Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
“ A re you sure about this, Vi? This is a one-way trip. I don’t have the power to bring you back.” Tight lines surrounded Jax’s eyes and mouth as he looked at me. He held a visibly worried Fern’s hand as they both tried to talk me out of this.
“I’m sure. As long as you won’t get into trouble for helping me. I don’t want to ruin anything for you.” Given how angry Asmodeus was when I left him that morning, it wouldn’t surprise me if he recalled all of the demons he sent before him to punish me and my friends.
“There’s no way to know who got you there. As long as we’re careful of where we land, it’ll be okay.”
“Vi,” Fern said. She didn’t need to say anything else. I could read it all on her face. She was worried, scared. She didn’t understand and I couldn’t blame her. I hardly understood myself.
“He canceled the contract, Fern. Despite everything between us, despite trying to claim me, he let me go. Shit, he even gave me the name of the human man I was destined for.” That little tidbit had made his jealousy and anger over Logan make so much more sense. If I hadn’t done the spell, if I hadn’t brought Asmodeus into my life, I would have found my way to Logan through normal means. We’d get married and raise his daughter together, and it would have been great. I could see it play out before me easily enough.
Except, even knowing he was the one I was destined for, I felt nothing for him. That vision didn’t fill me with excitement. It made me a little sad for the person I was and the person he lost. Logan was a good human, and deserved someone who would love him and Lily with everything she had. I wasn’t that person.
I was stupidly in love with an asshole demon.
“Why can’t it be enough?” Jasmine asked, logical as always.
“You were happy without Phin,” I pointed out. “You were content in your life. Would you give him up now? Would you go back when you have him?”
We both looked toward the demon in question, his red and black form reminding me of Asmodeus. My heart clenched. I wanted to be done with this conversation. But I owed it to my friends. They deserved to know I wasn’t being impulsive and making yet another bad choice.
“It’s not the same.” Jasmine argued.
“Yes, it is. As is stubborn and bossy and overbearing but he cares for me in his own way. He tries to take care of me. He’s an absolute idiot but I love him.”
“She actually means it.” That was Clover. She was looking a little too closely at me. Let her look. I was more certain about this decision than I had been about anything else in my life. “You really love him.”
“If love is wanting to punch him in the face at the same time I want to kiss him, then yes. ”
“Sounds about right.” That was from Candy. Her dark violet eyes were alight with humor. While she was the most reserved of the group, you couldn’t help but like the demon. “Oof.”
Clover elbowed her lover in the side before leaning over to press a kiss on her cheek. They were so damn cute.
“Okay then, let’s do this.” Jax pressed a kiss to Fern’s forehead before reaching out his hand for me. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
“Wish me luck,” I said to my friends before grabbing Jax’s hand. The next thing I knew, everything went black.