Page 13 of All the Devils are Here

His smile deepened. “You don’t, but I wish I’d had the pleasure earlier. My name is Ariel.”

Heat rose to my cheeks. There was something about the way he said the words, like they wrapped around me and held me closer.

He just stared at me in silence until goosebumps rose on my arms. There wasn’t anyone behind me on the dock, so I wasn’t holding up a line, but it was still weird.

“Okay. It was nice to meet you.”

I stepped around him and he stepped with me, blocking me with his body. “I don’t think you should be here,” he murmured. “This is not the right place for you.”

“Excuse me?”

When I looked up at his face again, it looked like he was in pain, that beautiful face shining with sweat. “You shouldn’t get on this boat.”

At the same time, he reached for me and grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer. “Your words and actions are saying two different things,” I said, pulling my wrist out of his grasp. “And given that you’re a stranger, you don’t get an opinion on where I go.”

This time I spun around him quickly so he couldn’t get in front of me and power walked the rest of the way onto the boat. I turned back to find him watching me with that mysterious smile on his face, like he was happy I was on the boat even though he told me not to.

Weird.

The pull between us spun outward, and I felt it even as I walked away from him up onto the deck.

Janelle was there with the friend she’d run to, and waved me over. “Meg, this is Rina. Here,” she shoved a drink into my hand. “You need one of these.”

“Do you know who that is?”

“Who?”

I turned to point to the man, but he wasn’t there anymore. Fuck. “Oh. I’ll point him out when I see him again. He told me not to get on the boat. Said his name was Ariel?”

She snickered. “All right. Sounds like he should be the one who stays off the boat.”

“Oh wait, there he is.” I caught a glimpse of the man across the deck, still looking at me. From here, he nearly looked like a specter in the black suit with his dark hair.

Janelle turned to look and her eyebrows rose. “I take it back. He should absolutely be here. No matter what he said, and no matter whatIsaid about Raoul, I think you should go for that instead.”

Laughing, I took a sip of my drink.Fuckthat was good. The perfect blend of fruit and alcohol—the kind of drink that was dangerous.

You know what? Maybe I needed a little danger. Trying to get my old self back last night massively backfired, but there was no reason it couldn’t work now. I trusted Monsieur Chagny and his guests, and it was time to have some fun.

Tilting my head back, I downed the drink in one long go to the cheers of those around me and came back up for air with a smile. Who cared if this was what I needed or not? I was here, and I was going to make the most of it.

* * *

Thunder boomed over the boat, and from where I lounged on a couch, I saw lightning flare over the ocean’s horizon. Janelle was draped over my stomach, gently snoring, and my own head was rocking more than the boat.

I needed to stand up—I needed to feel the air on my skin. Moving Janelle to the side, I managed to slip out from underneath her and nearly tripped over two people making out on the floor.

Who knew what time it was? It was pitch black other than the lightning and the occasional flicker of moonlight through the clouds. There was still a party raging nearly everywhere, and the room I stumbled out of was by far the quietest.

Rain fell on my skin, cooling the heat beneath it. It wasn’t falling hard yet, but it was getting harder and starting to slant in the wind. I held onto the rail and looked over, just barely able to see the surface of the dark water in the glow of the boat lights. It was nearly matte with the pouring rain.

Right then, the clouds opened, and the rain fell straight. The sound of it on the water and the decks drowned out the sound of the music, and nearly the screams of surprise. More lightning and more thunder.

I tipped my head back to the sky, the force of the water nearly painful, butfuck, it had been a long time since I felt this alive.

The boat rocked, and I slipped, holding onto the rail. “Woah.”

The water was suddenly so much closer, the wave lifting so high I could almost touch it. “Oh fuck.”

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