“Yeah,” Morgan said. “When we fixed Hayley, it got added to his quota. It’s not free.”
“I realize it’s not free.” Gisele toyed with the remainder of her cookie; it disintegrated into crumbs under her fingers. “But Morgan. Honey. If I understand right, you’ve already paid the price. Shouldn’t you get something out of it?”
“What, you think I should accept being damned and start demanding riches?” Morgan couldn’t help feeling a little betrayed.
Gisele looked a little betrayed herself. “I guess if that’s what you want. But no one seems to be talking about the fact there’s unselfish things to want, too.”
“What, like world peace?”
“Hey, I already said that’s way out of budget, even if it were a Deal instead of a freebie,” Luke protested. “I don’t think any one person could buy something that big, even if they owed the rest of time.”
“Fine,” Gisele snapped. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t tons of stuff that’s more achievable that wouldn’t alsobe pretty great. Get the right person elected. Help out a charity. Save someone from cancer. Change the life of one underprivileged kid.”
Luke looked like he was going to say something, and then shut his mouth.
Morgan flushed to not have considered it herself. “You’d think a lot of desperate parents down at the children’s hospital would consider selling their soul to cure their child, if nothing else.”
“Maybe something to think about?” Gisele had squished the cookie crumbs practically back into flour.
It was something to think about. Why did all this magic have to be spent on making rich people richer? Except there was a problem there. “You’re still saying I should give up and embrace my status as a martyr.”
“I didn’t say you should give up,” Gisele said, stricken.
“You kind of did, though?” Something a little like anger was starting to burn in her belly. Apparently, it really was too much to want something. Anything. Too much to want to live, even. “So much for making my garden grow or whatever. I only wanted to make enough money to buy fancy ice cream. Why do I have to be the sacrifice?”
“Oh, honey,” Gisele said, grabbing her hand. “I’m not asking you to set yourself on fire to keep me warm.”
Luke pulled her into a hug. After a beat, Gisele joined them. Morgan let herself sniffle a little.
“Do you think I should be asking for something selfless?” she asked Luke, pulling back.
He shook his head. But didn’t say anything.
“Luke?” Something wasn’t right. “Can you… Can you not talk about this?”
He looked a little panicked.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t the first time in the last few days. “There’s something else. Something you can’t say. Something that Brad told you not to say?”
He opened his mouth again and nothing came out. Tried again. The cords of his neck stood out with the effort. A strangled squawk was all he could manage. He stopped, panting. “You know enough.”
“But I haven’t put it together,” she said slowly. There was something else here. Something even worse. “You’ve been trying to tell me for days, haven’t you?”
He looked at her mutely.
“It’s got to have something to do with the pivots,” she guessed. He didn’t say no. “A reason he wants to switch to be consumer-facing? A reason he keeps asking for all kinds of stupid stuff? Something to do with the vampires? Or the trade show?”
“Maybe kale is actually as evil as I’ve been saying all along,” Gisele joked weakly. She handed Luke a glass of water, which he took gratefully.
“I suppose you can’t give me a hint.”
He shook his head and then buried it in his hands.
“How am I supposed to guess while also preventing a demon war and signing another two deals?” she asked bitterly as she looked back down at the mess of unfinished forms. “I can’t even figure out what the symbol for an electrical outlet is supposed to be.”
***
Clutching her mug of Blueberry Bagel Morning, which only smelled vaguely chemical-y, she paused at the door andlooked over her coworkers settling into their days. She’d been up far too late the previous night, trying to find some kind of question that could get past whatever restrictions Luke had on him. It hadn’t netted much except an increasingly haggard Luke. How was it connected? It wasn’t that she didn’t think Brad was stupid; he was, in so many ways. But he was cunning and, above all else, self-interested. He was convinced he could beat the demons at their own game, she was sure. But what did it have to do with kale smoothies? Or his weird obsession with sign-up pages?
