Page 60 of Devils Don’t Deal

He smiled back at me and bowed regally before gesturing to the stairs. “I await you breathlessly.”

For a second, I almost kissed him, but instead, I skipped up the stairs to my room to dress.

The packages of all the clothing my personal shopper had gotten for me lined the walls. Half a dozen ball gowns that looked like spun sugar and frosted macarons were already hung up.

I grabbed the prettiest, frothiest one, and put it on, spinning in delight as all the layers slid around my legs. So soft. So silky. So light and glorious! And it glowed! And little silk butterflies perched here and there, slowly flapping their glowing wings.

Once I was ready, I squeezed my rabbit one last time then opened the door to find my devil waiting in an indigo suit and silver vest with his pocket chains and watches tucked inside. On his head a top hat perched behind his small obsidian horns.

“You look dashing,” I said, trying not to stare at him like a lunatic. He was just so delicious and perfect.

His eyes glowed as he studied me. “And you look like magic and beauty come to life. You are so utterly enchanting.” A frown creased his brows, before he kissed my hand then tucked it into his arm. “And now we’ll dance until dawn.”

“Thank you. This is the best birthday I could’ve had…”

“Without your mother. Perhaps she’s here with you, just out of sight.”

I smiled and let him lead me through the door and into Wonderland.

We danced with other guests dressed in gowns that glowed, sparkled, or smoked. No one cut in, but we did take breaks between songs to go to the long table in an alcove filled with sparkling drinks and dizzying desserts.

“None of them compare to yours,” the devil said, picking up a piece of meringue and feeding it to me.

I sighed happily as the lemon silk dissolved on my tongue. “Their technique is better than mine, but what I lack in skill, I make up for in baking magic.”

“Everything about you is magic,” he murmured, drawing me back into the dance.

He felt like golden light and happiness, like home and family, like good and right. How had it happened? Well, he was so much of everything I’d never known I’d always wanted. And I’d snuggled his soul every night for ages.

We danced, drank, ate, and danced, until the stars hanging in the dome above us faded and pale gray light spread its fingers down the glass.

A bell gonged then the devil danced with me to the edge of the floor. He released me with a sigh and walked beside me out the doors, to the stairs that stretched up forever. I was suddenly exhausted and couldn’t possibly take a single step.

I sat down, undid my shoes, and slumped against the flower-studded rail, the metal sharp against my back but not sharp enough to make me move.

“Miss Charles, are you all right?”

I looked up at him and shook my head. “I’ve fallen.”

He gave me a quizzical look as he toed the shoes I’d kicked off. “I distinctly saw you sit.”

“Not on the stairs. Through the rabbit hole.”

He raised a brow while his eyes sparkled and his lip curled in a devious smirk. “Ah. Wonderland has finally gone to your head. I was worried it might. And now you’re going to start growing and shrinking at random. One thing, while you’re in the Wonderland state of mind: never follow any rabbits.”

“Particularly ones with pocket watches?” I snagged one of his watches out of a pocket and opened it, frowning at the hands as they went around the pale, cracked face. The watch was old, but it still kept perfect time.

He unclasped the hook from his vest and let me have it then crouched on the bottom step beneath me, leaning on the rail all indolent and lazy. “That is the watch that stops time. You have to will it so, but since you can open my doors, you can probably operate my watches.”

I cocked my head as I studied him. “Why would I want to stop time? It sounds like a terrible waste of magic.”

“It could be helpful to you sometime.”

I raised a brow and leaned over him. “For instance, when I want to stop the dawn from coming?”

He gazed up at me, eyes sparking gloriously alive. “Why would you want to do that? Dawns are notoriously well-liked.”

“Not by the people who want to dance forever.”