Careful What You Wish For Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  chapter 1

  chapter 2

  chapter 3

  chapter 4

  chapter 5

  chapter 6

  chapter 7

  chapter 8

  chapter 9

  chapter 10

  chapter 11

  chapter 12

  chapter 13

  chapter 14

  chapter 15

  chapter 16

  chapter 17

  chapter 18

  chapter 19

  chapter 20

  chapter 21

  chapter 22

  chapter 23

  chapter 24

  chapter 25

  chapter 26

  chapter 27

  chapter 28

  chapter 29

  chapter 30

  chapter 31

  chapter 32

  chapter 33

  chapter 34

  chapter 35

  chapter 36

  chapter 37

  chapter 38

  chapter 39

  chapter 40

  chapter 41

  chapter 42

  chapter 43

  chapter 44

  chapter 45

  chapter 46

  bedeviled

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  eISBN : 978-1-101-43710-0

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  For Jordan E. Petroff,

  a truly remarkable man.

  A lot of people say they have the

  world’s best brother,

  but in my case it’s true.

  I love you.

  There are many people who helped make this book a reality. I’d like to thank:

  Judy Goldschmidt, an incredible editor who truly helped Angel and me find our way. Thank you for your support, time, and top-notch editing skills.

  Francesco Sedita, Bonnie Bader, Lana Jacobs, and all the amazing people at Penguin who worked on Bedeviled. I can’t thank you enough.

  Cover illustrator J. David McKenney for another great job.

  Jodi Reamer, my fabulous agent, for always being in my corner, as well as Alec Shane and the team at Writers House.

  My friends, colleagues, readers, and the librarians and booksellers who’ve supported me. It means a lot.

  My wonderful family—all the cousins, aunts, and uncles for your encouragement. My sister-in-law, Andrea, who always knows the right thing to say. My mom, who is my strongest champion and biggest fan. And my dad, who always supported my dreams.

  You are all in my heart.

  chapter 1

  Cole. Daniels. Was. Kissing. Me!

  Who needed the devil? My wish was coming true all on its own. That’s right. I, Angel Garrett, freak show extraordinaire, snagged the cutest guy in the whole school right out from under Jaydin Salloway’s mean but perfect little nose.

  And he was kissing me!

  Nothing else mattered. Not that I was the daughter of the devil or inherited whacked-out powers that went off at the worst possible moments or even that I was wearing the ugliest dress in the history of dresses at the big school dance.

  None of it.

  Because Cole chose me. This was totally my Cinderella moment. Well, except for the dress. It really was hideous. I had my powers to thank for that. But so what? Cole didn’t seem to care that I looked like the prom queen from clown school. Which had to be a definite sign he was into me. That, and the fact that HE WAS KISSING ME.

  It was like I had little wind gusts twirling around in my stomach that shot to my head and all the way down to my toes. And our lips had only touched for three seconds. But still, they felt all tingly and—

  “Mm-hm.” The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted my thoughts—and my kiss.

  I expected it to be Jaydin, or worse, her commander-in-chief Courtney Lourde, there to tell me off. To let me know that no one messed with Goode Middle School’s in crowd and got away with it and that I should be prepared to pay. That I would have been ready for. Courtney and Co. made it their mission to make my life miserable. But this, this was way worse. I opened my eyes to see my science teacher, Miss Simmons, hovering over me. Talk about mortifying.

  “Break it up,” she said.

  Not that she needed to. Cole had already jerked his foot away from me as if I had sprayed him with Angel repellant. Miss Simmons just stood there. I could feel my cheeks getting warm, and my eyes darted to the ground. Can you get detention for kissing? I honestly had no idea.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled to her. I didn’t want to get Cole in trouble. Not for kissing me. I only wanted him to associate that with good things, like minty-fresh breath and cotton candy lip gloss.

  Luckily Miss Simmons didn’t lecture us or anything. She just walked away.

  I snuck a look at Cole. He had this sheepish smile on his face. “I think everyone may have seen that,” he said, stepping back toward me.

  He was kind of right. A whole bunch of people were staring at us. And those who weren’t seemed to be getting an earful from those who were. It was way embarrassing. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this was nothing compared to some of the humiliating situations I had gotten myself into in the past. Like accidentally making my shirt disappear in front of everyone—including Cole—and getting the nickname Double-A based on . . . well . . . you can guess why. . . .

  “Yeah,” I responded. It wasn’t the cleverest thing to ever come out of my mouth, but I was at a loss. What if Cole didn’t want people to know he liked me? Maybe he just wanted me to be his nerdy little secret that no one knew about.

