Charming Devils: A Bully/Revenge Reverse Harem Romance

by Katie May

  “Would you like to get your revenge on me, Peony?” Lucas questions seriously, swiveling in his seat to face me. “Because you are more than welcome to. I won’t even stop you. Might I give you some suggestions? I have a trust-fund that you are more than welcome to. Or we can get rid of it completely. I’m sure my parents would write me out of their will if they discover I’d…let’s say…snorted weed.”

  I choke out a laugh before I can contain it, and on either side of me, Karsyn and Cassian throw their heads back. Even Elias begins to chuckle from the front seat as he turns onto my street.

  “What?” Lucas’s perfect lips curve into a frown as he glances between the four of us.

  “Lucas…you can’t snort weed,” I say around my giggle, and I swear he actually blushes. Maybe it’s a trick of the lighting, though. I doubt Lucas will ever do something as cute as blush.

  “Oh.”

  “And I don’t want to get my revenge on you guys,” I add, staring down at my pale hand holding a French fry. “Not anymore.”

  It’s mercifully silent the rest of the ride as the Jeep slows to a crawl. Karsyn once more resumes his diligent reading, a tiny crease forming between his eyebrows.

  Like before, I nudge his shoulder until he glances up at me.

  “Everything okay?” I whisper.

  “Yeah.” His lips straighten into a taut line. “I mean, no. This shit is hard.”

  “Karsyn…” I keep my voice low so as to not be overheard by the others. Fortunately, Lucas and Elias are engaged in conversation at the front of the car, and Cassian has his earbuds in, nodding along to his music. “Have you ever…”

  “Have I ever what?” He places his book down completely in his lap and offers me his full attention. I squirm slightly. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

  “Have you ever been tested for dyslexia?” The words tumble out of me before I can stop them. I wince, waiting for him to get mad, but instead, his expression turns contemplative.

  “You think I…?”

  “I noticed it before in middle school,” I confess. “When you were writing, you would often forget certain words or they would get swapped around in a sentence. And I also couldn’t help but note that you struggle the most with the essays on your exams.” I shrug my shoulders helplessly, worried that he’ll be pissed at me for overstepping my boundaries.

  He scratches at his eyebrow with one of his long, calloused fingers. “I’ve never thought about that before. Reading and writing have always been harder for me than it was for a lot of the other kids my age.”

  “I’m not a doctor or anything.” I release a dry chuckle. “Just a crazy witch. But…”

  “But you think I should talk to my doc about it,” Karsyn finishes, that same thoughtful expression on his face.

  “It might be a good idea, because even if it’s not that, it might be some other learning disability.” I wince again, wondering if he’ll take offense to the word “disability,” but his face remains serene.

  We pull into my driveway, and Elias collects all of our garbage in the bag our food came in.

  “Don’t want my baby getting dirty,” he warns with a pointed look at all of us. Even me. I’m pretty sure he even pets the car like some sort of dog when he thinks none of us are watching.

  As we exit the vehicle and Elias, Cassian, and Karsyn make an immediate beeline towards the front door, Lucas stops me by caging me against the hood of the Jeep. He leans forward to sniff my neck, eyes rolling into the back of his head.

  “I wouldn’t be mad,” he whispers.

  “What?” I blink at him rapidly.

  “I won’t be mad if you got your revenge,” he clarifies. “And we’re also going on a date. Tonight.”

  “We are?” I try to sound casual, like this gorgeous man with slicked-back red hair and icy blue eyes doesn’t affect me, but my tummy flutters with thousands of butterflies despite my best efforts.

  Lucas smiles sharply before interlocking his fingers with mine and dragging me up the front steps, where the other three wait for us. Elias appears pained as he stares between the two of us, and Karsyn grunts, jealousy flaring to life in his eyes before it quickly abates. Only Cassian, my kinky boy, flashes us a wicked smile and winks at me.

  “Naughty, naughty,” he mouths, pantomiming giving me a spanking. And suddenly, I have a very vivid image of Lucas bending me over a table and—

  “Peony.” My mother’s nasally voice greets me even before I enter the house completely.

  And there goes my spanking fantasy.

