Page 85 of The Final Deal

“Was it worth it?” I ask loudly as I push past the twins and get right in her personal space.

Her lip trembles, and her face twists and turns as it tries to figure out an emotion to settle on. “You know better than this. All of this: being with two men and selling people’s souls to the devil.”

“Guess I learned it from the best, after all.”

Her anger rapidly dissolves into disappointment, and then guilt. She focuses on something behind me on my left. “Zak, you know better. Make her do the right thing.”

A warm, jacket-clad arm wraps around my shoulders and pulls me into a warmer, solid body. Zak’s voice is firm and loaded with warning as he says, “Mom, I love you, but you’ve done enough. Leave her alone.”

Robbie places himself in between me and our parents. “Y’all need to go. Please.”

Tears fill her eyes, and Dad watches us both with a forlorn expression. I know this isn’t exactly his fault, but I wish he would’ve done more—moved us off the property, gotten us far away from the source of my future problems,something.

But then I guess I wouldn’t have Zak or Adrian, or Timeless, or New Year’s Ball.

So maybe one day we’ll reconcile. But for now, the wound is too fresh, and I don’t want anything to do with either of them.

I have a deal to finish.

Robbie approaches Mom and Dad, encouraging them to exit the side stage. Gradually, Mom turns away and storms off with Dad following closely behind. Robbie pauses, making sure they’re actually leaving, before heading back toward the main stage.

I take a deep breath and tap my phone awake to pull up the results.

“What exactly is the deal?” Adrian asks.

Humming and pressing link after link to get to the stats page, I reply, “I’ll be running some variant of this every year to funnel souls directly into the devil’s pocket. Every other day that isn’t New Year’s Eve will be covered by the venue.”

I blink a couple of times to make sure the bright, bold numbers in red I’m seeing are correct: almostsix thousandpeople have textedSoldand entered—and there’s nearly forty thousand here tonight.

I scoff in disbelief, pocket my phone, and look out into the stage and the crowd going wild for Abjured. Jay is bent over theriser screaming a lung out, and Charlie flips over his back to get to the other side in a cool but dangerous maneuver to show off.

“Steph!”

Robbie rushes toward us, pumping his arms and breathing heavily, like he’s been running. “C’mon—get on stage.”

“What for?”

“Timeless,” Jay’s voice calls out in a sing-song tone over distorted guitars ringing in the speaker system. “Oh, Timeless! Where are you?”

We all head for the stage, where Shannon waits for us hand-in-hand with Andrea and a curious expression. The crowd is deafening, even with ear plugs.

The members of Abjured see all of us gathered at the side stage, and Jay gestures for us to come forward. “What do y’all say about a little Abjured-Timeless crossover to ring in the New Year?”

If I thought the crowd was deafening before, then the explosion of noise that blasts through my body at every angle is a sign of the apocalypse.

They. Are. Going. Berserk.

With a smile plastered onto my face, I waltz out onto the stage—mystage—and steal Jay’s mic for a quick second. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

He returns the beam. “Fuck yeah, let’s go!”

Charlie throws his chin in my direction as I approach and yells, “Any idea how many people texted?”

“Six. Motherfucking. Thousand.”

He grins brightly and hands over his guitar.

Shannon passes me by with a mic in his hand; Zak pauses beside me, and Adrian climbs up onto the kit’s riser to bro hug Trip and take his place. I glance at the time on my phone real quick, and we’re one minute away from a new year.

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