All The Wrong Signs
What Did You Do

It took everything in me to keep going toward Lakyn’s shop and not turn around and run right back to Blaze. If I didn’t think he was just toying with me, I would have done it.

As I made my way to Lakyn’s, I kept turning, expecting for Collin to pop back up at any given moment. He was cocky and I’m sure after that whole ordeal he would have realized that he would need to get me alone.

I had no idea what Collin had really come to the house wanting. It couldn’t have just been the dogs. While I did think he was vindictive enough to try to take them from me, I also couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been after something more.

When I rushed into Lakyn’s shop breathing heavy, she looked up at me. “So I guess you still have a demon chasing you.”

I nodded, making my way closer to the counter where she sat reading a book. “He’s at my house at the moment, but yes, he is still around.”

I debated on whether I should tell her about Collin, but decided against it. I’m surprised the girl still talked to me at all. Everything that I had told her was a lot to process, and I knew how crazy it all sounded.

“Well, lucky for you, I figured out a temporary fix. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner. I mean, you summoned him.” Before I had time to comprehend what she was talking about, Lakyn grabbed my hand and marked a huge x over Blaze’s sigil.

My entire world went quiet with the realization of what she had done and before I could even take another breath, it was like an explosion happened inside of my head.

Panicking, I spit on my hand, trying to get the mark off, but I only managed to smear some of the ink. “Laykn, what did you do?”

Lakyn looked confused. “You just needed to break the seal. If you want him back, all you have to do is call to him.”

Grabbing a tissue, I put several pumps of hand sanitizer on it, rubbing my tattoo almost raw. It stung. My tattoo was still too fresh. I wanted to scream at her. She knew I didn’t know his name.

Didn’t she?

This should have been what I wanted, but I felt his loss immensely. I could feel without a doubt in my mind that he would be gone when I made it back to my house. Teras ran down my face and I knew she wouldn’t understand.

I left, running from her shop like the devil himself was after me. I shouldn’t have left him. I had promised to help him.

Would he think I had sent him back on purpose? He would hate me.

Blaze, a demon prince, had held me while I cried. Had protected me when he knew I was afraid and what thanks did he get? Me sending him back to the prison he was so desperate to escape.

When I made it back to the house, it was earliest quiet the moment I opened the door.

“Blaze?” I called back.

Nothing.

Luna and Shadow walked into the room excited to see me, but I couldn’t replace the usual cheerful voice I usually greeted them with.

I looked down at my hand. My tattoo was red, the vicious scrubbing I had done to get the permanent marker off had inflamed my skin. How could she? She didn’t even ask.

Walking to the living room, I sank down in the first chair I came to. It was the one Blaze always liked to sit in. My tears were now coming so fast, I felt like I was blind, my vision blurry.

How did I get him back without knowing his name? The sigil alone wasn’t enough.

I had said it once. How had he been able to reach me? Would he be able to again?

Losing Blaze was a hard blow. I lost everything I cared about. Even though I didn’t want to admit it, the jerk had grown on me.

I tried to tell myself that Blaze deserved whatever prison he had landed himself back into. Demon princes were evil. He was an evil person.

Only it didn’t work. Even if he was evil, he had been there when I needed him.

I tried to reason with myself and point out that I hadn’t known him long enough to feel any kind of sorrow for him. In fact, I had tried myself to banish him away.

Closing my eyes, I tried to think long and hard about what his name could be. If I had said it once, it had to be locked somewhere in my memory. If I thought back, it would come to me.

It didn’t.

The night I summoned him, I had been drunk. Had my altered brain chemistry helped him breakthrough to me?

Demons usually only attacked the weak. He had come to me in my most vulnerable state.

“I’m so sorry, Blaze,” I whispered into the air. “I will replace a way to get you back.”

****

Blaze’s POV

The fucking witch had done it.

She had repaid my generosity with deceit. I didn’t have to step in when her ex-husband tried to barge into her house. I knew what the fucker wanted, and it wasn’t the dogs.

Petra was my only hope. I had no clue if being sent back here would erase her memory of me again.

I doubted the little witch even knew what the hell she had done. When she had left, it wasn’t because she wanted to see her friend. It was because she needed away from me.

Gritting my teeth, I cussed myself for offering the she devil any kind of comfort. I was a fucking demon prince, not some pathetic human. Her tears had no effect on me.

I should have let the bastard rape her.

My fist clenched at the thought of him touching her. I would fucking kill him. I had protected her from a fate far worse than she even realized and she ran away to vanquish me?

It made no sense, but then again, humans rarely did.

They thought with everything but their brain.

I had let her innocence cloud my judgment. I had been nice to her, and this is what it got me. If I ever got out again, I would shred her feelings to bits and leave her to soak up her own tears.

This was why I hated humans. Demons betrayed each other all the time. It was almost to be expected, but with her I had expected so much more.

I had been stupid enough to be hopeful that she could help break my curse.

Looking around at my prison, I tugged at my chains, feeling the familiar clink of them. The rotting meat on the floor was only more evidence that the idiot Kyler hadn’t even noticed my disappearance.

Fucking witch.

Witch Bitch

I could almost see her standing in front of me. Arms crossed, a frown on her face. She was thin, too thin. She barely ate. In fact, all she really did was sleep and occasionally type on her laptop.

She was depressed.

Had that been why I had been able to reach her so easily?

I tried to reach out to her again, but there was no connection. The sigil was still intact. I could feel that, but I had not bonded with her in any way to break through again.

It took blood. A combining of our blood. Something I’m sure the little witch would never allow. To be tied to a demon wasn’t something most humans ever wanted to experience. It wasn’t something demons gave up freely, either. It couldn’t be forced.

The Wumbert’s had tried and failed several times over the course of my imprisonment. If I rejected the bond, then there was no bond, no matter how badly they wanted it.

I should have told her my name. She didn’t even know what she was doing. What harm would hit have caused. Even if she had vanquished me, she wouldn’t have known what to do with my name besides call me back to her.

The other witch, the friend she visited, was this her doing?

I was almost certain when Riley left, she wasn’t thinking of sending me away. In fact, I’m pretty sure she didn’t even want to leave.

I growled, pulling once again at my chains. That witch better hope I never get out of this prison. I wasn’t a forgiving kind, and she had betrayed the fragile trust we had built.