Eva POV #7
I studied the chalk in my hand for a second while silence settled across the apartment again. His hoodie still hung oversized around my shoulders, carrying that faint smell of coffee and smoke and him.
The apartment was painfully empty without him in it. That was the problem. Because in less than two weeks, my terrifying demon had become part of my life so completely that the silence afterward was unbearable.
“I know,” I admitted quietly.
Nina’s expression softened. “Oh no. You’re actually serious.”
I laughed weakly once while kneeling onto the floor beside the old candle marks still faintly visible against the wood.
“Apparently,” I said, “I’m partially attached to a demon.”
“That sentence should not sound as depressing as it does.”
“It really shouldn’t.”
Nina lowered herself beside me while I carefully redrew the ritual circle across the floor in trembling lines of gold chalk. My hands weren’t shaking from alcohol or panic this time.
That was probably worse.
The gold markings curled across the floorboards while candlelight flickered softly around the apartment again. Outside, rain tapped quietly against the windows, and for one strange second it felt like the entire world had narrowed down to this room.
This stupid apartment.
These stupid candles.
And him.
Nina watched me silently for a while before finally muttering, “You know… for someone who spent three straight days yelling that he wasn’t your boyfriend, this feels deeply committed.”
“I liked him before the demon prince thing.”
“That is strangely worse.”
I finished the final line of the circle before sitting back slightly on my heels. The room went quiet. Then Nina looked around nervously. “So how exactly did you do this last time?”
I thought about it seriously.
Then grimaced.
“…Tequila.”
Chapter 14
Eva POV
Nina stared at me for a full five seconds before rubbing both hands over her face like her soul was trying to leave her body peacefully. “No. Absolutely not. I refuse to help you get drunk enough to enter Hell.”
“You helped me summon him.”
“That was DIFFERENT. We were drunk and unsupervised.”
“And now I’m entirely attached and unsupervised.”
Nina pointed at me. “See? You hear yourself.”
She was right. My brain had apparently decided to handle the supernatural trauma by developing feelings for the demon instead.
I ignored her and reached for the tequila bottle sitting abandoned near the kitchen counter from three separate bad decisions ago.
Nina watched me carefully while I took a long drink straight from the bottle. “You cannot seriously be planning to walk into the demon world for a guy you met in 2 weeks .”
“He folded my sweaters.”
Nina froze.
Then screamed at me. “Oh my God. You’re gone.”
“I’m not gone.”
“You are beyond deceased.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself before the ring burned hot enough against my palm that I nearly dropped it. At the exact same moment, every candle in the apartment lit on its own.
Nina backed away from the ritual circle. “Oh this is SUCH a bad idea.”
Gold lines across the floor began glowing faintly beneath the candlelight while dark smoke curled upward from the center of the circle.
The apartment temperature dropped so fast it made my stomach twist, and I finally admitted to myself that this situation had become genuinely terrifying.
Nina noticed my expression. “Eva.”
I faced toward her, and the lack of sarcasm between us was far more unsettling than any joke would have.
“If this gets weird,” she said carefully, “I’m calling a priest.”
“That feels fair.”
The smoke in the center of the circle twisted violently before splitting open straight down the middle.
A portal actually felt too dramatic for what it was.
This thing looked more like the air itself had been ripped open.
Like reality itself had torn open inside my apartment.
Red light spilled across the floorboards while distant voices echoed faintly from somewhere deep inside the darkness beyond it.
Nina stared at the opening in complete horror. “…Yeah no. That looks deeply unsafe.”
And she wasn't wrong. For once, Nina was making complete sense.
The massive hole in reality practically screamed illegal. The portal was something humans should absolutely not walk into. And it had all the signs of a very bad decision.
Everything inside the rip was wrong. Dark smoke moved strangely through the red glow, and somewhere far below I could hear what sounded suspiciously like screaming.
Then a familiar voice came quietly from inside the portal.
“…You actually came.”
My heart stopped the second I saw him.
My demon was different now, standing against the red light behind him. Sharper. More dangerous. His dark clothes were streaked faintly with ash, and shadows curled softly around his hands before disappearing again.
Unfortunately, he was somehow even prettier than before. It was completely unfair for someone to be that devastatingly beautiful while I looked like absolute crap from missing him.
The second he truly saw me, he stopped moving.
I gave a weak little wave from the middle of the ritual circle. “Hi.”
