The Lure of the Devil (The Demons' Muse #4) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,15

you grow in a way that doesn't end with you getting killed."

"Well, yeah," I said, "but - "

"No," Ron cut me off. "There are no exceptions to this. We cannot die. We also cannot forget you. Look at what happened when they lost their wife! A normal, sweet, and completely oblivious fairy. She had no idea that they were anything but men, and yet they mourned her for millions of years. I think they still are."

I ducked my head. "I know."

"And you are so young. Your human life would've been so short. They accepted that, but now you've promised them more. You told them you would live forever, and all they want is to make that happen. To you, though, it's hard. You keep thinking that you have to get things done because there's never enough time, but there is, Sia."

"But the time is perfect to deal with Angelis," I reminded him. "Michael's - "

"An angel," he finished for me. "He may already be out of that box, for all we know. You still put him there once, which means you can do it again. You also want to save all of those people, but have you stopped to think about what we're going to do with them? We can't just send them back! Imagine what would happen when humans who have been missing for decades just appear in the middle of town!"

I honestly hadn't thought about that, but he was right. They were presumed dead. Their families had mourned them. To have them return talking about being held captive by angels and fed to trees? They'd be sent to mental institutions and written about in local papers. It wouldn't take long before someone realized how many people were saying the same thing. That would only fuel a new wave of religious fervor, and one that would not help us at all.

"So, what do we do?" I asked.

He reached over for my hand. "First, we stop your body from ovulating." His cheeks began to turn slightly magenta. "I mean, Nick said..." He closed his eyes and scrunched up his face as if convinced he had just said something wrong. "I just ruined it, didn't I?"

"No," I assured him. "Ideally, I'd prefer to not ovulate and not cycle. No more periods. No chance of pregnancy."

"It won't stop, um..." He made a gesture toward his lap. "That."

"I already figured that out," I assured him, knowing he meant the current bleeding, "but I'm ok if this is my last period ever. Has to be some benefit to being a Muse, right?"

"Right," he agreed a little too quickly. "So, I wanted to make this so you could deactivate it, but that's a little more complicated. Instead, um, I was thinking that if you simply removed the rune? I mean, since you have the ability to do that, right?"

"I should be able to," I agreed. "But I've never really tried."

Turning his journal, he pushed it toward me. "Well, here's a rune for minimizing scars. I made it for another demon who didn't have the benefit of an aethersmith to heal his body. Try adding that and see if you can take it off? I figure it won't hurt anything if it stays, and its power requirements are minimal."

"Ok?" I asked. "And what are you doing?"

"Sia, most of our runes are based on men. I need to design a shape that will target a specific part of your body but not others. Releasing an egg as opposed to your bladder. And you need to be aware of the downside of this."

Which didn't sound good at all. "What's that?"

"I can't prove this is working. Not exactly. There is always the chance that I could get it wrong."

I just tilted my head to the side and lifted a brow. "Have you ever gotten a rune wrong?"

"Well, no, but you need to know that there could be a first time," he admitted.

"I trust you, Ron. Now, are you going to need this journal to build it? Or can I have it to focus on the rune so I can try removing it?"

He waved that away. "All yours. I actually have..." He reached beside him to put a thicker book on the table. "This is for alterations of the body. The journal is just for my theories. These are for the proven works."

He patted the cover like he was proud of it. Considering that the book looked like some ancient tome that belonged in a museum, he had a reason