurt you, promised that I would make things better.” Taking a step forward, she drops her hands and stares up at me.

“So if it makes things better, thenhitme.”

Gritting her teeth. She takes a breath. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’m sorry.”

The flames disappear and she takes my hand. The sincerity of her apology is something I can taste, endearing me to her even further.

“I have proven to you that you can trust me, and I’ve told you about what must happen out there. The crowd needs to be mesmerized into a trance-like state so that my ether can speak to them and bind their souls to my deal. If I fail, we could be punished.”

“By Lilu?”

Shaking my head, I cup her cheek, reveling in the softness of her skin against my fingers. “We demons like to play games. Will you play with me tonight? Will you trust me?”

I don’t want her to know the truth behind the carnival, but if she outright asks me, I will not lie.

She looks back and forth between my eyes before her gaze lands on where she hit me.

“I trust you,” she breathes.

I grin at her, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “Good girl.”

The scent of her anger and confusion give way to lust and arousal, which is perfect for what is about to happen.

The act is introduced through the speakers, and the curtain pulls back to reveal the two of us standing together to face the crowd.

The performances we put on are part seduction and part enchantment. We want to bring the people in, feed off of their desires and emotions, make deals, collect souls, then send them on their way. I walk around Evolet and bring her hands forward to slip on the tie I created, fastening her wrists together. I kneel in front of her, pressing a kiss to the cuffs now fastened around her wrists.

Her pale skin against the dark rope looks so perfect together, and I have no doubt that she’s about to entrance every single member of the audience.

She stares down at me as I allow the power of my ether to flow from my body into the crowd, searching for their greatest desires. Using my mind, I let out my flames, just small ones for now. I make them curl around Evolet, tying the rope around her for me while I stand there like a magician wielding his magic.

They do say that the best magicians never reveal their tricks, but my flame isn’t a trick. It’s powerful and has a mind of its own. Thankfully, it seems to only want to protect my mate and does as I command, so long as she wills it to.

It ties a pentagram harness around her chest before working down her body. When the star is sealed around her, it starts to glow with the same light as the flame tying her. The crowd around us, a fully packed room of over two hundred people stare at her in reverence.

It is not easy to captivate so many people at once, but the woman before me owns the stage.

The small noises she makes as the ties bind her sendwaves of lust pouring through the air so thick I nearly choke on it. She is a naturally stunning performer, keeping my audience perfectly distracted so that I can do what we must.

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