Later that night, the house fell into silence the way a slaughterhouse does after the pigs stop screaming.
Rosario had finally left, waddling out with a jar of pickles in one hand and an armful of snacks in the other, still muttering to herself about weird cravings and divine conception.
I watched her go through the window, her silhouette lting into the dusk like a greasy mirage, and only then did I let the breath I’d been holding slip out like smoke.
Silence was a rare luxury here. The kind that settled heavy on your chest like a cat that knew too much.
I waited. Five or ten minutes until, there was no sound and voices. All I could hear was the creak of the old wooden walls and the distant hoot of an owl who sounded like he’d seen things.
Then, at last, I stood. Or rather, I rose.
My bones cracked and my muscles stretched. I straightened, shook my limbs, and let out a soft grunt of relief.
God, it felt good.
I flexed my fingers—my very much functional fingers and rolled my shoulders. The air was thick with the scent of dusk and old curses, but the cool breeze slipping through the open window licked at my sweat-damp skin like a secret lover.
There was so much to do tonight. Like talking to María José, kissing, and maybe fucking her until she forgot all about being with Axel.
You see, Axel was here today, spewing shit about wanting to marry Rosa and lock María José in a dungeon, but I didn’t quite believe him.
All those years he had spent ranting to about everything were like stripping himself bare; his vulnerabilities, strength, and thinking faculty.
I knew it all. I knew Axel like the back of my hand.
Enough to know that he wouldn’t just let that little attack I orchestrated slide, even if he didn’t know it was . He wouldn’t just move on from it and focus on marrying Rosa.
And from his words, I knew he really loved María José, even though I loved her more. And if one thing, Axel wouldn’t just decide to let her go.
His plan was nice but sloppy and dumb.
Perhaps, he’d have been able to sell it if truly, a stranger witch was the opponent here. However, it was I who was his greatest enemy. I... his favorite, cute, and disabled cousin...
... who so happened to know him way too well.
I would go to María José and have my way. I wasn’t going to take his bait.
I turned from the chair, about to light a candle and think, when it hit .
By everything dark, it was a shift... a pulse.
Sothing wrong.
The hairs on my neck rose before the temperature dropped. This wasn’t the usual nightti chill. No. This was... ancient. Like a glacier crawling up my spine with blackened fingers.
I froze. Every one of my senses went on high alert. The shadows in the room seed to deepen, stretching like yawning mouths ready to swallow whole.
Then, the room filled with the scent of sulfur and wet earth. The floorboards trembled under my bare feet.
I knew. I knew the one beyond all had erged. I dropped to my knees instantly.
And he was there.
One blink—and there he stood in the center of my shack as though he’d always been part of the furniture: The Devil.
No na. No introductions. Just Him.
He looked almost human, but more angelic. Like an angel draped in darkness – if that made any sense.
Today, he stood tall as always. However, his slender figure was dressed in an immaculate black suit, as though he’d just walked out of a funeral hosted in hell. His skin was too smooth, too pale, and almost translucent. His eyes? They had no color. Just an endless void that seed to hum with the screams of ten thousand damned souls. And his smile...
Oh God.
His smile was the kind that made n eat their own fingers.
"My Lord," I whispered, forehead pressed to the dusty floor. "Welco."
"Rise, Luis," he said in a voice that sounded like a song sung backward; beautiful, terrible, irresistible.
It snaked into my ears and blood behind my eyes like a migraine made of roses.
I stood, swallowing hard. "What do you require of , Master?"
His smile widened, but it didn’t touch his eyes. "There’s been a developnt."
My heart missed a beat. A developnt... when he spoke like that, it was best you embraced the fear before it ca swirling around you.
"A developnt?" I repeated, my brain already racing through the possible sins I had committed lately.
I hadn’t killed anyone important. I’d kept up appearances. I’d tortured my enemies only recreationally. Was he here to reward again?
"Indeed," the Devil said, stepping closer. I could feel heat radiating off him like he was a volcano wrapped in flesh.
"I want you to help Axel marry María José."
W-what?!
Ti stopped, and the world tilted.
My jaw unhinged in silence.
"What?"
"I want Axel to marry María José," he repeated calmly, folding his hands behind his back like a professor giving a lecture on betrayal.
"B-but..." I laughed, breathless and small. "Master, no. Surely you jest. You—you gave the new ability because I proved I was worthy of her. You said it yourself. That I was ready."
He tilted his head and nodded. "You were. You are. But love, Luis... love is rarely a straight line. Sotis the road to heaven passes through hell."
"She is mine," I snarled before I could stop myself. "She is the only thing—the only thing... that makes feel whole. You know this. I can’t stand to see her with soone else, especially not Axel! That dog doesn’t deserve the dirt beneath her feet."
"I see. Your love burns fiercely." He mused.
"It consus ."
He stepped even closer. The floor hissed beneath his shoes, leaving scorched wood in his wake.
"Then let it consu you," he said softly. "And you will rise from its ashes anew. Do you trust , Luis?"
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