Page 61 of Let Me Win You

“I need your help, Avar.”

“No.” He shook his head adamantly. “No ring. No potion. Don’t even ask.”

“It’s not for me.”

He paused his stare on me in bewilderment. “For whom then?”

“For a human woman I brought to Purgatory while you were gone.”

The feelers of Avar’s beard flared up in agitation.

“Oh for the love of all that’s holy, you actually did it! You went ahead and did exactly what I told you not to do. Why? Because I have Maddy, and you just couldn’t suffer that, could you?”

“It had nothing to do with Maddy. Well, it stopped having anything to do with her the moment I laid my eyes on Nicole.”

“So, you brought her here? And now what?” He stared at me expectantly.

“She wants to go back home.”

“No surprise there. Poor woman. Where is she?”

“At Gul’s. He warded his place from me. I can’t even see her. But I promised her to take her home when you returned to Purgatory. I need the potion so that I can fulfill my promise. Whatever you want from me in return, just ask, and I’ll do it.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, giving me an unimpressed look. “So, you don’t like her anymore and want to get rid of her? Is that it?”

“No. It’s not it at all. I love her,” I blurted out.

The moment I said it, I knew it was true. I loved Nic with every fiber of my being. I’d do anything to make her happy. I’d sign a thousand-year servitude contract with Avar just to give her what she wanted.

“Youwhat?” He nearly choked on the word.

“I love her. Why is it so hard to believe? You love Madison, don’t you?”

“But you can’t say you love somebody just because you want what Maddy and I have.”

“I don’t want what you have. I want exactly what Nicole and I have built in the little time we’ve had together. I wish for it to grow and bloom. But for that, we both need to be in a betterplace, and for Nicole that place is not Purgatory. I love her so much that I want her happy no matter the cost. I love her so much that I want her free, even if that means I may lose her.”

Avar propped his hands on his hips, staring at me for a long moment. I held his stare, hiding nothing.

“Interesting,” he finally said. “Of all my brothers, somehow, I never imagined it’d be you to fall in love, but here we are. Well, the wrong you did to her needs to be righted. If she wants to go back, I’ll give her the potion.”

He headed up the path with the glass cabinets on both sides that displayed the many items of his humongous collection.

I followed him to the cabinet with a glass carafe inside. It contained the familiar burgundy liquid—the transcendence potion that allowed both humans and sins to travel back to the world of mortals.

Avar took the carafe out, then produced a small vial from a silver box inside the cabinet.

“How are you going to give it to her if Gul warded his place against you?” he asked, pouring some of the potion into the vial. “Why did he do it, anyway? Have you two had a fight or something?”

I rubbed the back of my neck.

“It’s a long story. Let’s just say he believes Nicole belongs to him.”

“And you’re convinced she’s yours?”

“Iwanther to be mine. But it’s her choice to make.”

“Well, I’m not getting between Gul and you. I don’t know enough about this situation to take sides. But if the woman wants to go home, she should. Do you know how to give this to her?” He handed me the vial with the potion, then lifted a finger in warning. “And don’t you ask me for a ward breaker. I’m not lending it out to anyone anymore. Not after Charity and her posse broke into my house and vandalized this place.”

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