Page 92 of Obsession

Just let him have his dramatic reveal.

“I’ve decided on…” He pauses. “House number one.”

“Yes! The house with the pool!”

Damion looks at us like we both might be insane. We both probably are, but that’s neither here nor there.

“Now, onto a matter of grave urgency,” he says, and Damion quietly groans. “This is your captain speaking. Flight number 777 nonstop to the departed realm is ready for takeoff.”

“His death humor is disturbing,” I warn Mama, but I’m not sure if she heard that or not, as they’re now gone.

Chris appears in his human form, sans Lucy and Augustus. “Before you even think about saying ‘not your concern’—”

“Here,” he says, cutting me off and holding up a cotton swab, his hand covered in a medical glove.

“What the hell is that?” I ask.

“Angelic paternity test.”

“Huh, I figured there’d be a more mystical way to determine angelic paternity.”

“You watch too much TV,” Damion tells me. Turning to Chris, he loses his playfulness. “Choirboy, if you think you’re sticking anything in Aubry’s mouth, you are mistaken.” He smiles easily, but the flame he has working back and forth between his fingers tells another story. Now’s probably not the best time to let Damion know when we were broken up, Chris did stick his tongue in my mouth, and it tasted like honey.

“Cambion, put your little BIC lighter away. I’d already have you gutted like a fish, your entrails littering this barn if I wanted to,” Chris sneers.

“That was unnecessarily graphic,” I jump in, before this escalates further. Yep, definitely not the time for that dramatic reveal. Snatching the swab from Chris’s hand, I position it deep in the back of my throat and move it around. Luckily, I don't gag easily. Damion must be thinking the same thing, because he smirks at Chris.

I hold the swab out for Chris and he takes it. “Aubry, I'll see you around.”

“Choirboy, you won’t,” Damion warns.

Chris turns to Damion. “We’ll see about that, won’t we?” They stare each other down before Chris vanishes.

“Will you ask Zazel for a favor?” I ask, squeezing Damion’s hand, but jerk back—it feels like touching a hot stove. “Take us to Natchez so I can break the spell on Bettina.” I walk over and grab the rope with the poppets from the wall, and the next thing I know we’re standing in an alley.

We walk to Miss Mable’s Ghost Tours. It’s a little after seven in the morning and the shop’s closed. Damion rings the bell several times. Bettina finally answers, looking like she just rolled out of bed.

“I will break the curse if you promise to stop using magic against me and those I care about.” We follow her inside, the door barely having time to close before a contract appears.

I grab it and read it over. In the small print near the bottom I can make out:

Damion Blackmon is the third-party beneficiary to the contract between Aubry Brooks and Bettina Davis. Should Bettina Davis breach said contract, Damion Blackmon will own the exclusive rights to Bettina Davis’s soul…

The rest of the contract wording is too small for me to read. I look over to Damion.

Trust me, my possession.

Isn’t that what a tricky demon would say? I counter. He increases the font for me so that I can actually read it. Do I love this demon? Yes. Do I trust this demon completely where contracts are concerned? Hell no.

Pricking my finger with Damion’s quill pen and signing, I pass the pen and contract to Bettina. The font of the contract is now back to microscopic print. It apparently doesn’t matter, as she doesn’t bother to read it before she signs. Damion signs with his sigil and the items disappear and are replaced with a pair of cable cutters. He hands them to me, and I cut each knot, envisioning Lucy’s spell being broken. The poppets fall to the ground and I quietly chant:

The spell is broken, Bettina is free.

These knots no longer bind thee.

No longer obsessed with Augustus, and so it be.

Walking outside to the river, I toss the poppets in for good measure. Returning, I announce, “The curse is lifted.” I didn’t say which curse or explain Mama never cursed her in the first place. Seems I’ve picked up a few of Damion’s tricks.

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