Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
It smelled like ashes and caramel. I blinked, and the world spun around until I was in the butterfly garden, butterflies muted like they’d been before, but this time the bench was occupied by the devil.
His tail twitched back and forth until he looked up at me through the fall of his dark hair. Besides his small horns, he had dark wings framing his head. And he looked so young.
“What brings you to my garden?” he asked in a voice as silky as whipped ganache. Also young.
I exhaled a sigh of relief and floated toward him, but the wild and unkempt vines caught me.
“I brought you your soul.” I held up the rabbit, hoping that he’d recognize it.
I hadn’t expected the devil’s heart to look so much like him.
It made me want to burst into tears seeing him awake and beautiful.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What would I want with a soul? Who are you? Shall I crush you?”
The vines snaked around me, squeezing my limbs while I gasped and held very still, stretched from my ankles and one arm. The rabbit stayed close to me, rubbing its silky face against my neck.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t. You really don’t want a soul? What do you want?” I stared at him, longing until my throat was clogged with it.
His smile was cruel as he walked over and caught my face in his clawed hand. “I want you to tell me who you are. Let me guess. You’re the one I love?” His eyes were hard, like chips of ice, but his hand was warm. His heart? Such a weird thing for a heart to be a mini version of him.
I blinked at him then shook my head. “No, I’m not the one you love. I’m the one who loves you.”
He stared at me, just stared at me for a very long time. “I’m not saying I believe you, but why would you love a devil?”
“You taste really good,” I said before thinking it through.
Oh bother. He tasted good? Seriously? What kind of love was that?
“I mean, I’m a pastry chef, so I’m really attuned to how things taste.
It’s not as superficial as it sounds. Also, everything else about him.
You. I mean, he made dinner for me, and I really liked that.
Also kissing my forehead and tucking me in bed. ”
He studied me then shrugged. “And what do you want from me?”
I blinked at him. “Well, I’m supposed to bring the heart back to life, so the devil can wake up from his coma and take back his life. I don’t like being owned by the enchantress and the fairy king.”
He brushed his fingers over the invisible collar and curled his lip. “They collared you? And you say that you love me, but I don’t love you? Who do I love?”
I licked my lips. “I guess you loved the enchantress, but maybe you stopped after you realized she was just using you. She’s terrible.”
“No,” he said with a frown as he studied me.
“Oh, no, she’s really terrible.”
“No I don’t love the enchantress.”
I hesitated then offered, “Maybe you don’t love anyone.”
He cocked his head as he studied me slowly. “Maybe I don’t love anyone? Then why would you think I was going to help you?”
“Well, you could love yourself. It’s really healthy to care about yourself, and the devil needs his heart back in his chest where it belongs.”
“And you, do you love yourself?”
I stared at him while my own heart ached.
“I mean, I like that I’m a baker, but I have some issues with the goblin pieces of myself because I had to hide it my whole life.
Also my weight. I’m self-conscious about it.
And my ankles. But I don’t hate myself enough to let the fairy king kill me slowly for a few decades. Or touch me again.” I shuddered.
His head tilted while his eyes turned bright red then grew darker and darker and darker. “The fairy king touches you? Why?”
“Because I don’t like it. I have dinner with him while your body floats in the pool next to us, and he tells me how much he’s going to enjoy killing me once I’ve finished our deal.”
“And once the deal with the devil is completed, what will you do?”
“If the fairy king has his way, die very slowly.”
“But if the fairy king and the enchantress are defeated. What will you do once the deal is completed?”
I stared at him. “I’ll run my bakery. I don’t know. I asked the devil if he’d mind dating me for real, but then the enchantress stole him away and stuck him in a coma.”
“You would date the devil for real? Marry him? Love him forever?”
I stared into those terribly dark eyes. He was so angry.
“If he’d let me. I don’t want him to feel awkward about it.
And if he didn’t want to love me back, I’d try to find someone else who could.
I want to be happy with someone. I’ve been kind of lonely for a long time, because I couldn’t let anyone know I was a fairy-goblin. ”
He stared at me, claws running over my jaw in a way that made my skin prickle, but not terribly. “What is love?”
“It’s comfort and care.”
“Not passion and desire?”
I was pretty sure I was blushing. “I guess it can be that too, but it doesn’t have to be.”
“And which kind of love do you have for the devil?”
He said ‘the devil,’ not ‘me.’ I guess that’s what happens when you’re disconnected for so long.
