Page 21 of Knotted
“You don’t get to walk away from me like this.” Asmodeus roared from inside the house. Unable to come out and scare my neighbors, who were probably enjoying me making an ass out of myself. I knew he could take human form, but I also knew it took a lot of effort to do so. I would be gone before he’d managed it.
“Watch me!” I yelled back, getting into my car. I was backing down the driveway when he came out of the houselooking like an Icelandic god. Tall, long blond hair, piercing blue eyes. He stormed into the road and glared at me as I drove away.
Godsdamn asshole for thinking I would be okay with giving up my entire life and living in fucking Hell. Actual fucking Hell. I didn’t care I’d be his queen. I had a life, and a job I loved, and friends. I couldn’t just walk away from all of it.
I seethed silently all day even as I put on my best happy face for Lily. I blew up the group chat while she played at the splash pad. I mentally listed all of the reasons why Asmodeus was the worst possible thing that ever happened to me.
I was still hot and ready for a fight when I got home that night. The girls had been annoyingly quiet, letting me rant but not offering any feedback. Which I knew meant I was possibly being overdramatic, but it wasn’t like any of them lost anything when they fell in love with their demons.
Fell in love?
No, that couldn’t be right.
I wasn’t in love with the stupid, stubborn demon.
All we did was fight and fuck. That wasn’t love.
Was it?
I unlocked the door and stomped in, expecting him to be there and ready to fight with me. Instead, I found my house empty. There were no demon shadows cleaning, no skanky secretary to glare at me. The mess that had taken over my dining room was gone. And so was the giant demon who had been the bane of my existence for the last year.
There was no sign he’d ever been there. Nothing.
I walked upstairs in a fog, trying tofigure out the hollow feeling in my stomach.
In the bedroom, I found the first and only sign he’d ever actually been there. The crochet werewolf from Clover sat propped on the pillows in the center of my bed. On its lap was a rolled up piece of paper sealed with black wax.
Carefully lifting the seal, I unrolled the thick ivory paper and read the broad, loopy handwriting. Then I sat down and read it again. After the third time, I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent a text to the group chat.
Violet: I need someone to take me to Hell.
Chapter
Sixteen
“Are you sure about this, Vi? This is a one-way trip. I don’t have the power to bring you back.” Tight lines surrounded Jax’s eyes and mouth as he looked at me. He held a visibly worried Fern’s hand as they both tried to talk me out of this.
“I’m sure. As long as you won’t get into trouble for helping me. I don’t want to ruin anything for you.” Given how angry Asmodeus was when I left him that morning, it wouldn’t surprise me if he recalled all of the demons he sent before him to punish me and my friends.
“There’s no way to know who got you there. As long as we’re careful of where we land, it’ll be okay.”
“Vi,” Fern said. She didn’t need to say anything else. I could read it all on her face. She was worried, scared. She didn’t understand and I couldn’t blame her. I hardly understood myself.
“He canceled the contract, Fern. Despite everything between us, despite trying to claim me, he let me go. Shit, he even gave me the name of the human man I was destined for.” That little tidbit had made his jealousy andanger over Logan make so much more sense. If I hadn’t done the spell, if I hadn’t brought Asmodeus into my life, I would have found my way to Logan through normal means. We’d get married and raise his daughter together, and it would have been great. I could see it play out before me easily enough.
Except, even knowing he was the one I was destined for, I felt nothing for him. That vision didn’t fill me with excitement. It made me a little sad for the person I was and the person he lost. Logan was a good human, and deserved someone who would love him and Lily with everything she had. I wasn’t that person.
I was stupidly in love with an asshole demon.
“Why can’t it be enough?” Jasmine asked, logical as always.
“You were happy without Phin,” I pointed out. “You were content in your life. Would you give him up now? Would you go back when you have him?”
We both looked toward the demon in question, his red and black form reminding me of Asmodeus. My heart clenched. I wanted to be done with this conversation. But I owed it to my friends. They deserved to know I wasn’t being impulsive and making yet another bad choice.
“It’s not the same.” Jasmine argued.
“Yes, it is. As is stubborn and bossy and overbearing but he cares for me in his own way. He tries to take care of me. He’s an absolute idiot but I love him.”
