Page 76 of Devils Don’t Deal

“I just want you to stop making me eat dinner with the fairy king,” I whimpered.

She smiled maliciously then raised her wand, but before she finished the spell, the macarons did their work, releasing an incredibly potent sleep spell, and she was sliding to the bottom of the lounge, snoring.

Rawley was asleep the next moment, pulling me down with her heavy body.

I pried her hand off then crept quietly, stepping over fallen bodies until I reached the door standing in the middle of the room where I’d come in.

I shoved through and stepped out into my bedroom.

I took a shaky breath then collapsed onto my bed, clinging to the rabbit as tightly as I could, then let myself drift off into the macaron dreams.

When I woke up, someone was knocking on the front door. I was groggy as I pulled myself upright, and the rabbit’s eyes glowed while I hesitated. Did I take him with me or leave him here? How could I face the fairy king without something to hold onto? Without some comfort and courage?

I picked up the rabbit and went down the stairs, taking every step slowly. My dad wasn’t in the kitchen or the front. There through the glass was the daffodil fairy, looking every inch insulted by my existence.

I stepped outside and locked the door behind me, not saying anything to him while I walked toward the car.

“What’s in the box?”

“I brought dinner,” I said, feeling empty and anxious. If I failed to get the devil his heart, without the enchantress’s clockwork contraption, he’d die, and it would be all my fault. Also, if I failed, I would die, and that wasn’t the happiest thing in the world.

“You think he’ll eat what you made?”

“It’s for me, not him.”

He sniffed then opened the door for me. I slid in, and he followed, glaring when my shoulder accidentally brushed his.

“Sorry.” I scooted away from him.

He rolled his eyes. “Drive.” Then to me, “Why do you look so terrible?”

The car pulled out while I slid against the backseat. “I get anxious. Don’t let it bother you.” I was also exhausted, wearier than I’d thought possible from all the magic, and from carrying around the devil’s heart. Why was it so heavy? Or why did it make me weak? Shouldn’t his heart make me light? Maybe he had a metaphorically and literally heavy heart. Maybe I needed to lighten it up.

“As if it would. And you brought the rabbit this time. You’re really clinging to him. Did something happen? Did something threaten you? You belong to the king now. He won’t let anything else touch you.”

I shivered. “I know.”

“Ah. You finally understand how much you’re going to suffer.”

“Is he really impossible to defeat?” I stared at him.

He smiled, showing his sharp teeth. “Of course. I wouldn’t follow someone who was possible to defeat.”

“But I’m impossible.”

“I found her.”

I blinked at him. “My mother?”

“No, the oracle who told your mother how to destroy the fairy king.”

I stared at him. “What?”

He leaned closer, pretty eyes and smile at odds with the words. “You think she loved you? You think she took a potion so that she’d get pregnant with a goblin? She seduced him, used him to stay alive so she could accomplish her vengeance. But the ingredients she sought all over the world to create the potion that would give her the strength to defeat the fairy king were just a joke to the oracle. You see, she had the ridiculous idea that what your mother needed to defeat the fairy king was something else to focus on other than revenge, something to displace her obsession. You weren’t what would give her the power to defeat him. You were a distraction.”

I stared at him. “The oracle? She told my mother how to make a potion that would make her powerful enough to defeat the fairy king, but it just got her pregnant? That is weird. You’d think that I’d be harder to create than the king would be to kill. What a weird oracle. Aren’t they supposed to be honest?”

He shrugged. “She’s dead now.”