Page 27 of All the Devils are Here

“What is that?”

“Magic.”

“Obviously,” I said. “What kind?”

“Just magic. The magic of the island. That’s what it looks like.”

I glanced up at him, startled by how close we’d gotten as we hovered over the glowing spot on my wrist. “It’s purple?”

Ariel smiled. I was dazzled a bit. It was so much more than the smirk I’d seen, which was just as gorgeous. But his smile was the kind that made your heart skip a beat and your breath catch and made you wonder if it was real. “It’s not always purple. It manifests in different ways. Probably purple because of you.”

“But why?”

He shrugged. “It could be that you like the color. Maybe it thinks the color looks good on you. Maybe it thinks those flowers you smell like are purple.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You smell like a bouquet. I don’t even have real lungs, and all I want to do is inhale you.” The words were desperately soft, and I realized his mouth was by my ear again, just like when he’d held me down.

All at once I shoved him away, and once again I caught the flash of hurt in his eyes before he covered it.

“You don’t get to say things like that to me. You don’t know me.”

“Don’t I?” Ariel’s gaze turned sharp.

“No.”

He laughed once and stood, disappearing into smoke almost entirely. “There’s one more thing you should know about the island’s magic.”

“What’s that?”

“This island gives whoever’s unfortunate enough to find it what they want. And I don’t mean a craving for a specific food, I mean your deepest, most pure desire. It’s not necessarily a kindness. Think about that.”

Before I could ask him what the hell he meant, or what having the island’s magic inside me meant, he evaporated and went out the window, leaving me alone again. “Cryptic bastard,” I said, flopping back on the bed.

“Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that.”

I sat up, searching for the new voice, and nearly screamed when I saw the man in the pool of water in the corner. “Apparently this cell is just grand central for people who don’t knock?”

He smiled, and I took in what I could see of him. Blonde hair and muscular shoulders. No shirt, but that seemed to be the norm around here. He was fucking hot too, and I needed to go to sleep.

There clearly was something wrong with me. I swallowed too much seawater and now I was encountering all these gorgeous men. Maybe the island was doing something to me like Ariel said, and my deepest craving was a bouquet of delicious monsters. Or maybe magical creatures were just hotter.

It was probably the last one.

“My apologies,” he said. “I wanted to see if you were all right. I haven’t seen you since the boat.”

“The boat? You were on the boat?”

“No, I was in the water. I kept you alive and brought you here. At Prospero’s command. Believe me, I wouldn’t have brought you here otherwise.”

I covered my face with my hands. “What the fuck does he have on all of you? And how did you keep me alive?”

He rose up out of the water without moving, and my jaw fell open. Tentacles. The man had tentacles. His lower half was an octopus with beautiful silvery blue tentacles. The edges of them glowed in little patterns like constellations, and I remembered vaguely seeing blue light before darkness.

Turning his hand, I saw something there. I wasn’t quite close enough to see what it was, but it was definitely something not on a human wrist. “My venoms have some unique effects. Especially on humans,” He said. “It can give the ability to breathe underwater for a while, in small doses.”

“Is that why my lungs felt like they were on fire when I woke up?”

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