Chapter 19 When Wishes Come True

Chapter 19 When Wishes Come True
Maya's POV

Dante was alive, and the town was going insane.

We stumbled back through the painting's doorway into my studio, both of us covered in his blood. Vanessa screamed when she saw us, then screamed again when she looked out the window.

"What is happening out there?" she demanded.

I looked. Oh God.

Golden figures filled the streets—projections of people's perfect romantic wishes. But "perfect" was subjective, and some of these wishes were terrifying.

Mrs. Henderson from the bakery stood beside a glowing version of her dead husband. She was crying happy tears. Beautiful.

But three houses down, a man I recognized from the hardware store stood beside a projection that looked exactly like his neighbor's wife. The real wife was visible through her window, staring in horror.

"The magic is showing everyone's true desires," Dante said hoarsely. He was still weak from almost dying. "Good and bad."

"How do we stop it?" Vanessa asked.

"We can't. Not until Valentine's Day." I helped Dante sit on the couch before he collapsed. "The Council said the magic will peak in three days, then lock in permanently. Whatever people wish for, they'll get."

"Even the bad wishes?"

I nodded, feeling sick.

Lily appeared in the doorway, rubbing her eyes. "Mommy? Why is there a glowing lady standing in our yard?"

I looked out the window. A golden projection stood on our lawn—a woman with kind eyes and an artist's hands, holding a paintbrush. She looked a little like me, but softer somehow. More peaceful.

"Who is that?" Vanessa whispered.

Through the wish-bond, I felt Dante's confusion. Then understanding. Then overwhelming emotion.

"That's what I wished for," he said quietly. "Before I knew Maya. When I was still a Cupid choosing mortality, I wished I could find someone who understood art like I did. Someone gentle and creative. Someone who could teach me what it meant to be human."

The projection smiled at him through the window, then faded away.

"Why did it disappear?" Lily asked.

"Because I already found her." Dante looked at me, his eyes intense. "The wish came true. So the magic let it go."

My heart did something complicated in my chest.

"Then all we have to do is make everyone's wishes come true in three days?" Vanessa said. "Easy. Totally doable. Not impossible at all."

"The good wishes, yes. But the bad ones?" I watched the man outside still staring at his neighbor's projected wife. "What about people who wish for things they shouldn't have? People who want to control others, or get revenge, or—"

My phone rang. Elena.

"Turn on the news," she said without preamble. "Channel seven. Now."

I grabbed the remote. The TV showed aerial footage of Rosewood Falls. Golden figures filled every street—hundreds of them, maybe thousands. The reporters were calling it a mass hallucination, but we knew better.

Then the camera zoomed in on the town square.

One projection stood taller than the rest. A massive figure made of golden light, but its eyes burned red instead of gold. It looked like a demon.

"What is that?" I breathed.

"Someone's darkest wish," Elena said through the phone. "Someone in this town wants a demon partner. Wants that kind of power and control. And in three days, if we don't stop them, they'll get it."

"Who would wish for that?"

"I don't know. But Dante can find out. His Cupid senses are gone, but the wish-bond gives him a different ability now—he can trace love magic back to its source. He can find whoever created that demon projection."

I looked at Dante. He was pale, exhausted, barely healed. "He almost died tonight. He needs rest."

"He needs to find the wisher. Because that demon projection? It's growing. Every hour, it gets more real. By Valentine's Day, it won't be a projection anymore. It'll be an actual demon, summoned by pure wish magic. And it'll bond to whoever wanted it."

The TV showed the demon projection moving. Walking through the square like it was testing its new body.

People scattered in terror.

"We'll find them," Dante said, struggling to his feet. "Maya, use the wish-bond. Help me trace it."

"You can barely stand!"

"I can stand well enough." He held out his hand. "Together. Like everything else we've done."

I took his hand, and the bond flared to life between us.

Suddenly I could feel it—a thread of dark magic leading away from the demon projection, connecting it to someone in town. Someone close.

"I feel it," I whispered. "Dante, it's coming from—"

Lily screamed.

We spun around. She was pointing at the window, face white with terror.

The demon projection stood in our yard now. Staring directly at her.

"No," I breathed. "No, that's not possible. Lily's six years old. She wouldn't wish for—"

But through the bond, Dante and I both felt the truth.

The demon wasn't Lily's wish.

It was responding to her. Drawn to her. Because Lily had the strongest wish magic in town—she'd activated the entire Valentine system with one whispered desire.

And now something dark wanted that power for itself.

The projection raised one hand. Pressed it against the window. The glass cracked.

"Get Lily away from the window!" Dante shouted.

I grabbed my daughter, but she was frozen in fear, staring at the demon.

"Mommy," she whispered. "It's saying something."

"What? What is it saying?"

"It says it knows who wished for it. It says they're coming to get me. And when they do, they'll use my wish magic to make it real forever."

The demon projection smiled—all teeth and burning eyes.

Then it pointed down the street.

I followed its gesture and saw someone walking toward our house. A figure I recognized. Someone I trusted.

My blood turned to ice.

"No," I whispered. "Not them. Anyone but them."

The figure stepped into the streetlight, and my world shattered for the second time in two years.

Because the person who'd wished for a demon, who'd created that monster, who was coming for my daughter right now—

Was Vanessa.