“We prefer our Deals,” and she could hear the difference in the capital letter, “to be a bit more precise. Custody of your soul, not forever, but for a single century. And in return, your heart’s desire.”
“And what is my heart’s desire?”
They’d roleplayed this. Now Luke leaned forward, placing one hand on the armrest of Brad’s chair. His face nearly as close as a lover as he stared deep into Brad’s eyes. “10x.”
An exit strategy that delivered ten times the amount invested. And all the steps in between—the successful investment rounds, the multiplicative user base and revenue growth year-over-year.
“I want to be a unicorn.” Brad breathed.
Bingo. She wanted to high-five Luke, but she kept her face still. They worked so well together. This was so much easier with a partner. Friend-partner. Not-anything-else-partner. Keep it focused on the friendship—no, on the partnership.
“You can be a unicorn,” Luke assured him. Inside, she cheered him on. “New York Stock Exchange IPO, your face on the cover of magazines, TED Talk invites. All you have to do is sign.”
“All this from the podcast intern?” Brad said, his eyes flicking across Luke’s scales, his horns.
Luke opened his mouth to explain the half-baked story they’d concocted.
Brad cut him off. “Oh, I get it.” The CEO’s gaze switchedto Morgan. “You sacrificed the intern and let the demon possess him. Cold.” His eyes flicked up and down her face. “Good hustle. I like it.”
She wanted to protest that she could never be that callous, but it was a better story than what she’d come up with. And it bought Brad’s respect. So what if he thought her heartless?
“Show me this contract,” Brad said. “Let’s see what you’ve got. Marketing girl, you get my pen.”
14
Idon’t even know what half these things are,” Luke complained, looking at the list Brad had rattled off.
If they’d been hoping for praise for the contract, they’d been looking in the wrong place. All Luke’s bracelet had returned when he confirmed the sale was a message from Bel’aliol sayingOne.
“Do you need to? To make them happen?” Morgan took the note back. She glanced down the list, ready to interpret, only to pause. She also didn’t know what half the things were.
“It definitely helps to know whether we’re talking about jewelry or a vehicle,” Luke said as she started asking Google to translate from Rich People. The first thing on the list was apparently a watch. The next was some kind of exercise equipment/torture device that definitely indicated that Brad hadn’t figured out yet that he could ask to be sexually attractive. The third was a membership to a club that didn’t even have a website, just some rumors on Reddit. She wasn’t sure what the club was for—Golf? Drinking? Kink?—but she suspected it was primarily Being Rich.
The sad thing was that he could have asked for something that required actual magic, like riding a real live pegasus ortalking to current Infernal Plane residents who were famous or important back when they were alive to discover long-lost secrets. So far, everything Brad’s wildest dreams could come up with could be bought with money.
“Intern!” Brad walked in the door to the CMO office and let it shut behind him. “I need a flight to Paris on the Concorde for tomorrow morning.”
“I don’t think the Concorde exists anymore…” Morgan ventured.
He blinked, apparently only then noticing she was there. “Can’t he make one?”
“What’s a Concorde?” Luke asked hesitantly.
“It was a fancy plane,” Morgan explained.
“Oh, I definitely can’t create an entirely new plane.” Luke shook his head. “I might be able to get you a visit to the Infernal Plane, but I don’t know if that counts as fancy and I don’t think you’d like it.”
“Airplane,” Morgan corrected. “Machine that flies through the air so you can travel to one continent while your luggage goes to a different one.”
“Oh. Still no.”
“Why not?” Brad clearly hadn’t followed the exchange, but he never liked the word “no.”
“We talked about this,” Luke said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “If you ask for anything that requires too big a change to the rest of the world, it increases the chance that someone will try to stop us. Then you won’t get your actual goal.”
And Morgan’s mom and the rest of the Shadow Council would send Luke back to his plane to end his career. Or end him themselves.
“Right, right. Fine, I’ll settle for first-class tickets.” Bradfrowned. “Do you need to go back into a bottle in between wishes or something?”
