Page 7 of All the Devils are Here

I wanted to stay here and watch her as long as he would let me. The way she moved was… entrancing. Naturally graceful in a way that most humans weren’t. She was beautiful too, and sad. I could see the emotion brewing beneath her skin.

I didn’t get glimpses of the outside world as much as I would like, and the times I did, it wasn’t anyone as beautiful as her. It wasn’t surprising Khal was near her. I would take the chance if I had it.

But why?

I’d seen and been with humans before, and none of them called to me the way this one did. Like I was a moth and she was a strange, impossible flame.

I didn’t want Khal to stay with her, because I didn’t want Prospero to take an interest. If he did, she might die, and I very much did not want this beautiful human to die. It was a miracle any of his guests had survived.

If you could call it surviving.

Khal and the woman walked down the street, and I saw the things she couldn’t. The way he looked at her while she looked away. How his hands curled in order to stop himself from reaching out to touch her.

Why had he gone with her?

Didn’t he know how dangerous it was?

Didn’t he remember he was being watched?

Anything could be used against him.

It wasn’t much of a life, but at least he was no longer here.

Caliban prowled into the entrance, eyes glowing yellow in the darkness. He was nearly invisible, even to my eyes. But he watched our captor with the same interest.

And fear.

“Ariel,” our captor said, rousing me from my trance of trying to disappear.

I floated down beside him, allowing him to sense my presence. The pool of water in front of him still wavered with the image of the two. The woman was smiling, and again I felt a pull toward her. Was it because she knew what Khal was? She wasn’t afraid of him, despite understanding he was a monster.

“Make sure she gets on the boat.”

I felt the magic take hold, and dread seeped through me. “Do not bring her here.”

He turned and looked at me, eyes cold. “Why shouldn’t I?”

There was nothing I could say to answer him. None of my reasons were valid to him. He didn’t understand the torture of being bound in this place and to him. He only thought of himself and his pain, and nothing was too great a sacrifice to fix it. Even this girl who nearly glowed through the magic of the vision.

“Make sure she gets on the boat,” he repeated. “And do not disturb me until I emerge. It is great magic I must work now.”

He turned and disappeared deeper into the cave, down into his lair where we were not permitted. Where he wouldn’t be aware of anything but the magic he conjured.

In one way, it was a relief having some time without him looking over our shoulders. But I did not want to do what he’d commanded. The water in the bowl was now dark and empty, and I wished I could still see her.

“Who was she?” Caliban asked, rising to his more human form. “She is…”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence for me to understand.

“I don’t know,” I told him. “But she was with Khalas.”

“He won’t come for her. He knows better.”

“Does he?”

I stared into the dark water. There was something about the woman which called to me, and it was from afar. If Khal felt the same, like something about our magic drew us closer, then I didn’t know if he would be able to resist.

For all our sakes, I hoped he could.

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