Page 48 of Demon's Heart
He stared at it blankly, not even waking the screen.
The sensation of unreality he’d had when he woke in Dante’s living room was gone, but something else had nagged at him the whole car ride across the city.
He rubbed the center of his chest, his eyes stinging. Fuck. He closed them tight, willing the gathering moisture to disappear.
He wanted to go back to Dante’s, crawl into his lap, and not feel alone.
Why was he being like this? He didn’t need Dante. Too many things had changed, and he wanted to go back to this morning or earlier that evening before he and Dante went to look at the tidepools.
But he couldn’t go back.
He opened his eyes and unlocked his phone, scrolling through his favorite social media. The posts rolled by, blurrythrough his unshed tears. Ollie scrolled and scrolled. Everything he read dragged him down. People were mean, saying stupid things. Others were insufferably happy, everything too perfect to be believable. He hated all of it.
The apartment door banged open and shut. “Ollie?” Harper’s frantic voice called.
Ollie looked up in time to see Harper rush into the living room.
“Ollie!” Harper dropped onto the couch beside him and engulfed Ollie in his arms. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.” Ollie wrapped his arms around Harper, afraid to let go. He was a total mess and didn’t want Harper to see, even though he must have already.
“I was out with Ash. Dante told him what happened, and I got home as soon as I could.”
“Oh.” Ollie swallowed. Phantom hands tightened on his neck, and he lost the will to speak.
Harper pulled back, and Ollie wiped his eyes, looking at his lap. “What can I do?” Harper asked.
“Magic me back to this morning?” Ollie cut Harper a look and forced a smile, but it felt all wrong.
Harper’s face crumpled. “I can’t. But I can make you something to help you sleep.”
Ollie sat up a little straighter. “Like a magic sleeping pill?”
“More like a potion. They’re kind of my thing.” He shrugged, a hint of something bashful in the motion. “Brewing and selling potions is my actual job.”
“You sell potions?” That was fascinating and much more distracting than Ollie’s phone. “How? Where? I have so many questions.”
Harper’s face lit up. “The shop I work at is an apothecary. It’s run by a witch, and we cater to the magic community more than humans. It’s not a novelty shop like I told you it was. That’swhy I was so vague about its location and who I worked with. I didn’t want you to get too interested and stop by. Sorry I lied.”
Ollie couldn’t have cared less. “How could you not lie? I’d have said you were full of shit if you’d claimed you could do magic.”
“True.” Harper’s lips twitched. “I was planning on telling you about being a witch eventually. After we’d been friends longer. Not that I doubted our friendship would last, but since we haven’t known each other long, it seemed best to wait before revealing something so big.” Harper’s face creased with concern. “I want you to know I wouldn’t have lied to you forever.”
Ollie’s chest warmed. “It’s really okay, Harper. Honestly, I’d rather have waited and found out that way.”
A shadow passed over Harper’s face, his features twisting in anger like Ollie had never seen. “Of course you didn’t want to find out this way. I can’t believe Lucifer tried to kill you.”
Lucifer’s whispered words filled Ollie’s mind and tears prickled at the corners of his eyes. The warm feeling in his chest vanished. “I don’t get why he even cared about me enough to hurt me. If he’s after Dante and Ash, the whole thing on the beach makes no sense.”
Why would Lucifer think Dante loved him? They’d been hanging out, not even standing close together. Why try to kill him because of love?
As he ran through the events, something snagged his attention that he hadn’t considered before. Dante had called Ollie his mate before he’d needed to save Ollie. He’d screamed it at Lucifer.
It didn’t make sense. Ollie hadn’t been Dante’s mate yet. But was that why Lucifer had whispered in his ear and ripped him apart? If so, why did Dante think Lucifer seeing them become mates after the attack would make him leave Ollie alone?
The sensation of blood spilling from his gouged-out throat cut through Ollie. He shuddered. “I don’t want to think about what happened at the beach ever again.”
Harper squeezed Ollie’s hand. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