  We stood there looking at each other for a moment. “Well, I guess that was one way to tell people we’re back together,” he said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “We are back together, right?”

  I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath until I let out a huge sigh of relief. Cole wanted me to be his girlfriend again. And he didn’t care if the whole school k
new. This was the best moment ever! “Definitely!” I told him.

  “So no more avoiding each other, right?” he asked.

  And just like that, my moment ended. I wanted to say yes. To tell him I wouldn’t ignore him anymore. But I wasn’t sure I could. The whole reason we stopped hanging out in the first place was that I was afraid to be around him. My powers tended to go off when my emotions went into overdrive, and that happened a lot around Cole. The last time he tried to kiss me, I accidentally set off fireworks in his backyard. But nothing bad had happened this time. Maybe I had everything under control.

  I caved. “No more avoiding each other.”

  Hanging out with Cole was worth the risk.

  When he took my hand again, I knew I had made the right call. It was like a shot of warmth surged through me, and I didn’t want it to end.

  “Good,” he said. “I missed hanging out with you.”

  “Really?” I know he just said it, but I wanted to hear it again.

  He nodded, and this time he was the one to look down. Was he getting shy? Around me?!

  “I missed you, too,” I said.

  That made him look back up. Our eyes connected, and for a second I thought he was going to kiss me again. But he didn’t. Instead, his gaze shifted over to Miss Simmons. Mine did, too. Only I was in for a surprise. Right next to my teacher was my father. Lou was at the dance for everyone to see. The only thing worse than having your father show up to a dance is having your father show up to a dance when your father is the devil.

  “Isn’t Zombie Zone Four opening next Friday?” Cole said, not thinking twice about who was standing next to the punch bowl.

  “Yeah.” I didn’t know what to focus on—what Cole was saying, or that my father, Lucifer himself, was watching everything. What if he had seen Cole kiss me?

  “I was thinking we could go,” Cole said.

  I dropped his hand. I heard regular dads were way overprotective of their daughters. What if a devil dad was worse?

  Cole looked from his hand back to me. His smile was gone.

  Oh no. He thought I wasn’t interested. “I want to go to the movie. With you.” I quickly added in the last part. Cole knew I was really into horror movies. He wasn’t a huge fan, but he was willing to go because of me. That made the invitation even sweeter.

  “You don’t have to.” He jammed his hands into his pockets.

  “I want to.” It was time to open up to Cole. To tell him the truth. As much of it as I could, anyway. “I know I’m being weird again,” I admitted. “But remember how I told you the dad I hadn’t seen for thirteen years reappeared in my life?”

  He nodded.

  “See that guy by Miss Simmons?”

  “The sub?”

  “Yeah.” Lou had turned himself into our substitute teacher for a day to try and get closer to me. “Well, that’s my father.”

  “No way!”

  “Yep, and I had no idea he’d be here spying on me tonight.” As if on cue, Lou waved at us, then pointed at his watch.

  “Oooh, that stinks,” Cole said. “My mom wanted to chaperone tonight, too. I had to beg my father to talk her out of it.”

  I would have preferred his mom to my dad.

  “Looks like he’s ready to take you home,” Cole said, and nudged his chin toward Lou, who was still pointing at his watch.

  “I guess I have to go,” I said.

  Then Cole started walking. Straight for Lou. “Uhh. What are you doing?”

  “Taking you over to your dad.”

  That’s what I was afraid of. “Don’t worry about it,” I assured him. “He’s not very friendly. He doesn’t like talking to strangers.”

  But Cole wouldn’t listen.

  “Hello there,” Lou said, grinning at both of us, flashing his dimples. The ones I inherited from him. “Having fun?” Then his face got serious, and he looked straight at Cole. “Not too much fun, I ho—”

  “Anyway,” I said, interrupting what was sure to be a lecture on kissing. “Shouldn’t we get going?”

  “It was nice to meet you, sir,” Cole said, putting out his hand to my father.

  I grabbed it instead. I wasn’t letting Cole shake hands with the devil.

  “But Ange—”

  “See you on Monday,” I told Cole as I gave him a light push toward the door. The poor guy looked so confused, but I had no choice but to get rid of him before my dad said something damaging in his presence.

  I grabbed Lou by the arm and dragged him out of the dance.

  “Well, that was rude,” Lou said when we were alone.

  “What?”

  “You wouldn’t even let me shake the boy’s hand.”