  “Mom.” Every muscle in my body goes taut as she sashays from around the corner, looking as meticulous as ever. Today, she wears a white pencil skirt that stops just below her knees and a matching white blouse, not a speck of color to be seen. I’m not going to lie, it looks fantastic with her onyx curls tumbling freely around her shoulders and painted lips.

  All four of the Devils stiffen as she appraises them, though her expression is anything but friendly. I can’t really describe it. It’s almost like…surprise? Maybe shock? Smugness?

  What the fuck?

  Instead of asking for their names, Mom dismisses them and focuses on me.

  “Have you made your decision?” Mom questions snidely, snapping her fingers. Just like before, Ryan hurries forward, head bowed in a subservient pose.

  “Who the fuck is that twit?” Cassian demands, eyeing Ryan with an almost incandescent fury.

  Mom stares at him with barely veiled annoyance. “Boys, meet Peony’s fiancé, Ryan.”

  “Fiancé?” Cassian bellows, and Karsyn throws me a hurt look. Elias balls his hands into fists while Lucas just steps forward, every inch the arrogant prince.

  “I didn’t know that Peony had a fiancé,” he says diplomatically. He tilts his head to the side, sizing up the other boy. And while his face remains an impassive mask, a chilling smile prowls just beneath the surface, waiting for a chance to be unleashed and wreak havoc. “Especially one so…”

  “Weak,” Karsyn murmurs.

  “Fucking dumb,” Cassian seethes.

  “With a death wish,” throws in Elias.

  “I’ll ask you one more time, boy.” Lucas takes a step closer, and though he displays no outwards aggression, there’s no denying that he could snap Ryan’s neck if he so desired, witch or no witch. Lucas is the monster that other monsters fear. “Is it true?”

  “Err…”

  “No,” I cut in. I may not like Ryan, but he’s still Uriel’s brother. I don’t want him dead, just slightly maimed. “It’s not.” I glare at my mother. “Disown me. Cast me out. Does it look like I give a damn?”

  Mom’s ruby-red lips twist in disgust. “It looks like you’re fraternizing with the boys who tormented you throughout middle school.” She turns her keen stare onto each of the men. “Lucas Scott. Karsyn Alder. Cassian Jereome. Elias Briggs. Aren’t these the men who bullied you to the point where you wished to take your own life?” Mom taps a manicured finger to her chin in contemplation. “I still remember finding you in that tub, you know. With those scars zigzagging across your body. Your eyes puffy and swollen from crying. Your skin pale as the water turned a sickly shade of pink. There was so much blood.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Karsyn snaps, his lips pulling away from his teeth. “How can you talk about your own daughter like that?”

  Mom is suddenly in his face, eyes flashing with malice. I automatically move to step between them. If a fight breaks out, I’ll be damned if Karsyn gets caught in the crossfire.

  “Maybe I can talk about her like that because she’s no longer my daughter.” She says each word slowly, curtly, as if she’s trying to hurt me. As if she wants me to feel those words deep in my very soul. All she has to do now is renounce me as her daughter to the coven, and then all of my magic will disappear. But…

  But will that be that bad?

  My magic whines inside of me, a desperate plea for me to fight for it.

  “You’re disowning your da
ughter because she doesn’t want to marry some fucking creep?” Elias asks in disbelief, and I know that this must be hitting a sore spot for him, considering his own parents left him. His eyes are wild as he balls his hands into fists, looking point two seconds away from slugging my mother.

  “Do you boys think you know Peony?” Mom erupts into laughter. “The true her? You guys can’t even begin to understand—”

  “We know all about her being a witch,” Karsyn interrupts with a scowl, and cold horror winds its way through me, taking me hostage. My first instinct is to lunge forward and place my hand over his mouth, stopping any more damning words from leaving his lips. My second one is to kiss the shit out of him for the way he defends me. For the way he normalizes something that others perceive as weird or different.

  Mom’s face turns cold, chillier than a Michigan December, and behind her, Ryan gasps.

  Lucas is the first to realize that Karsyn said something he shouldn’t. I can tell by the way he takes a small step backwards, moving so his body is protectively in front of me, shielding me from the ire in my mother’s eyes.

