Lucareoth looked abashed. “You’ve been really nice. And you keep replacing the ice cream.”
“I understand my role as chief ice cream procurer.” Gisele rolled her eyes. “I’m taking Rix with me so he doesn’t interrupt your call. Try not to promise them even more souls, OK?”
“Is that a thing we’re risking?” Morgan asked. “Please tell me that’s not a thing.”
Lucareoth swallowed. Suddenly, he headed for her bedroom door. “I can’t do this.”
“Wait a second, hold up,” she said, stepping in his way. “You can do this, because we have to do this.”
“I’m going to screw it up and you’re going to be in even more danger.”
“This is how we get out of danger,” she said, touching him on the shoulder. He pulled her into an embrace suddenly. He was trembling, she realized.
“Morgan,” he said into the top of her head, his voice muffled by her hair. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
She laughed weakly. “I don’t think I ever know what I’m doing. But we’re going to do it together, OK?”
Slowly he stopped trembling. “OK.”
After a minute, she glanced at the clock. “If we want to take advantage of him being more receptive at midnight, we need to do it now. Then afterwards, we’ll have hot rolls with melted butter.”
“I don’t know what’s that’s like,” he said, still into the crown of her head.
“It’s worth making a scary call for,” she promised.
“OK.” He straightened up. “Let’s do this.”
If she’d kept the ritual dagger she’d been given in kindergarten, the ritual would have been much more dramatic. But she’d left that in a box somewhere in her childhood bedroom,probably with a pile of My Little Ponies. The cheap paring knife lacked gravitas, but stabbed hearts just fine.
Smoke billowed up out of nowhere. She fanned it away from her face. “Ugh, this smells like Taco Bell farts.”
“That’s brimstone,” Lucareoth corrected her, drawing runes in chicken heart juice. It wasn’t really blood so much as clearish goo.
“Brimstone is sulfur, and sulfur smells like farts,” she said.
“Shush before the connection kicks in and he hears you.”
The smoke twisted into a sheet, and the sheet shimmered. Bel’aliol’s eyes appeared first, staring at them with icy disdain. A cold sweat broke out down Morgan’s spine. Slowly, the rest of his face came into focus, which did not significantly improve the atmosphere.
His mouth moved but no sounds came out.
“Wait a second, I don’t think I got the audio right,” Lucareoth said, fiddling with the chicken heart.
“—you hear me now?” Bel’aliol’s voice boomed out, far too loud, but the image disappeared.
“Hold on. Umm.” Lucareoth poked the heart again.
“I still can’t see you.”
“We can hear you OK,” Lucareoth said. “Is that better?”
The picture finally snapped into focus. The senior demon snorted.
“I saw the paperwork for one soul,” Bel’aliol said without preamble. “With multiple add-ons. Which is a more promising start. You have yet to balance your expenditures though, and you still owe another soul for the transfer.”
“We’re working on that,” Lucareoth promised.
“Then this call could have been a message.” Bel’aliol moved to cut the connection.
