Page 85 of Demon Heart: The Complete Series

ROMAN

B utterfly stared at me.

“Is it finally happening?” I asked. “And why am I sparkling?”

“Una did this.” He went to move closer to me.

Xavier blocked him. “No.”

The demon didn’t try using his power over me.

I tested my body, calling Synth to my hands. It appeared, as it normally did. “What the hell?”

The other Xavier and Tanith stood nearby, watching.

“This is your dust, right?” I asked Butterfly.

“Yes.”

“Is it ending magic?”

“I have no idea. I am more concerned with how you are alive and what Una has done to you. If she meant to destroy the device, then I think she misjudged her skill here.”

“There’s no device in there,” Xavier said, bent over to get a good look at the hole in my chest.

“It must have changed your body, granted you some form of immortality,” Butterfly said to me.

Whoa. “I mean, that’s a good theory.”

“It could be temporary. I have to run tests.”

“No!” Xavier barked. “You’re not touching him again.”

The red energy in my hands sputtered out. I gasped, the rest of my magic breaking like glass inside me. My knees gave out. Xavier caught me, holding me steady.

“What happened?”

“My magic…” Deep breath. “My magic just died.”

Butterfly lifted a hand, his dust becoming gray ash, his outfit unraveling from his body inch by inch. “My power…”

Activity in my chest. I bent over, trying to get a look. “What’s happening?”

Xavier went to his knees without a word, watching the hole.

“Be careful,” I breathed. “Might be another explosion.”

“It’s…”

“What?”

“I…”

Darcy jumped onto the demon’s shoulder, getting a look for himself. “Good God!”

“What is it?”

“The dust. It’s making a heart.”

“What?”

“Ventricles, veins, all that stuff. Healing you…wow.”

A half-naked Butterfly came closer, bending to look for himself. “It is building you a heart.”

I tried to see, but my bones knit together, the skin closing over. As good as new.

“I can’t shift!” Tanith yelled, still in her large snake form.

The other Xavier was in his spinneret form, a face like thunder. “What have you done, witch?”

I sparkled as if I’d fallen into a vat of glitter. “I don’t understand.”

“Una broke the device with her interference,” Butterfly said, his outfit almost gone. “Potentially altering you into something beyond expectation. How fascinating.”

“I’m glad you’re getting so much joy out of this,” I sniped.

“I can’t shift,” Tanith complained again. “I cannot feel my magic.”

“Neither can I,” my Xavier said, his eyes white, his body in its full humanoid form.

“Take me home,” Past Xavier demanded. “This is a terrible nightmare.”

“The device worked,” Butterfly said. “In the most unexpected way.” He lifted his head to the falling sparkles.

“In the wrong time.”

“The time period doesn’t matter now. Time is changed. I won.”

No way. I wouldn’t swallow that.

“Can you feel your time magic?” Butterfly didn’t look at me, twirling his fingers through the dust.

“No. I don’t feel any magic inside me.”

No inner sound offered me information this time. My power seemed cold, more alien this time.

Wrong.

Hello? Anyone in there?

“You are of the dust,” the fluttery wanker added. “Tied to it. I must explore this.”

Meaning what? And how could he be so calm?

My panic began to spike. Magic really was dying. Demon, witch, time. Going, going, going, gone. Whatever forms these demons in the snow were in, they were stuck like it.

What about the rest of this realm? My realm? I’d seen streams of the dust shoot off everywhere.

Oh, God.

“But this dust must be magic, right?”

Butterfly didn’t answer me.

As the final piece of Butterfly’s outfit vanished, the mason jar containing a piece of time rolled onto the snow.

He picked up the jar. “The world is changed.” He smiled. “I did it.”

Darcy jumped off Xavier’s shoulder. He rolled in the snow, coming to a stop flat on his belly. “I feel strange, Roman.”

“We need to get you warm.”

I went to pick him up. He went from rat to naked man in a millisecond, flat on his belly.

A man with fair, sun-kissed skin pointing his arse in the air.

He yelped, scrambling to his feet, skinny chest covered in snow.

Curly, shoulder-length honey-blond hair fell over his angular face.

He pushed it back, brown eyes wide with as much shock as I gave him.

“Roman?”

“Darcy?”

He patted himself, shivering. “I…I’m human again.”

“So…” I cleared my throat. There were naked men everywhere. “So that’s what you look like.”

I’d never once considered the benefit of no magic giving my bestie his human life back.

His mouth quirked at the corner. “My feet are freezing.”

“Such beauty,” Butterfly said, his attention snared by my not so little buddy.

Darcy’s brow pinched. “You what?”

Butterfly’s posture changed. He hunched his shoulders, bowing his head. “I am sorry.”

“Did he really just say that?” Darcy asked me.