  “You told them?” Mom asks me, and I can hear distinct amusement lacing her tone. She laughs haughtily, throwing back her head and holding her stomach. “You know what this means.”

  I move to step around Lucas, but suddenly, Elias is there, pushing me farther back until there’s a solid wall of muscle separating me from my vindictive, malicious mother.

  “Don’t,” I warn softly.

  “What does this mean?” Karsyn sounds confused, having not yet grasped the severity of his slip.

  “There are only two options,” Mother purrs, running a ruby-red nail down Lucas’s cheek. He glares at the offending limb as if he’s imagining biting it off. “One, and the most common, is a memory spell. It will remove all traces of witches and warlocks and magic from your itty-bitty little brains.” She begins to walk her fingers up Lucas’s chest, but he grips her wrist tightly before it can touch bare skin.

  “And?” Elias crosses his arms over his chest.

  “And nothing.” Mom shrugs innocently. “Besides the fact that you’ll also lose all memories of Peony.”

  Ryan, the fuckwad, begins to chuckle gleefully, as if the thought of me separated from the Devils means that he actually has a chance with me. In his fucking dreams. Actually, no. I don’t want that coward dreaming of me.

  “Next option,” Cassian seethes through clenched teeth.

  “A simple binding spell.” Mom lifts her hand to her face, surveying each nail with rapt fascination.

  “It’s similar to the ones witches use when they gain familiars,” I explain, my voice shaking ever so slightly. “It allows the witch to harness their energy if they ever need to, and it sometimes even gives the human in question some of the witch’s magic.”

  “But it also makes them bond for life,” Mom throws in helpfully. “The men or women bonded will be dedicated completely to their witch.”

  We can all hear what she’s not saying. If they do this, if they bind themselves to me, they will never be able to fall in love. Never get married. The magic will make them want to be around me at all times. Sometimes, witches and humans do this ceremony because they’re desperately in love. If that’s the case, the fates that be will declare them as “mates” of sorts. The bond between them is unbreakable and will only grow with time. More often than not, witches will bind humans to them for one thing and one thing only—more power.

  So my choices are simple. Either erase the guys’ memories of me completely.

  Or bind the men I once despised to me until my death.

  And if I choose incorrectly, we’re all going to pay the price.

  Chapter 49

  “You cannot be serious.” I can feel myself starting to bristle as I stare at my mother with narrowed-eye disbelief. “You can’t ask them to do any of that.”

  “I can, and I will,” she retorts, flicking a strand of long black hair behind her shoulder. “They’re not supposed to know the truth. It’s the rule.”

  “I don’t give a damn about that!” My voice raises to a screech as I take a threatening step closer. This new position puts me face to face with her. How have I failed to see how wicked my mother has become? She wasn’t always like this. I truly believe that there was a time when she actually loved and wanted the best for me. But her need for power twisted her mind, warped her into someone entirely unrecognizable. Who is this fair-skinned woman staring back at me? What the hell happened to her to make her so bitter and jaded?

  “Peony…” Karsyn begins softly, running his fingers down the length of my arm. Goosebumps automatically rise in their wake, even as I shove him off of me.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whisper tearfully, turning to stare at each of them. Karsyn’s hazel eyes, the color of autumn leaves, and his pinched face. Cassian’s cocky swagger, even now still firmly in place as he gifts my mother a smile that isn’t at all pleasant. Elias’s worried gaze as his eyes flit from me to my mother and then back to me again. And then finally, Lucas, who regards the entire scene with a cold disregard. “I never should’ve brought you into this world.”

  “Oh, please,” Mom scoffs. “They’ve been in this world far longer than you know.”

  “Wh-what do you mean?” I stutter, even as the four Devils stare at her in confusion.

  Lucas’s voice is as cutting as an icicle when he speaks next. Just as cold, too. “I can assure you, Mrs. Simone, that I’ve never been involved in this…world before.” His nose crinkles.

  Always so polite, that one, even when faced with my evil, bitchy mom.

