Chapter Thirty
Remi and his bandmates burst through the front door, laughing at something stupid Liam said, but Remi’s laughter died when he saw Skye’s phone and laptop on the floor in the living room.
He walked over and picked them up. “Skye?” he called out, tucking the laptop under his arm and putting her phone in his pocket.
“Maybe she’s taking a nap,” West said.
Remi sucked on his lip ring, nodding absently. Dread formed a pit in his stomach as he sprinted up the two sets of stairs to his attic bedroom.
“Skye?” he said as he opened the door. He exhaled in relief when his eyes landed on her silhouette. She was staring out of his bedroom window. “Your phone and laptop were on the floor—”
“Oh,” Skye said, turning from the window. “Totally forgot about that.”
Something was off about her voice. Any relief he felt dissipated again. He closed the distance between them, laid the laptop on the bed, and rested his hands on her hips to pull her into his body. “What’s wrong?”
She twisted out of his grip, pushing on his chest to disentangle from him. “I’m not interested.”
He blinked, a little dumbfounded, but stepped back an inch. “Okay,” he said, elongating the word. An awkward beat passed. “Did something happen? You seem upset—”
“The label dropped you,” Skye said. “There’s a lawsuit against the band for plagiarism.”
Remi’s head jolted back like he’d been slapped. “What?”
“The bargain is breaking, Remi,” Skye said, opening her laptop and turning the screen toward him. “It is broken. This is just the beginning of it. It’s only going to get worse.”
“I thought it was okay—” He squinted at Skye’s email and barely saw the words. Breach of contract. Notice of termination. Legalese that he didn’t even try to decipher.
“Your soul is too powerful,” Skye said. “You have to make a deal with the Devil himself, or you’re going to lose everything.”
“I…Okay,” Remi said, shaking his head. He rubbed a hand over his forehead. Adrenaline coursed through his body. He’d never heard Skye sound so serious before. The urgency was overwhelming him. “Okay. Alright. I’ll do whatever you think I should do.”
Skye nodded vigorously. “Okay, let’s go.”
Remi reached for her hand, but she grabbed his shoulder instead. The flames of her demon magic engulfed them. His stomach dropped as the ground under his feet disappeared.
Oppressive heat greeted him first, and the tang of smoke hung heavy in the air.
Remi squinted against the flames that lit every inch of the ornate room he was in.
The ceiling was too high for him to tell where it stopped.
Rows and rows of metal holders of some kind lined the walls, but they were all empty.
Skye pushed Remi. He stumbled forward, turning around and furrowing his brows at her.
Skye nodded toward the front of the room.
Remi held a hand up to shield his eyes against the bright assault of flames.
The fire died down just enough that he could make out a smoke outline of a giant man sitting on a golden throne. Zara and Laurie stood beside him.
“He’s accepted that he and his band are worthless without your deal,” Skye said.
Remi whipped around to throw a confused look at Skye, but she kept her gaze steady on the throne. He bit his tongue and took a deep breath. He probably needed to play along with whatever act this was for the Devil, but he wished Skye would have warned him first. Maybe there was no time.
The heat was sweltering, worse than even the desert when their tour bus broke down. Sweat broke out under his arms and along his hairline.
“Good,” the Devil said.
“Bow to the flames, human,” Skye said, grabbing Remi’s shoulder and forcing him to kneel with her demon strength. His knees buckled, and the shattered glass on the ground cut into his jeans. “Now tell the Devil how pathetic you are. Beg for him to fix everything.”
Remi sucked on his lip ring, something inside of him chafing. “Why are you saying this?” he whispered.
Skye laughed. “The bargain between us is over, Remi. Beg the Devil to make you and your pathetic little band famous.”
Remi clenched his jaw. “I—”
“Lawrence, Zara, bring him to me,” the Devil’s voice rumbled through the room.
“Lawrence?” Remi chirped under his breath as the demon grabbed one elbow and Zara held the other. They both dragged him toward the throne.
Laurie scowled at him. “Shut up.”
“No need to get so testy, Laurie,” Skye said, following behind them. “I don’t have to pretend to have feelings for him anymore, and you don’t have to pretend to be jealous.”
Remi turned to her. Her eyes held none of their usual spark. She was inhuman, and sure, she wasn’t human, but Remi had never seen her display such sociopathic hollowness before.
“Good thing too. I was getting really bored playing house,” Skye said with a curled lip.
Remi’s forehead scrunched up. He couldn’t help saying, “Playing house? What the hell does that mean?”
