Chapter 35
STELLA
Even as he fell into my arms, Damien had a smile on his face. I tried to stop him from hitting the floor, and he landed with his head in my lap. His breathing was shallow, but he was still breathing.
‘What did you do?’ I cried, clutching at his limp body.
‘I destroyed his soul. Or whatever was left of it after so many years.’ Clarissa gave me a dispassionate look. ‘You should be grateful. You’re free to go now.’
‘You can’t just do this!’ I shook Damien’s shoulders. ‘Stay with me. I’ll figure this out. I promise!’
‘Yes, very heartwarming, I can almost feel my soul growing back.’ Clarissa smirked, and the Council laughed. ‘You can go now. Take your soul and leave.’
‘I’m not leaving until you fix him!’
‘Not my problem. Enjoy your life. Maybe it’ll sting less in a decade or two.’ With a snap of her fingers, Damien and I landed in the middle of his ruined office. Bookcases upended, papers were everywhere, and nothing was comparable to the destroyed state of my heart.
In my lap, Damien was still breathing, but it was quiet and slow. Dust trickled down from the ceiling. My tears dripped onto his face. Slowly, he rubbed his thumb along my hand. ‘Don’t cry for me. I’m not sad,’ he whispered.
I sobbed harder. ‘You can’t leave now, not when I just found you!’
He smiled weakly at me, lifting his hand to wipe away a tear from my cheek. ‘It’s been a lifetime for me, Bambi.’
‘That’s not fair!’ I cried. More dust rained down on us, leaving Damien’s sweater looking like it was covered in snow. A loud crack splintered behind us.
‘I know, sweet girl, I know.’ He dropped his hand, pointing toward a tall cabinet behind his desk. ‘Your yellow sweater is in there. It probably smells more like me than you now, but I thought you might like it back. Get Archie. Go home to Grace. Live your life. I promise I’m happy.’
I couldn’t figure out how any of this was fair.
I’d lost so much. I’d only just found Damien, only just realized what it meant to find your other half, and now he was being ripped away from me.
We should’ve had forever, and then some.
I wanted to hear him laugh again. I wanted to watch him pretend to hate Archie, only to find the cat curled up on his lap in the library.
I wanted to know everything was about him, good, bad, and the in-between. He’d given up so much for so many people, and never thought twice about the consequences. ‘I can’t do this without you!’
I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, my breath coming shorter and harder.
‘D, is that you?’ Agatha opened the study door, her eyes landing on me. ‘Oh, shit, what happened?’
I clung to Damien’s hand, crying. ‘He gave up his soul for me!’
Agatha rushed over, dropping to her knees and pressing her fingers against his neck. ‘Oh D, you sweet, stupid man.’
She sat back on her heels, quiet for a moment, and locked eyes with me. ‘If I told you there was a way to save him, would you do it?’
The cracking sound grew louder, multiplying.
I froze, not daring to get my hopes up. Not yet. ‘Of course.’
‘You can share your soul with him.’
‘How… how? How would that even work? How do you even know that?’ I looked hopelessly at Agatha, the pieces falling into place at her determined face.
Everything she seemed to know and understand without me ever telling her.
The way she seemed to know what Damien needed before he said a word.
How she was always around when he happened to need her.
She watched the realization hit me, and gave a quick nod. ‘You’re not human, are you?’
She shook her head.
‘Demon?’
She brushed a stray curl off Damien’s forehead.
‘Something in-between. Like I told you when we first meant, he was never meant to be a devil. So I was sent to watch over him. I tried countless times to make him take me on, in different forms of course, just to keep an eye on him. And then he met you, and I thought that was it for him. I guess it was. Just not in the way I expected.’ She smiled up at me.
‘I should’ve known.’ I laughed even as tears poured down my face. ‘Your cooking skills were too good to be human.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
I sniffled, my tears drying. ‘Will it work?’
She nodded, and opened her mouth to speak, just as the ground beneath us trembled like the world was cracking in two.
Fist-sized pieces of ceiling were crumbling on us now, and whatever pictures still remained hanging on Damien’s study wall dropped and smashed on the floor.
‘We don’t have much time. They destroyed his soul without a replacement, and the Fringe can’t exist without a devil. ’
I grabbed her offered hand. ‘Do it.’
Agatha reached for Damien’s hand, giving me a serious look. ‘Are you sure? There’s no taking this back.’
‘It’s always been his. Is it really giving it up?’
Agatha smiled. ‘He’s in good hands with you. You’ll have to look out for him. In the human realm. He won’t know how to be human any more.’
Another rumbling of the ground and a chunk of the ceiling fell in, the fireplace crumbling away to dust.
‘Right, time is of the essence. Enough waffling from me.’
Agatha pressed our hands together, whispering words from another world altogether, words I’d never be able to imitate in a thousand years of living. It almost sounded like she was singing.
There was a soft pulling in my chest, a warmth spreading through my body. It didn’t hurt, though. It only felt right.
Another piece of the ceiling fell away. The floor was shaking ceaselessly now. The door flew off its hinges. Damien’s eyes fluttered open, he gasped, and fell back in my lap. I couldn’t be sure over the noise, but I thought his breathing came a bit easier.
