Page 18 of All the Devils are Here

I sensed the change in his attention, and he switched to French. “Laurent, what’s going on?”

“Are you near a television?”

“I can be.”

Swallowing, I closed my eyes. “Turn on the news. I can’t imagine there’s not a channel that’s covering it. French news if you need to.”

Lower, I heard, “I’ll be right back,” followed by the closing of a door. The faint sound of talking from a screen, and Alex sucked in a breath. “Good god. How many casualties? Do we know if there are any monsters? Gargoyles?”

“I don’t know,” I shook my head, though he couldn’t see me.

“This is awful, Laurent. Of course it is, but why are you calling to tell me about it?”

I took a deep breath, knowing this was going to change everything. “Prospero is alive.”

Dead silence on the other end of the line. Then he cleared his throat. “Prospero, the one who created you? The one who—”

“Yes.”

“I thought you said he was dead.”

Gritting my teeth, I blew out a breath. “I lied. He’s never been dead. He’s bound where he is. For now. He’s never stopped trying to break free, never stopped trying to take everything, and as long as he doesn’t have me, he can’t.” At least I hoped there was no other way.

“Laurent,” Alex sighed. “What the fuck is going on? I’ve never heard you sound like this before.”

“Meg was on the boat.”

“What?”

My voice broke once. “She was on the boat that sank, and she’s not here, Alexandre. A storm, amassive fucking stormthat came out of nowhere in February? He took her. Because of me. All these people—”

“Laurent,” Alex’s voice snapped through the line. “How do you know? How do you know he took her?”

“I know,” I said. There was too much to explain about Ariel, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind. Where Ariel was, Prospero wasn’t far behind. The spirit was just as bound to the island, and even more bound to the sorcerer, though I wished he weren’t.

That was my fault too.

“Why does he want Meg if he can’t break free, anyway?”

“There are a lot of things he can still use me for, Alex. Never forget who I was before I met you.”

He sighed, and I heard a soft creak, like he was sitting down on a bed. “And you still feel the same way? About her? Keeping your distance?”

Huffing a laugh that contained no humor, I looked at the sky. If history looked back on me and painted me as the most foolish gargoyle alive, I would deserve it.

“Part of that was a lie, too,” I admitted. “Everything I said was true, but I was also trying to protect her from him. And everyone else because of him. But no. I don’t care what I said before. I just lived through an hour thinking she was dead. Nothing else matters.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

Turning so I could see the ocean spread out in front of me, I closed my eyes. The place he had taken Meg was my worst nightmare. It didn’t matter that doing this could change the fate of the world. I didn’t care that she wasn’t my mate. Everything in my body screamed that she wasmine.

“I’m going to get her.”

CHAPTER NINE

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MEGHAN

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