“That’s too late,” said Luke. He kept fiddling with his bracelet, endlessly tense about whether it or the phone would go off next. “What about musicians? The Paganini Deal is legendary on our side.”
For a day or two after Brad had signed, Morgan had felt optimistic. Convincing him to sign had been easier than she’d feared. Surely the second contract would be just around the corner?
She’d been ignoring exactly how few people she actually knew.
“I guess we could try hanging around Juilliard? I feel like I’m a drug dealer out of one of those old public service commercials. ‘Hey kid, how about some damnation? Firsttaste is free.’” She wasn’t actually sure how drug dealers worked. She was pretty sure she’d be bad at it. But she guessed most of their clients came from word of mouth, not lurking on street corners trying to tempt random people.
“He’s set us up to fail,” Luke said suddenly. He threw his phone, which had just buzzed yet again, against the futon pillow. “This isn’t how this works.”
“Human mythology is full of the Devil tempting people,” Gisele said, cautious in the face of his sudden anger.
“Yeah, mythology,” Luke snapped. “But usually it’s humans reaching out to us. You’re the ones who start it. You just want to blame us for tempting you into what you already intended to do.”
“You’re saying we deserve damnation?” Gisele crossed her arms.
“You’re saying humans deserve credit card debt?”
Morgan regretted complaining to him about that. “It’s not the same thing.”
“From what you said, humans start getting marketing for credit cards when they’re children,” he said defensively. “We’re not the ones making the initial offer. Are you saying that your plane would just turn down the power to keep your lights on?”
Gisele’s mouth was a straight line. “Do you think Morgan got a fair Deal?”
“I—” Sweat broke out on his brow. “I think it’s not fair that she got sucked into my plane when she was just trying to help me.”
“But you think Bel’aliol had the right to demand her soul to send her home.”
He couldn’t lie. He shut his mouth.
“You do! I can’t believe you!” Gisele started to stand.
“No.” Morgan held up a hand. “He’s not wrong.”
“You can’t be serious.”
She’d been thinking about this a lot, though. “If I’d been transported to Japan, the airline wouldn’t have been obligated to give me a free ride home. It’s not like we’re any better. If my mother had found Lucareoth that first night, she might have just killed him.” Life wasn’t fair. Just because she hated it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. “Bel’aliol used coercive terms to get me to sign that contract, but if there’s anyone to blame for me needing it in the first place, it’s me.”
Gisele subsided.
“We need greedy people who are already looking for a shortcut,” Morgan said firmly.
Gisele raised her eyebrows. “Well, it’s Saturday night.”
Morgan sighed. “Tech and finance bros?”
Gisele nodded. “Tech and finance bros.”
***
“What if I can’t do this?” Luke said as they approached the bar. Reddit had assured her it was popular with the finance crowd; it wasn’t like she usually went fishing for wealthy men.
Morgan cast an envious look at Luke’s finery—the fitted black button-down nearly clung to him, and had appeared in a blink. Her black bodycon dress kept riding up, the skin around her eye itched from all the concealer hiding the bruise, and her feet were already aching from the heels, which was going to make tomorrow’s shoe-shopping expedition even worse.
“You signed Brad,” she reminded him.
“You lined him up,” he said. “I’m terrible at the close.”
“We’ll do it together,” she said, offering a fist bump. “Teamwork.”
