the spell—but she kind of agreed. Jenny Bell didn’t seem so great anymore.
Poppy picked up a red pencil, shading in what she’d just drawn.
She paused and studied the drawing. Pretty good. Sighing, she set the book aside. Then she headed to the kitchen for another cup of coffee.
In the hallway, she could hear her sister and the girls talking quietly in Daisy’s room. They all had been very reserved around her these days, clearly remorseful about what had happened.
Poppy considered speaking to them, in an attempt to let them know she was fine, but she didn’t.
She wasn’t fine. Not totally. But she was trying.
A demon. Killian was a demon. Leave it to her to fall for a demon. The idea should have scared her. The very idea that demons existed should have terrified her, but it didn’t. Killian might be a demon, but he was also the best man she’d ever met.
And it did explain his appearing in the apartment that first night. And why, several times, she’d overheard the word
She took a sip of her coffee. Yeah, leave it to her to fall for a demon.
But whatever had happened, Killian was gone now. She had to accept that and move on. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know how to do that. Loss was a part of her life.
And he’d probably never loved her anyway. Did demons even know how to love?
CHAPTER 37
“Daisy!” Daisy!”
Daisy stopped and turned, nearly getting run over by several other students on their way to class. Behind their glaring and muttering was Emma. She ran toward Daisy, her blond curls bouncing.
“We can bring him back. There’s a way to bring him back.”
“What?”
“Killian. We can bring him back. The new Jenny Bell book has a spell.”
Daisy made a face and shook her head. “No way. I’ve messed up enough stuff.”
“But Poppy loves him.”
Daisy shook her head again. “What if it makes things worse?”
“Can they be worse?”
“What if Killian doesn’t love her?”
Emma made a face is if Daisy was just being silly. “Of course, he loves her. He wouldn’t have gone back to”—she shot a look at the floor, which was actually above the cafeteria, a hell of sorts, Daisy supposed—“if he wasn’t her soul mate.”
Daisy wasn’t sure about that.
“It’s worth a try. But he can’t stay unless he’s willing to sacrifice something big.”
“Like what?”
Emma made a face. “He has to pick what that is for himself. But what other choice do we have? Poppy is miserable.”
Daisy sighed. “All right.”
What did she have to lose? Actually, she didn’t want to think about that.
Daisy arranged for Emma and Madison to spend the night the following Friday.
Daisy tiptoed to Poppy’s room, listening. Her light was out, and the room was quiet. She snuck back to the living room, where Madison lit several candles.
“This one is more complicated,” Daisy said, looking at the circle Emma had made on the floor with salt.
“It will be worth it,” Emma said. She brushed off her hands, excess salt flying, then reached for the book.
“Okay,” she said in a whisper. “Stand around the circle, and each hold a candle.”
The girls moved around the circle, spreading out until they were equidistant from each other. They held up their white candles.
Emma, who still held the book in one of her hands, began to read the incantation.
“To everything—turn, turn turn.”
She gestured for the girls to turn.
“Counterclockwise,” she reminded them. “Three times.”
They did, coming back to the middle.
“There is a season—turn, turn, turn.”
They rotated three times again.
“Isn’t this some old hippie song?” Madison asked, her usual skepticism in place. “I think my mom listens to this. Or maybe my grandmother.”
“Shh,” Emma hissed, but Daisy thought Madison had a point.
“There is a reason—turn, turn, turn.”
More spins.
“A purpose to all things above and below us.”
Emma raised her hands, still trying to see the book, which was now above her head.
Daisy just hoped she didn’t spill wax on her head.
“We evoke the powers of all around us to do as we bid. Gather and bring us the one we request. Energies of all, bring Killian O’Brien. And should he choose to sacrifice, then he shall receive the thing he desires most. And in doing so, happiness shall prevail.”
Daisy hoped so. Happiness was all she’d ever wanted for Poppy.
“Come, Killian O’Brien, come.”
Killian tugged off the shirt of his uniform. Another day’s work done. Nothing but an eternity more to go.
A job he was finding unbearable. Vepar could have it. Before, he’d just done his work, never thinking much about the damned souls he was escorting to their appropriate place in Hell. He never thought about who they were, or what they’d done to get there. He just did his job.
Now he often wondered what wrong choice they’d made. What they would do differently now if given a chance, if they’d realized what the outcome would be?
And he thought about the fact that he had no choices. He was created here, and he would stay here. Tortured in his own way.
He wandered into his bathroom, a white-tile-and-chrome affair, stark and cold. He turned on the shower, then turned to grab a fresh towel from a closet.
As he was about to place it on the towel rack, his vision closed in on him. Just slightly and just for a moment. He blinked.
Weird.
He turned to test the water.
Again, his vision narrowed in. Like briefly peeking through a keyhole. Grabbing for a towel, he wrapped it around his hips. Maybe he needed to go sit down for a second.
He reached out for the wall again as another wave of dizziness hit him. What was going on?
Then his vision blackened completely and his head began to spin. He flailed out his arms, feeling as if he were falling like Alice down the rabbit hole toward Wonderland.
“It’s him!”
Killian blinked and gradually his eyes came back into focus. In front of him stood …
“Daisy.” He blinked again. She was still there when he opened his eyes. “It’s really you.”
Utter joy filled him. He looked around him and saw Poppy’s apartment with its mismatched furniture and knickknacks, Madison with her haughty looks, Emma blushing as usual.
He could hug them all. But he kept searching, trying to find the one he wanted to hug first.
“Where is she?”
