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“They don’t matter.” Not right now at least. So long as she owes me favors, the two of us are inextricably connected. I’m not worried about her slipping through my grasp. No, right now I’m still worried that the demon in me will decide taking her to the Otherworld is a great idea again.

I grab Callie’s doorknob, trying to beat a hasty exit out of there.

“One final wish.”

I hesitate.Don’t rise to the bait. Don’t take the wish.Already my magic is surging, ready to make yet another deal with my mate.

So hard to resist.

“Don’t, Callie.” I’m not sure I’ll be able to say no.

She closes her eyes, her breath sighing out of her. “From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn.”

For a moment, I feel unbearable elation. My soulmate. This whole time I’ve been trying to avoid claiming her, and she ends the night by claimingme. How delightfully surprising.

In response to her words, my magic snaps out, lashing through the room. It absorbs her wish; I feel it—her desire, her intent, it’s now mine.

And I know what this means—

A deal’s been struck.

Desmond, you fucking fool. Should’ve left when you still had the chance.

She opens her eyes. For an instant she looks so hopeful it hurts.

I don’t have time to tell her that it worked; that my magic accepted her deal. That until the end of time, the two of us are bound—not just by fate, not just by the beads on her wrist, but by the oath she recited.

I’m jerked away from her, thrust into the darkness and shot out miles away.

I hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of me. Slowly, I sit up, glancing around at the endless rolling hills that surround me on all sides.

My magicbetrayedme. I didn’t accept her deal; I didn’t even think of her final words as one. But my power had. It set the terms of the bargain and bound us both to it.

It’s been a long time since something like that’s happened. I’ve known my power to be sentient, but normallyIcontrolitand not the other way around.

I suppose my control—or rather, my lack of it—is why this happened. And not only did it accept Callie’s wish before I could even process it, it set the terms of her repayment.

My stomach plummets.

I’m afraid I already know what it took.

Chapter 20

Repayment Begins

May, 7 years ago

My heart’s beenhammering in my chest since late last night.

For the thousandth time I try to materialize into Callie’s dorm room. And for the thousandth time I hit a magical wall that slingshots me back into the flat I’ve been renting in Dublin.

Gods, what has my magic done?

I try a different approach, appearing at the outskirts of the city of Peel. I move like a shadow through the city, heading closer and closer to the boarding school that houses my mate.

Peel Academy, Callie’s school, rests on the very edge of the town, surrounded on three sides by sheer cliff faces and thrashing seas. It’s tethered to the rest of Peel by a single, winding road.

I glimpse it in the distance, the coastal fog rolling between the buildings. Closer and closer I stalk, and for a few, paltry minutes, my hope soars.