Page 28 of Devil Wears Nada
“I mean that even if I was something otherworldly, even if I gave up immortality or power or some supernatural existence—I don’t regret it. Not for a moment.” His eyes held mine with unwavering certainty. “Whatever I was before, being here with you is better. Being human with you is worth any price I might have paid.”
The words so closely echoed what he’d told me that last night, before his memories were taken, that I felt tears spring to my eyes.
“Van,” I whispered, unable to say more.
“I love you,” he said simply. “Human or not, memories or not—I love you with everything I am. And I think I always have, even before I knew what love was.”
I broke then, pulling him into my arms and holding him as if he might disappear. “I love you too,” I managed through tears. “So much. Since the moment you fell into my life.”
We stood like that for long minutes, holding each other in the quiet of our bedroom. I felt something shift between us—not a breaking of Hell’s bargain, but a transcendence of it. Van might never fully remember his supernatural past, but his soul knew the truth of us, and that was enough.
When we finally pulled apart, Van smiled at me with such perfect love that it took my breath away. “So,” he said, histone lightening though his eyes remained serious, “since we’re celebrating six months, I have something for you too.”
“You do?” I asked, surprised.
He nodded, going to his nightstand and removing a small velvet box from the drawer. My heart stuttered at the sight of it.
“I had a dream about this too,” he said, returning to stand before me. “About asking you a question that felt like the most important one I’d ever asked, despite having existed for… well, for what felt like an eternity.”
He opened the box, revealing a ring—platinum with a single perfect black diamond that seemed to hold shadows and light in equal measure.
“Lucas Beaumont,” he said, his voice steady but filled with emotion, “I don’t know who or what I was before I woke up in your bed six months ago. But I know with absolute certainty who I want to be for all the days ahead. Your partner. Your collaborator. Your husband, if you’ll have me.”
I stared at the ring, at the man holding it—this impossible, beautiful creature who had fallen from the sky and into my heart. Twice now I’d fallen in love with him, and twice he’d fallen in love with me. Some connections, it seemed, were stronger than supernatural bargains.
“Yes,” I said, the word carrying all the love I’d held for him across two lifetimes. “Yes, I’ll have you. Now and for whatever comes next.”
As he slipped the ring onto my finger, I swore I felt something shift in the air around us—a subtle ripple in reality, as if some greater power had acknowledged our bond and found it worthy of respect.
Later, as we lay entwined in our bed, Van’s body warm and human against mine, I thought about the bargain we’d made with Hell. Van had lost his memories but kept his soul, hisessence, his capacity to love. And I had kept my memories of our supernatural beginning, carrying them for both of us.
It wasn’t perfect. There would always be a part of Van that remained just out of reach, a history he could feel but never fully remember. But as he slept peacefully in my arms, his breathing steady and human, I realized that perhaps this was enough. Perhaps this was even better than what might have been.
Because this Van—fully human, fully committed to our shared life—had chosen me twice. Once as a fallen prince seeking redemption, and once as a man with no past but an open heart.
And I had chosen him, would always choose him, in any form, in any life.
As I drifted toward sleep, I thought I caught a glimpse of movement in our bedroom mirror—a flicker of something watching from the other side of the glass. But when I looked more closely, there was nothing there except our reflection: two men, curled together in sleep, perfectly ordinary and utterly miraculous.
Whatever Hell might think of our bargain, it seemed we had found our own version of paradise—one built not on supernatural power or immortal glory, but on the simple, profound miracle of finding each other across impossible odds.
And really, wasn’t that the most powerful magic of all?
