Page 40 of All the Devils are Here

“Yes?”

I jumped off the bed. “Then why the hell didn’t you?”

The anger in his eyes matched mine. “Because as much as Prospero is a piece of walking shit, he wasn’t wrong. The chains would protect you in some ways. But we’re willing to take the trade-off for getting you away from him.”

I swallowed. “We? What’s going on?”

“Close your eyes.”

“No, Ariel. Tell me what’s going on. Now.”

He was standing in front of me, and I couldn’t tell which one he wanted more. To fight with me, or to kiss me. Both of those things warred on his face, and I wasn’t sure which one I wanted either.

“You are absolutely infuriating,” he whispered. “Close your eyes, Meghan.”

I pressed my lips together and stood my ground, in spite of the way hearing my name on his lips made me feel. “No.”

A dark smile slid onto his lips. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He swirled into smoke, and I didn’t even have time to scream before I was caught in arms made of mist and flying through the window. I shut my eyes and held on, nothing butabsencebeneath my feet. “Ariel,” I gasped.

A dark chuckle seemed to come from all around me. “I told you to close your eyes.”

We dropped straight down, and the scream froze in my throat. I’d always loved roller coasters, but I never thought I’d feel what it was like to be on one with no safety net.

Ariel solidified around me like he’d heard my thoughts, showing me exactly how he was wrapped around me and that he wasn’t about to let me fall away, despite the speed we were moving.

“I’ve got you,” he said. The words were gentle, and I closed my eyes tighter. My heart skipped a beat. No no no no no. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t—

My bare feet touched grass, and my eyes flew open. Ariel released me and stood back, still close enough for me to see him looking at me with a longing that hit me straight in the chest. “Over there,” he said, tilting his head, and then he was gone, fading into nothing.

I turned, and for the second time in five minutes, my heart skipped a beat. At the edge of this tropical clearing, was Laurent.

He was frozen, staring at me like he’d never seen me before, and I didn’t know how the hell he’d gotten here. “Laurent?”

He was here?

He washere.

Impossibly, he’d come for me.

His name unfroze him, and he moved, closing the distance between us at impossible speed. He hauled me into his arms in one movement, so fast my feet left the ground. I gasped, the breath knocked out of me, but I didn’t care because he was touching me. Hands in my hair and stroking down my back.

“It’s not possible,” he murmured. “It’s not possible.”

“What?” I asked. “What’s not possible?”

One hand gripped my hair, making sure my eyes were on his. “You’re mymate,” he said, like the words were wrenched out of him. “I—”

Laurent’s lips crashed down on mine, and I was blinded by the power of the kiss, and seconds later horror dawned on me, breaking away from him. “Not you too.” The tears were already forming. “Please, not you too. I can’t take it.”

“Meg…”

“No.” The word was more a moan than anything else. He let me slip out of his arms and I wrapped my own around myself. Everything hurt. Laurent was everything I wanted and that, too, was gone now. “I can’t do this.”

“Meg, what is going on?”

He reached for me, and I stumbled backward. “It’s not real,” I whispered. “It’s just the island giving me what I wanted. You’re not my mate. This place gives you your deepest desire, right? Well, ta-da, I’m the loneliest girl alive, and the second he forced magic into me, now everyone wants me. And as much as it’severything, I don’t want it to be fake. I want it to bereal.”

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