  “It’s Miss Simone,” Mom corrects automatically, stiffening ever so slightly at the mention of my father. He died when I was two, maybe three, and it destroyed a piece of her. The last shred of decency she possessed. I don’t remember her at all from before, but people tell me she was kind. Funny. Compassionate. Everything she is no longer. “And you don’t need to be aware of witches to be hexed by one.”

  She smiles chillingly, a smile designed specifically to give the room frostbite, and I feel my heart steadily begin to grow in a rapidly shrinking vise. I gape at her wordlessly, sure I heard her wrong.

  “What the fuck do you mean?” I demand when I finally find my voice.

  Mom levels a blistering glare in my direction. “Language, Peony. I taught you better than that.”

  “She asked you a fucking question, you fuckity fucking bitch,” Cassian seethes, and I can tell that he’s using colorful language just to piss my mother off further.

  Mom stares at him, aghast at the way he spoke, before a slow, cunning smile twists up her lips. It’s not pretty or even elegant, a direct contrast to her immaculate appearance. This particular smile makes her look…evil.

  “It’s a simple hex bag,” she states snootily, snapping her fingers until Ryan scurries forward, dropping something into her open palm. To me, Mom says, “See? How can you not want a man who will do whatever you say, whenever you say?”

  “Because I’m not a manipulative bitch like you,” I counter, and I take great satisfaction in seeing red blotches erupt on both of her cheeks. She tries to keep her anger in check, but it seeps out of her before she can contain it. Above us, the hanging light shutters and sparks, before going out completely. The table near the front entrance begins to rattle as well.

  Reining in her emotions, Mom opens her hand to reveal a tiny brown bag. It’s tied at the top with a piece of my white-blonde hair, and a familiar symbol is painted in red across the side.

  The mark of the devil.

  “Is that…is that my hair?” I instinctively bring a hand to my head, as if I can assure myself that all of my hair is still firmly in place, thank you very much.

  “I’ve been using these hex bags since forever,” Mom confesses, turning it around in her palm. She then glances up and spears the four Devils with an unreadable look. “I put one bag in each of your rooms.”

  “What the fuck?” Karsyn exclai
ms, and I mentally echo his statement.

  What the fuck, indeed.

  “It’s a rage spell,” she continues, glancing back down at the hex bag in her hand. “Simple, really. A fang of a snake. Blood of a sinner. Blade of grass blessed by a priestess. And then your hair, Peony, sealing it all in.”

  “A rage spell?” I can feel myself growing numb. Not cold necessarily. Just…detached, like I’m floating feet above my body and watching the scene unfold with a clinical detachment. That girl with the haunted amber eyes isn’t me. It can’t be. That woman with the pitch-black hair isn’t my mother. No. No. No.

  “Even at a young age, you were too powerful,” she continues, tone almost indolent, like she’s having a lazy day around the house. “I knew I needed to contain you, however I could. So, I found four of your classmates you seemed to have a liking for. These hex bags are designed to exacerbate their natural rage and hone it in on you. I used this exact spell for many, many years.”

  “What?” Lucas’s voice isn’t cold anymore. It’s shocked. Broken. Confused. There’s a slight hitch to his breathing as he stares at my mother.

  “You fucking bitch.” Tears stab my eyes as my hands tremble by my sides. I don’t know if it’s rage or sadness I feel. Hatred or hurt. She’s my mother, and she allowed the four of them to torture me relentlessly, all so I wouldn’t grow more powerful.

  “I needed to keep you adequately subdued,” she continues, oblivious to the tsunami of emotions gathering in my head. “And what better way to do that then give you something besides your magic to focus on?”

  “You’re crazy,” Cassian whispers, voice hoarse.

  “Maybe.” Mother shrugs her shoulders as if she doesn’t give a damn either way. “Or maybe I’m just smart.”

  “I tried to kill myself!” The words are a scream, a cry into the abyss where I’m just begging for someone to hear me. To listen. The entire fucking house begins to rattle as my power escapes its confinement. Outside, thunder booms and lightning streaks through the sky. Rain pelts against the windows, demanding entrance, as a large crack appears in the floor. “I tried to fucking kill myself.”