Page 124 of Demon's Bane

Back in Rhett’s cabin.

Sitting in his armoire, beside that big bed of his piled high with furs, the only place in the entire cabin with any warmth in it. The only place that makes it feel even remotely like a home.

Allie’s voice snaps me out of that spiral as she steps back into the room.

“I’m going to have Felix portal you back. I’m not so great at portalling anyone but myself over long distances yet, and especially not in the human realm. He can get you to that little park outside Beech Bay, the one with all the trees that will keep him hidden, if you’re alright to walk home from there?”

I nod, and Allie hesitates for a moment before she continues.

“What do you want me to tell Rhett?”

Another twist of my gut, pain and doubt stabbing deep. “Tell him the truth. He’s got a glamour, and he can portal himself there. He knows where to find me when he wants to.”

Ifhe wants to.

The last coherent memory I have of him sticks in my mind. Fucking me like it was the last time he’d ever get to touch me. So much devastation in his expression.

“I just need some time to think,” I rasp, uncertainty sitting heavy in my chest.

“And what about… after that?” Allie asks, and the spark of hope in her expression makes me feel even worse.

“I don’t know.”

It’s as honest as I can be. Because I don’t have any answers. Don’t know how to reconcile any of it. And after only knowing Rhett for… what? Three weeks? Has it even been that long? Despite what the Goddess might have planned for us, that doesn’t mean the very human part of me can make any kind of sense out of it.

“How did you do it?” I ask. “How were you okay with leaving everything to come here?”

“Simple. I wasn’t.”

I huff a surprised laugh at that, the sound of it a little rusty.

“There was the whole ‘saving the realms’ thing, which did put it into perspective a bit,” she goes on. “But honestly? I was terrified. And sad. And angry. And confused.”

“But it’s better now?”

“It is,” Allie says. “But that doesn’t mean it has to be what you choose.”

“No? Does the bargain go both ways? Could a demon live in our realm?”

With a slight flush rising on her cheeks, Allie’s shoulders slump and she scrubs a hand down the side of her face. “I should know, shouldn’t I? Being the one who cast it. And… maybe? I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. But, fuck, I really am going to have to go back and talk to Esme, aren’t I?”

“Sorry about that,” I say, grimacing on her behalf.

We lapse into silence again at the enormity of everything brewing between the two realms. The volatility of the Veil. The lingering unknowns of this new bargain. What the hell it’s going to mean for witches and demons and humans and the rest of the thirteen realms waiting out there.

Before we can say anything else, though, Felix appears in the doorway.

“One demon courier, as requested, ready to deliver a witch back to the human realm,” he says with a wide smile and a brief bow of greeting.

Allie pulls me into a hug. “I know we’ve said it before, but I have to say it again. This isn’t goodbye for good.”

“Of course it’s not,” I whisper, hugging her back. “Not by a long shot.”

And, with nothing left to do and Felix waiting, I swallow past the rest of my dread and indecision as I let Allie go, and take a deep, steadying breath.

“I’m ready to go home.”

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