‘Is it done?’
Agatha nodded, yelling to be heard over the gathering wind. ‘Take care of each other, okay?’
‘What about Clarissa?’ I screamed.
‘I’ll deal with her. She’s been power hungry for far too long.
Time someone taught her a lesson.’ Her smile made me smile.
‘In fact, I think it’s time I paid Hell a visit, a true visit, and cleaned up the mess down there.
It’s been a while since they focused on the true Balance of souls instead of being in control. ’
I chewed on my lip, thinking of everything I wanted to ask, and landing on, ‘How long do we have?’
Her smile grew as the trellises of roses whipped above our heads. Damien’s favorite. ‘It’s not an exact science, but it’ll be enough.’
Enough. I wanted to cry again, thinking about having enough time with Damien.
The wall next to us fell away, and through the barely standing doorway, Archie raced in with a frantic cry, landing squashed between myself and Damien.
Luna was only steps behind her, and gave Damien’s face a gentle lick before stepping away, standing next to Agatha.
She wrapped her arms around the beast. ‘Tell him I’ll take care of her. ’
I nodded, holding tight to Damien and Archie.
‘Close your eyes!’ Agatha called. ‘Think of home!’
I didn’t need to be told twice. I closed my eyes, clinging to Damien and Archie, and my first thought was of Damien’s arms. His smile when he watched me when he thought I wasn’t looking. Then I thought of Grace, our tiny apartment, where we were so happy, even with everything standing in our way.
There was silence. No wind. No sounds of crashing or destruction. I carefully opened one eye and then the other.
I was in the middle of a meadow, trees surrounding the edges, leaves tinted with the beginnings of fall. In the sky, only one sun proudly shone, no moon in sight.
We were back. I breathed a sigh of relief, and Archie leaped out of my arms, staring at me from a safe distance away with a baleful look.
I grabbed Damien’s arm. ‘Damien?’
He took a massive breath, coming to life all at once. He spluttered, looking to me with a wild look in his eyes. ‘Stella?’
‘I’m right here,’ I sobbed.
Damien felt at his chest. ‘But, I— Clarissa. My soul.’ He narrowed his eyes at me. ‘What did you do?’
‘The same thing you did. I saved us both.’ I attempted a smirk through my tears. ‘Just my idea involved us both staying alive.’
‘How?’
I wet my lips. ‘I split my soul in two. We share it now, I guess.’
Damien blinked and paused for a moment. ‘Agatha?’
I nodded. ‘Agatha.’
‘What about Clarissa?’ Damien’s eyes flashed, and he tried to sit up.
I pushed him back down. ‘Relax, will you? You were at death’s door thirty seconds ago. As for Clarissa, Agatha said she would deal with her. She seemed rather excited about the idea.’
‘She could never stand Clarissa. I guess she was just biding her time.’ Damien coughed out a laugh, and then was quiet for a moment, thinking. ‘I should’ve known about Agatha. She always seemed to know too much. How did I not see it?’
I shrugged. ‘Maybe you didn’t want to see it. Maybe deep down, you wanted to know someone was on your side.’
He looked around at Archie running through the meadow. ‘Luna?’
I paused. Despite him never admitting it, I knew how much the Hellhound meant to him. ‘She stayed with Agatha. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. She’ll take good care of her.’
There was a soft pink to Damien’s cheeks that had never been there before, a brightness to his eyes that had been missing before now. He was alive. The emotions rolling through Damien’s eyes were too much for me, and instead I focused on Archie, now playing with a bee.
‘I’ve never deserved you,’ he whispered.
He pulled me back to him, and I smiled softly. ‘I think you’re the only person who has ever cared enough to deserve me.’
‘I love you.’ He pressed his lips to mine in a deep kiss. ‘So. We share a soul. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across that before.’
I shrugged. ‘Agatha was kind of vague with the details. I’m surprised you don’t know more about it. Aren’t you an expert?’
‘Some things are beyond even my knowledge.’ Damien laid back on the grass, taking me with him.
‘I think it’s going to be okay.’ I held my hand up to the sky, admiring the way it moved through my fingers. ‘Although… you are human now. Technically, you have a chance at a real life. It doesn’t have to be with me. I’d understand.’
‘Bambi.’ Damien’s voice was firm. ‘Are you serious right now?’
Nerves twisted my stomach. ‘Yes?’
He shook his head, tickling my neck. ‘I told you once, and I’ll tell you as many times as you need. You’re it for me. In any lifetime. Fuck. You give up your soul for a girl, and she still doesn’t believe you love her.’
‘Shut up.’ I pushed him with a wide smile. ‘So. Want to meet my sister?’
‘I’ve never had to meet a girl’s family before. What if she hates me?’
I laughed. ‘She won’t. I love you, so she’ll love you. And as a reward, you can choose what we do next.’
‘Hmm.’ Damien nuzzled his face into my neck. ‘We have forever to decide that. Let me take a minute for it to settle in that you’re not going anywhere.’
I twisted our hands together. ‘Forever has a nice ring to it.’
His voice was muffled by my skin, but there was no mistaking the smile in it. ‘Bambi, you have no idea.’
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