Page 84 of All the Devils are Here

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I leaned against the headboard, Meg wrapped around me. Her head rested on my shoulder, and she was breathing deeply. My little mate had fallen asleep after I was finished with her. I hadn’t been able to resist taking her twice more.

My knot ached as much as it felt incredible. But it would take a while for it to calm. In the meantime I was content to hold her. We had so much to make up for on that front.

I’d wrapped a blanket around her so she wouldn’t get cold, and even sleeping, she clung to me. Her arms were wrapped around my ribs, and sometimes I would feel her tighten her grip, like she was checking to make sure I was still here.

The soft sound of wind alerted me to Ariel’s presence before he looked around the corner. “Safe to come in?”

“She’s out,” I said quietly. Ariel wouldn’t need me to speak louder than a breath to hear me. “It’s taken care of?”

His grin was wicked. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to fuck up his shit.”

“No,” I resisted the urge to laugh. “I have a pretty good idea. But you know he’s not going to stop trying.”

“No, I don’t imagine so.” He came closer and looked at Meg’s foot where it was sticking out from beneath the blanket. “I thought—”

“It did,” I told him. “I watched it recede. It’s just moving faster than we thought.”

Reaching beneath the blanket, I gently lifted one of Meg’s hands away from my skin and showed him. While the magic had been driven back by our sex, it was now back to creeping up her limbs, and quickly. It was halfway to her elbow.

Ariel scrubbed a hand over his face. The spirit looked exhausted. Like I’d expect Prospero to be looking by now. “It could be because we’re trying to beat it back, and it’s reacting. Or because Prospero is specifically turning the island against her.”

“Either way,” I said. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You can’t think any of us would actually let you sacrifice yourself.”

I smothered the growl in my chest and just barely managed to pivot it into a purr so I didn’t wake Meg. “If it saves her from dying? Or being taken? You won’t be able to stop me, Ariel.”

There was conflict on his face, and I knew why. Like me, the idea of Meg dying or in danger was painful. Literally. And yet he and my other brothers had been on this island for eight hundred years. In no small part to keep Prospero in check. He had his hold on them, but they also knew how to temper his demands and lessen the impact. A Prospero free to terrorize the world was a danger to everyone.

And yet, there was also no world in which I could let Meg die. It wasn’t possible.

“And we’re sure?” I asked. “That he can’t be killed right now?”

“His commands are still in place. None of us can fucking go near him.”

“I could.”

Ariel looked at me like I was the most naive gargoyle alive. “He told you he couldn’t be killed while she holds the magic. And you don’t think he has a trap in place ready for you in case you try anyway? Or even get too close? The minute you try anything, you’ll be trapped like a fly in a web.”

“Can you sense those kinds of traps?”

He pulled up short. “I didn’t reach out search for them, but I could poke around what’s inside the mountain and around the island. But I can guarantee you it’s there. He’s been planning this—foryou—too long not to have measures in place.”

I was pulling at the thread now, and I had so many questions. “And Prospero is a danger to her, as he’s proven. Does it negate his commands not to kill him?”

“I wish.” Ariel scoffed. “He’s been careful there. The only time hedirectlyharmed her was when he put the magic into her, and I didn’t know she was my mate until after. Since then, he’s let the island do it for him. Taunting the island about her isn’t harming her, even though I wish it were.”

“So I suppose you’re not free to use your own magic to trap him further,” I said.

“No.”

“What about her?”

He looked at me. “Meg?”

“She has all his magic. Is there a reason she can’t use it?”

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