Page 123 of All the Devils are Here

“Is that what I asked of you?” The Island turned back to observe the man who was teetering on death in more ways than one. “Or is that what you imagined I wanted? I knew no want at all until you, Prospero. Without you and your interference, I would have needed nothing.”

Prospero took a step forward, and Laurent was there in a flash, standing between Prospero and my body, still protecting me. The others came closer, ready to intervene. Ariel was half smoke, and Trin clung to the rocks with his arms, ready to launch himself. Ban was already crouched and stalking.

“Your mate is safe, gargoyle,” the Island said. “And she loves you. She loves each of you. I am grateful she has allowed me to speak. It is a long overdue conversation.”

“Meg?” Ariel asked.

The Island released me. “Hi.” My voice was normal, and this was the most confusing thing that had ever happened to me, but for the first time in forever, I feltwhole. Laurent was alive, and nothing could stop me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to the three of them. “I couldn’t stop it, and I couldn’t stay. I love you.”

Prospero took a step toward me, and the Island took control again. She thrust out a hand and power laced together under my skin. Ifelthow she wielded it. So incredibly different from being a vessel. Prospero froze with a groan. “Stay where you are,” the double-voice said.

“I don’t understand,” he panted. “I’ve only been trying to give you what you needed.”

“Of course you don’t understand. Because you didn’t truly listen. Your own desires have always been your compass, Prospero, and nothing more.”

“But—”

“YOU WILL. NOT. SPEAK.” The Island’s roar shook the mountain, and through my bonds I felt awe, satisfaction and grim delight. Shades of reassurance and so much love I couldn’t contain it. “All you have done is speak, Prospero. Now, you will finally listen.”

The memory of the much younger Prospero played in my head.I will give you all that I am, and you will give me everything.

“I knew nothing before you. Magic is not made to know its own will. It is a tool and a gift, or a phenomenon to be observed. Beauty to be savored. And such was this Island until you came and sacrificed your heart and demanding everything in return. The island gave it to you, because it did not know better. It had no way to know.”

“The bargain…” Ariel said.

The Island snapped my head to look at my mate. “What bargain? There was no bargain. He shoved his heart into mine, and the magic traded, as was natural, one gift for another. And then, suddenly, I understood what it was tofeel.”

A dawning understanding cracked into me, and my own grief echoed that of the island. OfMíann. Prospero had forced consciousness into the island’s heart.

“I gave you a gift,” Prospero ground out. “You make it seem like I murdered you. I gave youlife.”

“You took with no thought,” the island said. “I was a being ofwanting. Feeling, and nothing else. A creature of reaction and response. Of only instinct. What do you know of the human heart? Nothing except your own. All your anger, revenge, and satisfaction.

“I could not take back your magic, freely given before I knew that itwasto give, and you could not take back your heart.”

For the first time I saw true fear enter Prospero’s eyes. “Why did you ask for more if you didn’t want it?”

The Island lifted my hand, and a sphere of glowing light floated above my palm. The silence surrounding us deepened as the sphere grew larger and brighter. “No being is willing to surrender their life once they realize they exist. You, of all people, know that.

“All I knew was your heart made me aware. Giving it back, even for the magic you borrowed, would have snuffed me out again. I wanted more. I asked for all I knew to ask for.”

“Hearts,” Laurent said, in awe. “What you already had.”

“Life,” The island said. “Four pieces of life. One from each domain. So I could have a form that was mine. We are all made of the same things. Hearts were all I knew. But what did I need with the physical hearts of creatures, but to gain more knowledge of everything I did not have?”

The circle of light encompassed my entire arm now, and within that space, there were three shapes.

“I gave youwhat you asked for.”

“No,” the Island stood tall in my body. “If you had listened and watched, you would have understood. If you had asked again after time. But you did not.”

My body looked out over the ocean, ablaze with fading daylight. “And then you destroyed yourself and took everything else. Bound yourself to me. Your failures gave me knowledge. The ability to think. Each life you forced me into and burned to ashes fed my will. But I wanted completeness. Simply to be whole. Like I tried to give to you.”

“He wanted power,” Trin said. “We’ve known that forever.”

“Have you?” The Island sounded amused. “I did try to give the gift of what was desired, and no one has understood that it is all the same.”

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