  I shrugged my shoulder. “Sometimes when people shake hands, it’s to seal a deal. How do I know you’re not going to turn around and act like Cole had agreed to some kind of pact in exchange for his soul?”

  “Angel, I told you. I’m done with that. I’m a good guy.”

  “A good guy who still runs the underworld.”

  Lou shook his head. “Only because I haven’t found a replacement yet. Someone has to make sure the bad souls are kept in check, and that person has to be very trustworthy—do you know how difficult it is to find a trustworthy person who also aspires to be the devil? But I don’t do anything evil. You asked me to stop trading innocent souls for granted wishes and I have.”

  He looked genuinely sad. “Okay,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

  “You have to trust—”

  Just then, Lou’s hPhone went off. An hPhone is like an iPhone but with underworldly applications. Access to anywhere on Earth with the click of a button, for example. That’s how I accidentally ended up under the dinner table at Cole’s house one night.

  “It’s not a good time,” Lou said into the phone. “I’m going to have to call you back.”

  “Wait,” pleaded the voice on the other side. Whoever it was shouted so loudly I could hear everything. “It’s important. I need to talk to you.”

  “It’s really not a good ti—”

  “You’ve got to help me,” the voice continued. “I did it just like you said. I made him a major leaguer, but something went wrong. I don’t know what I did, but now he’s also starring in Swan Lake at the American Ballet Theatre and has a seat in the Senate. He’s trying to pass a bill outlawing the name Susan. People are very upset!”

  I stumbled back a few steps. No. It had to be a mistake. My ears were playing tricks on me. Lou had just finished telling me he was done trading the souls of the innocent. Even he was past lying straight to his daughter’s face. Or so I thought. . . .

  “Hanging up now,” Lou said before clicking off.

  “What was that about?” I asked, praying it was nothing.

  “Just some silly underworld business. Don’t concern yourself with it.”

  But I couldn’t let it go. “What kind of business?”

  He waved me off. “Just helping make someone’s dream come true.”

  But at what price? People from the underworld didn’t go around helping others. Not without getting something in return.

  “Angel,” Lou said.

  But I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. My whole body was numb, and the blood stopped running through my veins. Because my head understood what my heart couldn’t. My father was still evil.

  chapter 2

  “That was just an old business associate joking around.” Lou moved toward me. “Really. Nothing bad.”

  “Liar,” I shouted. “Do not come any closer.” My whole body was shaking, not so much from fear, but from anger. How could I have been such a fool? He was Lucifer himself. He made a living deceiving people. He wasn’t going to change just for me.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Lou said.

  “You don’t know anything about me.” My hands clenched into fists.

  “You’re feeling hurt and betrayed,” Lou said, his voice low and soothing. But I wasn’t going to be lulled into forgiving him. “But I promis
e you, I kept my word. I have not tried to take a good soul.”

  Did he think I was the biggest airhead in North America? “I heard you,” I spat.

  “No, who you heard was Gremory. He was the one trying to take the soul. Not me. I was just helping him out of a jam.”

  Seriously? Seriously?! Was his moral compass so messed up that he couldn’t tell instructing someone to take a soul was just as bad as taking it himself? Or had he just found a loophole to his promise? “It’s the same thing.”

  “Not technically,” he said.

  I let out a snort. “You want to get technical? Well, technically, you promised you’d be good. You even got mad at me when I doubted you two minutes ago. But last time I checked, teaching some guy to be evil is not good.”

  “I didn’t teach him to be evil. He already was. He’s a demon—that’s how they are.”

  That actually caught me off guard. I never really thought about the other dark beings in the world.

  “W-well,” I stammered, “you didn’t have to help him.” My nails stabbed into my palms. I needed to feel the pain. To know this was real, not some nightmare.

  Lou lowered his head. “I’ll make it up to you. You’ll see, I can be better.”

  I wasn’t falling for his fake promises again. “Too late, Lucifer. I want nothing to do with you. Ever.”

  I started to run off. Only I tripped on my dress and fell forward, skinning my elbows.

  Tears sprang out of my eyes before I could stop them.

  “Here,” Lou said, reaching out to touch my wounds. “I can fix it, make you feel better.”

  “No, you can’t.” Because while the fall stung, it was nothing compared to how he hurt me. Without another word, I turned my back on him and walked away.

  chapter 3

  “There you are,” my best friend, Gabi Gottlieb, shouted as she ran to catch up with me. I kept walking without even bothering to turn around and acknowledge her. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. It’s a good thing that dress is so bright. I could probably see you from Mars. Where are you going, anyway?”