I shrugged, which was awkward with the vines. “Both. You taste really good, like salted caramels. You’ve inspired a lot of my baking.”
“Baking is passion to you? Peculiar. And if he loved you back—”
“You. You’re his heart. You’d have to love me.”
He studied me for a very long time. “Do you want me to love you?”
“Of course I do, but I don’t expect it.”
“And what would you do with my love?” His touch was slightly uncomfortable, and his eyes welled with rage.
“I’d reciprocate.”
He frowned. “Specifically…”
“Well, if you showed me love, I’d show you love. And I’d try to make you happy the way you make me happy.”
“I make you happy?”
“Yes. Even though you caged my father, and you don’t have a soul, and you’re pretty immoral, I still love you.”
“Immorality bothers you? Peculiar. You are an oddity.” He finally released me then licked his claws, which had my blood on it. “You really are a goblin-fairy.”
I sniffed. “I prefer fairy-goblin, but yes. I really am. And you’re a disembodied devil’s heart. What’s your point?”
He smiled slightly while his tail twitched. “I’m actually an embodied devil’s heart. And this is my point.” The next breath, his forked tail was aimed at my chest. “Shall I kill you?”
“No. I have to try to save you.”
He blinked at me. “Why do you care?”
“Because I love you.”
“You’re stupid. You can’t beat an enchantress and a fairy king.”
“I don’t want to beat them. I just want to save you.”
“It’s going to get you worse than killed. You’ve already been collared.”
I smiled at him. “But if I’m killed before the deal is up, that will wake the devil. She has to play by his rules. And then he’ll be fine, so my death will be okay. You killing me would be much less useful.”
“So you don’t mind dying to save this devil you claim to love?”
“Of course I mind dying, but it’s less annoying.”
“Ah.” He flashed a smile with all his lovely white teeth. His canines were amazingly sharp. “And you want me to come with you then put me back in the devil’s chest? Suppose having a heart changes him in ways you dislike?”
I shrugged. “If it’s good for him, it doesn’t matter.”
“Self-sacrificing. It’s a dangerous character trait to have.”
I offered a shaky smile. “Does that mean you’ll come with me?”
The vines released me, and I fell to the long, unkempt grass.
“Or you could stay here with me.” His eyes were suddenly meltingly sweet and compelling.
I held up a hand to guard off his temptation. He was so ridiculously tempting. “Absolutely not. First, I can only hold my mini-fairy shape for so long, and I can’t hold time forever, and I need to get back to my bakery, and I need to save you so we can face reality together, not hide from it.”
“One kiss. If I like it, I’ll come with you.”
I stared at him while my skin heated and I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Hold the rabbit. Yes. That’s what I’d do. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, just a brush, but it sent a wave of beating happiness through me.
The butterflies glowed brighter blue and everything became more real and potent. The grass smelled sweet and fresh, the colors gleamed, and he smelled like heaven and my bakery.
“That’s the kiss you chose to give me?” He stared at me for a long moment before he shrugged and held out his hand. “I did like it.”
I smiled as I grasped his hand then he frowned and brushed my throat. The collar fell off, dissolving to ashes as soon as it was off my skin.
He touched the rabbit, fingers careful, eyes thoughtful as he studied the creature.
An embodied soul. “She told me she loved me. Begged me to love her. Swore with half her soul to love me forever.” He looked up into my eyes.
So sweet. So beautiful. “If you have her soul, I suppose she broke her promise. What is your plan exactly?”
I took a deep breath then smiled at him because it felt so incredibly good not to have a collar around my throat like a real slave.
“Come with me. Leave this place and come with me to the devil. He’s in a coma.
If he had his heart back, he could love me.
Not that that’s the priority. Obviously, he’d have to defeat the enchantress and the fairy king first. That’s far more important than the possibility of him loving me.
” I smiled brightly while he shook his head.
“You are a terrible liar.”
“Thank you. That suggests that I don’t have a lot of practice with deception.”
“You’re always pretending to be happy when you aren’t.” He squeezed my hand then touched my cheek, but it was a caress that made my toes curl in delight. It was still him.
I cleared my throat. “Well, I actually am happy a lot. Sometimes I jumpstart real happiness with fake happiness, but what does that matter if I end up in the right place?”
He nodded slowly, eyes pulsing in time to my heartbeat. “You’ll have to put me in his heart. Like this.” He pulled me into his arms and pressed his lips to mine.