“He did.” It was a bit too late for apologies.

“I wouldn’t worry about that right now,” Xavier cut in.

“Why?” us besties asked at the same time.

“The ice is beginning to crack.”

Without the demonic magic to keep it sealed, a series of loud cracks followed, the surface bobbing.

Ready to release the sleeping demons.

Ready to change everything.

“Oh, shit.”

The ice around the part of the shore closest to us cracked, a head adorned with a silver crown breaking out of the water. Wet, black hair clung to a beautiful face.

The face of Ismael.

He crawled from the freezing water, hands clawing at the snow.

“No…” my Xavier whispered.

“Ismael!” Past Xavier cried, running over to help him to his feet.

“He’s here. He’s here. Here’s here.” Tanith broke down into tears. “Our Ismael is back.”

The crowned demon straightened his spine, leaning on Past Xavier for support. Dripping wet, shivering in soggy silver robes threaded with diamonds.

“Xavier?” he said through chattering teeth, white eyes glancing between the two versions of his lover. “You…”

Another monarch crawled from the ice. A queen with red hair and dark copper skin, eyes white fires in her oval face. “We are free…”

“Shit…” I muttered, ready to puke at the sight of another one.

“You did this to me,” Ismael said, a rage as cold as this demonic level filling his tone. “You put me in the lake.”

“No—”

But he glowered at my version of the sexy spider. “ You are a traitor.”

“Not me!” Tanith hissed. “I tried to stop him.”

“You didn’t try hard enough.”

That shut her up.

Ismael held up his hands, scrutinizing them. “There is no magic.” He turned his eyes to the falling dust. “Magic is gone.” He smiled, looking at me. “How interesting. And I remember you, Roman. The witch who came to the past.”

Oh. Shit. The timeline had gone wonky.

Shivers rolled through my body in warning, a desire to run like hell making my feet itch. This Ismael wasn’t warm like the other one I’d met.

More demon kings and queens arrived on the shore. Shivering. Lining up in an army of scary might. All seriously pissed off, as you would be after being trapped in a frozen lake.

“Why do you sparkle, witch?” Ismael asked.

Fuck.

He looked me up and down. “You affect the magic.”

Time to run.

“Butterfly?” he said.

The demon didn’t respond.

Ismael glanced left and right at the monarchs gathering either side of him. “I think there is mischief afoot.” He lunged forward, grabbing Past Xavier by the neck. “My love.” They kissed, making my insides hurt with stupid envy.

Past Xavier wrapped himself around the king, kissing him on the cheek.

“My love who loves me,” Ismael said. “Unlike you.” He pointed at Present Xavier.

“I will never leave you,” Past Xavier responded. “I would never kiss a witch or any other mouth. You are all I need.”

“How do we stop them with no magic or lake?” I whispered to Present Xavier.

The temperature felt like it was starting to rise.

“Do not whisper!” Ismael boomed, pointing a finger at Xavier again.

“You did this to me.” He dropped his hand.

“I don’t fully understand what’s going on here, as I didn’t back then.

But I know you failed to save me, Xavier.

You did not fight for our love, nor take the opportunity to set me on a different path.

You were handed the gift of time and yet you still gave your hearts to this witch.

” A wicked grin. “Never mind. Our time has come again. A time for vengeance. A time for something new.”

The other monarchs roared their support, a booming crash of voices strong enough to shake the ground and the sky.

Ismael’s wicked grin morphed into cruel delight, eyes widening with terrifying menace.

Oh, shit.

Definitely time to run.

Dealing with one crazy monarch was bad enough.

Dealing with a bounty of demonic ones was next level.

Give me Margarite any day!

The red-haired demon queen gasped just before her head exploded.

My body puffed into glittering particles, sucked away into the sky, whizzing through the air at sickening speed.

Before I could vomit or even scream, I puffed back together in a dark room lit by candlelight.

Margarite hunched over the candle, muttering to herself.

I staggered forward, my head spinning. “What the fuck?”

She looked up. “Roman?”

I tried to piece this together. “What time is this?”

“I have no clock.” She got to her feet, most of her features hidden by shadows. “I sit in this room and wait. All I’m allowed to do is wait.”

Okay. We were in the present time. But this was impossible. Magic was dying, and this move had to be magical.

Someone hand me a fucking clue!

“How did you get in here?”

“Good question.”

I’d thought about Margarite, then the demon queen’s head went pop, my feet landing here.

Yeah, made complete sense.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Margarite said, moving closer. “You can be the first.”

I rubbed at my temples, a little on the woozy side. “The first?”

“The first from my list to die.”

Margarite lunged at me, screaming.

I jumped back, dodging her with a spin to the left.

“My crown is gone!” she howled, coming at me again.