He looked back into my eyes, completely unself-conscious and with a smirk in his (now) black eyebrows. A sharp smell of firecrackers curled around him, underlaid with the musty tang of mold. The way he looked at me was like he knew me … inside and out. I suddenly remembered that the demon had actually been inside me for a few seconds in the basement. Then I really did blush, red hot.
I tossed back my hair and tried to regain my normal cool. I mean, I’ve had a couple boyfriends. Plenty of guy friends. When your life revolves around filling the outrageous demands of a cranky witch, other social interactions seem way less scary. Okay, maybe I wasn’t made of cool like Jenah, and maybe boys didn’t just drop dead at my feet like they did for Sparkle, but in general, boys were not foreign scary creatures. Not compared to two-hundred-year-old warlocks who might give you appendicitis just for asking them if they’d barter three unicorn hairs for a drop of dragon milk (true story).
So. There was no way any boy was going to get the best of me, no matter how much he suddenly resembled my TV love, Zolak the demon hunter. “Um, this is Devon,” I managed. “With Blue Crush.”
Reese squealed, and suddenly she and the rest of the girls in the room were sucked into Devon like he was pure gravity. The risers clattered as the girls leaped on him. “Oh my god, we are so booking you to play for us!” said Reese. “You are way hotter than that boy from Pop Pop.”
“Play for you?” said Devon. He did a thing that was like a wink, but it was way cooler than a wink. “You mean … personally?”
Reese looked like she was about to faint.
“Um, maybe we should just stick with Pop Pop,” I said. This new Devon did not need anybody’s help with stage fright. It was weird, but it was like the demon inside him gave him an extra allure. Like he could sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and all the girls in the room would swoon.
And if a billion girls swooned on him he’d never get the witch’s tasks completed.
And then Devon’s soul would be eaten.
“You’re very busy, right?” I said meaningfully at Devon. “Extra-credit science projects to finish?”
His green eyes fixed me again but this time I managed not to blush. After all, this was not regular Devon. There was a million-year-old elemental in there, warping Devon’s thoughts. “I’m never too busy for my music,” he said. “What’s the gig?”
I glared back and refused to think about how hot he was with the dark hair and the sudden confidence. “Halloween Dance. You’re too busy. You’ve got ob-li-ga-tions.”
Despite all the girls clinging to Devon, I noticed that Sparkle was standing apart from him like I was. Her arms were crossed over her chest, she was clutching her cameo, and she was looking at Devon in a very weird way. I couldn’t tell if it was confusion—or fear. Both seemed like weird emotions for Sparkle to have about a cute new boy. She couldn’t be picking up on his internal demon somehow … could she?
“You’re probably too busy adjusting to your new school,” Sparkle said. “Besides, we’ve already booked a band, I’m afraid. Miss Crane is prepared to approve their lyrics.”
“Prepared to,” said Miss Crane. Her fingers gripped the edge of the piano lid, her voice quavering as she tried for firm. “But first I need them, or we’ll have no band at all.”
“Lyrics?” said Devon. “I wrote our lyrics. I could recite them right here.”
Reese glanced at Sparkle. “Well … Couldn’t we…?”
“Reese,” said Sparkle. There was a tone in her voice that usually Reese would’ve obeyed instantly.
But mortal junior Sparkle versus the magnetism of an immortal elemental force?
Reese stared up at Devon, who winked/not winked at her again. “I’m unbooking them,” she said dreamily but firmly. “Pop Pop isn’t even part of the school. We’re supporting the new boy’s band.”
Devon grinned lazily. “Can’t wait to perform for y’all.”
Reese sighed moistly and the other girls squealed. Miss Crane beamed and moved in for those lyrics. Even Benjamin joined the admiring mob.
I groaned, grabbed one more spider roll, and snuck out of the room. Left the squealing behind me.
What on earth was I going to do now? Devon was supposed to complete three tasks—none of which I was sure he should complete—so we could get the demon out before it ate his entire soul and owned Devon forever. The sooner we could get the tasks done, the sooner the demon would be gone—and every minute might count.
But maybe the newly confident Devon wouldn’t want the demon out of his soul. A demon could make a boy with stage fright into a star.
That was a nasty thought.
There was a tug on my backpack and it turned out to be Jenah. “Okay, that A Lunch was full of win,” she said. “Did you see Sparkle’s face when Reese disobeyed her? Hey, so what do you think about the nose job rumors with Sparkle? It definitely looks different, but everyone knows it’s just her living with her grandfather or something, and god knows what he does, but it no way involves piles of cash and anyway, what kind of doctor would perform a nose job at her age? That’s a mystery, I tell you.” Jenah with the auras straightened out was giddy with relief.