Deal with the Devil

35. Epilogue

Epilogue:

Knox

~Sometime later~

“On a technical standpoint, it’s not Zrazduel anymore. I am not a fear-eater, I am a devourer now,” Knox explained to Maevin who squinted at him from across the desk.

“I’m not fixing the paperwork. Do you know how much bullshit goes into changing your name legally on an illegal company?” Maevin huffed, hands on his slender hips.

Knox snorted, rolling his head. “Not to worry, I’m rather attached to my name anyway.”

Maevin shook his eyes, looking down the stack of papers, “So then what is all this about?”

“Ms. Armstrong, for security reasons, is going to need to legally change her name. I thought Amelia Zrazduel would be nice.” Maevin’s eyes snapped up from the papers, twitching with fury and ire. Knox snickered, “What?”

“For security reasons? What security reasons? You have not informed me of any new threats! We just got the house cleaned, Knox!”

Knox cocked a brow as Maevin paced a track into the floor in front of his desk. After Maevin finished, Knox folded his hands over his desk. “Security reasons being her new flourishing book sales. Amelia’s books have been flying off the shelves, according to our records, and people knew she used to work at Mumfords. It’s going to be complicated enough her being with me without her also having to battle with publicity.”

Maevin cocked his hip to the right, pursing his lips. “You couldn’t have led with that? Of course I’ll get her secure and changed up. Do you think her press and agent will need to be spoken to? Legally for her paychecks, they’ll have to switch it up, but I wonder how good their security is. I should go see them. Do you know their names? And seriously…you couldn’t have led with that?”

“I enjoy giving you chest pains,” Knox teased, winking at his best friend. Maevin threw his hands up and over his head.

“Fine! Next time you need a body to disappear, why don’t you find someone else, huh?” Maevin stomped off on empty threats. Maevin had been at his side for years and would be there for years to come. Especially after the threat of Declan was vanquished.

Hellen picked her head up and off the couch cushion she’s been pretending to snooze on, “How’s our girl, anyway?”

“Which one?” Knox smirked as he returned to typing on his crystal pad. Inventory was coming up in a month and he needed to have a full count of everything in the system. Taxes only looked correct when the business was a hundred percent real. Aravis Blightwood promised Amelia that he was basically looking the other way, but Knox noticed immediately the change of intensity of Enforcers around his casino.

Their truce was over, and Knox was back to being the villain of King’s Fall. Make me your villain…so long as I’m always yours.

“Start with Amelia.” Hellen peeled herself off the couch to plop herself into a chair next to his desk.

“She’s currently beating up Zavros’ new security recruits in the basement to toughen them up… so I’d say she’s doing well. I mean…we have yet to meet the new Hungry One and we’re not sure what her being a Book Guardian entails but, my being one of the witch’s devourers has yet to change much in my life. We shall see.” He stopped to peek up at the pink-fleshed fiend beside him. Hellen cocked a brow. He sighed, “We’ll be fine, Hellen. She was there for me and my nightmares, I will be there for hers.”

Hellen nodded with a somber silence, looking toward the window of screens behind him. “And Gael?”

“According to Penny, who lost it on Gael’s parents, she’s thriving. I’ve made sure she was enrolled with Brayden’s school and is back to being a regular teenager. She’s earned an easy life, and I will do everything in my power to make sure she gets it.”

Declan didn’t get to win…never again.

Knox returned to typing on his crystalpad. As he said, there was inventory, and his business needed to look and feel legitimate. Any slip up and the empire could crumble. Which meant he needed backup plans for his backup plans, and a plan B for when his lovely horror of a partner inevitably broke someone’s face in.

“Boss, you got company.”

The door to his office slowly opened. Hellen bowed her head, taking her leave of the office as a woman walked in behind one of his security guards. Knox put down his crystal pad and motioned to the seats across from him. A brown-haired, hazel-eyed woman in a sweet, cream-colored dress sat down in a seat across from him. She smiled at him, “Hi, I’m Hazel Brown.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Hazel Brown,” He folded his hands over the top of his desk. “What can I fix for you today?”

“My grandmother said that you and Amelia would be able to help me with this. Said that you’d be contractually obligated to help me in this.” She pulled out a leather-bound journal from her hip and sat it on the desk. Knox eyed it before returning his attention to her.

“Your grandmother?” He raised a brow.

“The Witch of the Woods…Persephone is my grandmother,” Hazel folded her hands in her lap, a smug glint in her pretty brown eyes. “And I need your help. There’s something coming to King’s Fall and I need you and your Book Guardian girlfriend’s help…I need a specific spell from the Library of Madness, a recipe to be precise. I need something stronger than a Draught of Death. In exchange, I make my fiancé the Lord Commander back off and leave you…and your business…alone.”

Knox’s eyebrows nearly flew off his face as he sat back in his seat. Aravis had a fiancé? And she was the Witch of the Woods’ granddaughter…how delicious. Knox traced the edges of his teeth with his tongue. That sounds like a very worthwhile deal .

He sat forward and extended a hand to her with a smirk, “You’ve got yourself a deal, Ms. Brown.”