Chapter 14 The Ghost and the Choice

Chapter 14 The Ghost and the Choice
Dante's POV

The woman made of golden light was Maya's grandmother.

I knew it the same way I used to know which couples belonged together—a Cupid sense that flickered one last time before dying completely. This ghost, this impossible spirit, carried the same artistic soul as Maya, the same fierce love I'd seen in Lily's eyes.

And Marcus was terrified of her.

"Grandmother Chen?" Maya's voice broke. "But you died when I was ten."

"I did." The ghost moved closer to Maya, her light pushing back the red glow. "But I made a very specific wish before I passed. I wished that if any demon ever tried to claim my bloodline, I'd come back to stop them. Turns out, wishes made by dying artists carry a lot of power in this town."

Marcus snarled, his demon face fully visible now—twisted features, sharp teeth, eyes like burning pits. "You can't interfere. The binding is legal. Elena signed it herself."

"Elena signed a contract for Maya Chen, adult woman," the grandmother said calmly. "But she didn't have permission from Maya Chen, age seventeen, who was still legally under my guardianship when the binding was made. Making the entire contract void."

Elena would have known that. She'd deliberately created a flawed binding.

The two demons holding me loosened their grip slightly, confused. I used their distraction to drive my elbow into one's stomach and tear free, lunging toward Maya.

Marcus moved faster. He grabbed Maya's chair and tipped it backward. She hit the floor hard, crying out in pain. The wire around her wrists bit deeper, blood trailing down her arms.

"Nobody moves or I snap her neck!" Marcus had one clawed hand wrapped around Maya's throat.

I froze, every muscle screaming to attack. But he was right—one wrong move and Maya died.

"Let her go," the grandmother said, her light burning brighter. "You've already lost, Marcus. The binding is void. You have no claim on her."

"I have her right here in my hands!" Marcus squeezed slightly. Maya gasped, face going red. "Binding or no binding, I can still kill her. And all of you will watch."

The third demon—the one blocking the door—suddenly spoke. His voice was quieter than Marcus's, almost reluctant. "Marcus, if the binding's void, we should leave. The Council will come for us if we kill her now. It's not worth—"

"Shut up!" Marcus's eyes blazed brighter. "I've fed on her pain for fifteen years. I'm not giving that up because some ghost showed up with legal technicalities. We're taking her with us when we open the portal on Valentine's Day. She'll fuel the gateway with every drop of life she has left."

Maya's grandmother raised one glowing hand. "Then you leave me no choice."

The golden light exploded outward like a bomb.

I was thrown backward, slamming into the wall hard enough to knock the air from my lungs. When my vision cleared, the scene had changed completely.

Marcus was trapped inside a cage made of pure light, screaming as it burned his demon skin. The other three demons were pinned against various walls, held by golden chains that wrapped around their bodies.

Maya's grandmother knelt beside her, carefully cutting the wires with fingers that passed through the metal like it wasn't there. "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner, sweet girl. I've been watching over you, but crossing the veil takes enormous energy. I could only manage it once the wish-bond activated."

"Lily," Maya sobbed. "She made the wish. She called you here."

"She's a remarkable child. Just like her mother." The ghost helped Maya sit up, even though her hands had no real substance. Somehow they still supported Maya's weight.

I crawled over to them, my mortal body aching from the impact. "Maya, are you okay?"

She looked at me with eyes full of tears and something else—something that made my dying Cupid heart skip. "You came for me."

"Of course I came." I touched her face gently, feeling the realness of her skin under my human fingers. "I'll always come for you."

Marcus laughed from inside his cage, the sound edged with madness. "How touching. The Cupid went mortal for love. But it doesn't matter. The portal opens in fourteen days whether I'm here or not. The other demons are already in position. We've spent months preparing this. You stopped nothing."

"What portal?" Elena's voice came from the doorway. She'd finally broken through the wards, Bear right behind her carrying what looked like an iron baseball bat.

"The Valentine portal," Marcus said, smiling despite the light burning him. "On Valentine's Day, when the town magic peaks, we're opening a gateway to the demon realm. Every demon within a hundred miles will pour through. This entire town becomes a feeding ground. Thousands of humans, all trapped in one place, all radiating love and hope and joy for us to consume."

Elena's face went pale. "That's impossible. The portal was sealed a century ago. The Council made sure—"

"The Council missed something." Marcus's grin widened. "There's a fifth demon in Rosewood Falls. Someone you trust. Someone who's been working with us from the beginning, making sure all the pieces fell into place."

My blood ran cold. "Who?"

"Someone close to you, Dante. Someone who's been guiding you toward this moment, making sure you'd fall for Maya, making sure you'd be too weak to stop us when the time came." Marcus leaned closer to the bars of light. "Someone who benefits when the old order falls and new powers rise."

I looked at Elena, at Bear, at Maya's grandmother. Which one of them could possibly be a demon?

Then I saw it—the tiniest flicker of red in Bear's eyes. So quick I almost missed it.

My best friend. My only human friend. The man I'd trusted with everything.

Bear smiled at me, and it wasn't his smile anymore. "Sorry, buddy. Nothing personal. Just business."

He swung the iron bat straight at Elena's head.

She dropped like a stone, blood pooling beneath her.

Maya screamed.

Bear's form shifted, rippled, and suddenly a demon stood where my friend had been. Bigger than Marcus, older, with eyes that burned like ancient coals.

"The Council's going to love this," the demon said conversationally. "A Cupid gone mortal, unable to stop his own town from becoming a demon gate. Very tragic. Very ironic."

He moved toward Maya's grandmother, the iron bat raised. "Now, let's deal with this ghost problem. Can't have dead relatives interfering with our plans."

I threw myself between them.

The bat caught me across the ribs. I heard something crack, felt pain explode through my chest. But I stayed standing, putting my mortal body between the demon and the women I loved.

"Dante, don't!" Maya cried. "You can't fight him! You're human now!"

She was right. I had no powers. No supernatural strength. Just a human body that was already breaking under one hit.

But I also had something I'd never had before.

I had something worth dying for.

"Come on then," I told the demon wearing my friend's face. "Let's see what happens when you fight someone who actually has something to lose."

The demon laughed and swung again.

The golden light from Maya's grandmother flared, but not fast enough.

The bat hit me square in the chest, and the world went dark.

The last thing I heard was Maya screaming my name.