My demon stared at me in disbelief. “…You actually did it.”
“Well YOU told me to come get you.”
“That was not supposed to work this quickly.”
Behind me, Nina whispered loudly, “That feels romantic and threatening at the same time.”
My demon blinked once, still visibly stunned, before his gaze settled on the duffel bag beside my feet.
Immediately, his expression changed. “No.”
“You do not even know what I’m going to say.”
“You packed a bag.”
“I like being prepared physically.”
“You are not coming to Hell.”
I crossed my arms defensively. “That sounds extremely hypocritical from the man who literally wrote COME GET ME on my kitchen wall.”
He was genuinely speechless for a second, and I loved how satisfying that felt.
Then my demon stepped fully through the portal into the apartment while shadows curled briefly around his boots before fading away again.
Up close he seemed exhausted in a way I hadn’t noticed before.
Ash dusted faintly across the sleeves of his black coat, and there were dark marks near his hands like he’d been dealing with problems significantly more violent than reorganizing my kitchen shelves.
That realization made me even more annoyed at him.
“You left,” I informed him again.
“I was preventing war.”
“You still could’ve texted.”
My demon stared at me for a second. “You assume Hell has phone service.”
“That is not the point.”
Behind us, Nina quietly whispered, “I cannot believe I’m watching a relationship argument with a demon prince.”
Neither of us acknowledged her.
My demon’s attention shifted toward the glowing ritual circle around my feet before returning to me again. “Eva.”
His tone made me suspicious.
“No.”
“You do not even know what I was going to say.”
“You are about to tell me I can’t come.”
“You cannot come.”
“I KNEW IT.”
The portal behind him crackled softly while red light spilled across the apartment walls. Somewhere far inside it, distant voices echoed faintly through smoke and darkness.
My demon stepped closer, lowering his voice slightly. “Hell is not safe for you.”
“You literally wrote COME GET ME on my wall.”
“That was utterly reckless.”
“That sounds like a YOU problem.”
For the briefest moment, the corner of his mouth twitched before he smoothed the expression away again, and the sudden realization of how much I’d missed seeing that nearly annoyed me enough to start a fight. Judging from the look in his eyes, my demon noticed anyway.
His expression softened briefly before his eyes dropped toward the hoodie still hanging oversized around my shoulders. Something about seeing me wearing it seemed to affect him more than he wanted it to.
Unfortunately, I noticed that too, and the way his expression shifted afterward made the entire atmosphere between us painfully awkward.
Nina took one look at both of us and gagged dramatically. “Oh, this is painful. You're both down catastrophically.”
“We are having a serious conversation,” my demon replied calmly.
“You kissed her in a demon attack hallway.”
“That was also serious. But your sneaking habit was not .” My demon retorted to her.
I covered my face. “Please stop helping.”
My demon's attention returned to me, and this time the exhaustion in his expression slipped through the cracks.
“You should not have opened the portal,” he said quietly.
The softer tone hurt more than the arguing did. I crossed my arms tighter across myself. “You should not have left.” His eyes stayed on mine for a long moment after that, and the silence between us was too heavy to ignore.
Then quietly, almost to himself, he admitted, “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Chapter 15
Eva POV
I missed hearing his voice say quite devastating things far more than I wanted to admit. Before I could answer, another voice echoed from somewhere inside the portal behind him.
“Oh this is disgusting.”
Both of us turned to the newcomer.
Another demon leaned casually against the edge of the glowing portal like he’d been standing there watching the entire conversation unfold for entertainment purposes. He was unsettlingly similar to my demon in the deeply unfair way attractive siblings usually did.
Same dark eyes. Same horns. Same sharp features. Only this one was significantly more annoying.
The stranger pointed dramatically at my demon. “You disappeared for weeks and THIS is why?”
My demon answered instantly. “Leave.” The stranger ignored him completely and looked toward me instead. Then toward the duffel bag near my feet. Then back toward my demon again. Silence.
“…You let a HUMAN pack for Hell?”
“In my defense,” I said carefully, “ I was going through a rough phase.”
Behind me, Nina already betrayed me. “She cried into his hoodie yesterday.”
I turned toward her in absolute horror. “WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT.”
The stranger beamed. “Oh my God this is serious serious.”
“I’m going to kill both of you,” my demon said calmly.
Nina leaned closer toward me. “Wait. He has brothers?”