That Time I Married a Demon

I escaped three minutes and thirty-nine seconds after our first dance as husband and wife. My heels click-clacked against the cobblestone at the costly resort we booked for our wedding, and a bystander gaped at me as I ran by. The bells of the cathedral rang down my spine with each tone.

It was your typical girl-meets-guy tale, a simple, but cliché, love story where we met at the neighboring county's fall festival. In the orchard. Picking apples. Sounds too good to be true, right? I don't know where my red-flag detector went, but the minute I laid eyes on Elijah Balcom, I never saw it again.

I had left my phone in the reception hall, so I couldn't order a car. He could track that anyway since we shared an account. I had to get as far away as I possibly could. He said I was his destiny, but that was impossible. How could a demon be my destiny? Up until six minutes ago, I didn't even know demons were real.

Not only was Elijah a demon, but he was heir apparent to the family throne, which, by the way, ruled all of Hell. He claimed he didn't want it, and after meeting me, he knew he wanted to give it all up. He said if angels could fall, then demons could rise.

"I didn't know how to tell you," Elijah said.

I can only imagine what my family is thinking, and hopefully, everyone made it out alive. Like the divine, demons aren't allowed to reveal themselves to humans, but it was hard to keep it a secret when the most beautiful woman I've ever seen stepped out of a billowy black cloud of ash and smoke. Her face was long, and she had the same dark eyes as Elijah.

"This is not the wedding you are meant to attend," her eyes lined with disgust as she looked me up and down, taking me in, while Elijah moved in front of me. "You are to be married and then crowned king."

"Mother, I told you I don't want to be king," he reached for my hand. "I have chosen her."

I didn't hear much after that. The silence in the room was deafening; even my heart was silent. At first, everyone thought it was some performance we had planned for the reception. But several more pops of smoke appeared out of thin air, and more demons filled the room.

The screams started shortly after that. Elijah rushed me out of there in his own smoke-filled . . . portal? Whatever just happened, I was now outside; my eyes squinting in the sun.

"I'll come back for you, I promise!" he tried to kiss me, but I pulled so hard away from him that I tripped over the back of my dress.

"Don't touch me!" I screamed as Elijah tried to help me up, but when I didn't take his hand, a look of utter heartbreak flashed across his face.

Like he had a right to be heartbroken, he was the one who lied to me about being evil incarnate. I had no money, wallet, or anything on me, so I had no idea how to get home. No, I couldn't go home; that would be the first place he would look. My parents lived an hour away, and I couldn't walk there in a wedding dress because it would draw too much attention.

I rounded a corner and stopped in an alley to catch my breath. My feet throbbed, so I took off my shoes and sat on a knocked-over trashcan. Midnight blue smoke pooled at my feet, inching its way up my legs. I tried to stand, but the dark blue haze covered me, holding me down.

If I thought Elijah's mother was beautiful, the woman before me made her look like a naked mole rat, and it made me feel like I should be under a bridge tormenting goats. She had red hair, skin like smooth porcelain, and the greenest eyes I'd ever seen.

She ran her eyes over my entire body, and I couldn't tell if it was curiosity or disgust, maybe a mixture of both.

"So, you're what has kept my Elijah on this plane." Her Elijah? Oh, no. She must be who his mother was talking about, the marriage he was supposed to have. "You do not want me as an enemy, human. You will refuse Elijah, so he will return to me, where he belongs. If you do not, you will regret it."

There was a faint scent in the air, a mixture of sulfur and decaying roses. The closer and angrier she got, the stronger it was. It was the smell of death, of dark magic older than time itself, and I knew then my life was in danger as long as I was with Elijah, and I had a feeling it would be in danger even if I wasn't with Elijah. I have read enough dark fantasy to know how this ends.

It was becoming hard to breathe, and the vapor she emitted shockingly felt like a cactus being force-fed down my throat. I had to fight the hot bile rising from the pit of my stomach.

Then her grip on me loosened so fast I didn't have time to process the change, and I barfed all over my one-of-a-kind Oscar de la Renta wedding dress.

"Elijah," she purred. Her voice went from filled with venom to a sweet and sticky sound. It was gross.

"What are you doing here, Lillith?" Elijah softly placed his arm around me, but when I flinched, he reluctantly let go. His eyes were still full of hurt.

"She rejects you, my love," her voice dripping with fake innocence and poisoned honey. "Come home to me, and I will never reject you."

Elijah turned to face me, and when he locked his eyes onto mine, I saw the man I fell in love with. He smelled of cedar and citrus. Memories of the last three years played out inside my head. Our first date was at an axe-throwing place. The first time he took me to a library. When it rained so hard on our first weekend getaway, Elijah and I were stranded inside our cabin the whole time.

He's a demon, so that means he's evil, right? Can they change their ways? I looked back at Lillith, rage pouring off her in waves. When I turned back to face Elijah, he held his hand out, and slowly, I put my hand in his.

What could go wrong?