“How you pretended to be lost in domestic bliss while living amongst that squalor and filth,” Zara said. “I will never understand.”
Remi’s eyes widened as he looked at Zara.
“Pretending?” The word was drawn out into three syllables as it tumbled from his mouth.
“I tried to warn you,” Laurie said, squeezing his arm. Remi tried to hide his wince as pain shot through his body. “We made a bet Skye couldn’t get you to fall in love with her before the end of the tour.”
Remi stumbled over his feet. As he righted himself, he glared at Laurie and didn’t see Skye’s reaction.
“Did it work, human?” Zara asked with a predatory, toothy smile. “Do you love the demon who stole your soul?”
Remi blinked, shaking his head in disbelief. He wasn’t sure what this was anymore. What game they were playing. “I…I…” This was all for the Devil’s benefit, right? Some kind of ploy.
But why hadn’t Skye told him? Why…
Skye made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. “You guys are cheating. He’s not going to say it now!”
“Like you haven’t already cheated,” Laurie said. “You feel it, don’t you, pretty boy? She compelled you into loving her, didn’t she?”
His heart dropped. A myriad of thoughts all rammed into one another in his head. He couldn’t get them under control.
“Just tell us,” Laurie said. “I’ll fix it. I’ll undo her compulsion, but you have to admit it first.”
“Compulsion doesn’t work on me,” Remi said as if he knew a single thing about demon magic.
Laurie and Zara both threw their heads back and laughed.
“And demons don’t lie either, right, Zara?” Laurie said.
“Oh, no. Never.”
“I didn’t have to compel him,” Skye said, crossing her arms over her chest with a petulant look. “He was already half in love with me when I entered his dreams.”
Remi lunged forward out of Laurie’s and Zara’s grip. “Skye,” he hissed under his breath as he wrapped his hand around her wrist. “What is this? Is this a game? You don’t mean any of this.”
She pursed her lips and peeled his fingers off her arm, holding them between her thumb and forefinger like a revolting piece of trash.
Dropping his hand, she took a step back, looked him up and down, and started slow clapping.
“Wow. He’s finally starting to get it.” She leaned forward and whispered in his ear, “It’s always been a game. ”
Remi’s eye twitched.
Skye sneered as she watched whatever was playing out on his face—Remi had no idea what that even could be—he couldn’t feel his face.
“A game,” Remi repeated.
Skye patted his cheek obnoxiously. “There. Atta boy. Now you got it.”
He walked backward, glass crunching underfoot. Despite the sweltering heat, Remi’s teeth started chattering as a cold realization sank in.
Skye tossed her hair over her shoulder. She followed his retreat until his back was pressed against the wall, empty metal jar holders caging him in from both sides.
Skye pressed her palm to the space beside his head and put her mouth to his ear.
“I played you. I’ve been playing you this entire time. And you fell for it so fucking easy.”
He grabbed the back of her neck and angled her chin up with his thumb under her jaw. Through gritted teeth, he said, “All of this? The bargain falling apart? Toying with me and my band? This was all just some game to you?”
She let a malicious smile spread across her face. “Yes,” she breathed out.
Remi made a frustrated growl in the back of his throat.
“You’re lying. You’re a dirty fucking liar!
” He gripped her hips and switched their positions, pressing her into the wall.
They were reenacting the first time she’d offered him a bargain, and he hated it.
Hated it so fucking much. “You love me. I know it. I saw it this morning in your eyes when I was inside you. I felt it. You...”
Skye averted her gaze to somewhere over the top of his shoulder.
He pounded a fist against the wall above her head. “Just look at me! Fucking look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me.”
When her eyes met his, he searched her face frantically, looking for something—some hint of affection, some proof that this was an act, that none of this was true—but they were dead. Empty. “Demons aren’t capable of love, Remi. I don’t love anyone. Least of all you.”
He’d been so blind, so willfully blind, to look past all he knew about Skye, to fall for her games just like Laurie had said he would. Just like he’d warned him.
Skye raised an eyebrow in challenge. She shook her head as she laughed at him.
A cold, malicious humor lit her face. “You really think I would fall for you? That anyone would ever fall for you? For a whiny, pathetic, washed-up singer? Our bargain failed, and now you have nothing. No record contract, no label. It’s only a matter of time before the money gets eaten up as you fight the lawsuit.
And even if you win, it will never clear your name.
No one will ever play Tilted Haze again without thinking about how you stole everything you ever got. That you have earned nothing.”