Lex is in the kitchen, her head bent over several books.Mortem is passed out cold on the sofa.
“Tea?”Midnight asks.
Lex nods.“Please.Can you pop some bread in the toaster too?”
Midnight faffs and potters making bits, but when we’re all sat around their apartment kitchen table, we fall into silence.
“Wow, what’s with the elephant in the room?”Lex says.
Midnight puts her head in her hands.“I am dying,” she says.Lex drops her knife and snorts.We’re all so on edge that the clatter makes us jump.
“We’re all dying, what sort of a statement is that?”Lex demands.
Midnight shakes her head.“I mean soon.”
“No,” Lex snaps.“Ignatius is in prison.He can’t reap you, you’re fine.”
“The original deal,” I start.“He didn’t overwrite it when he forced her to agree to selling me to him.”
Lex slumps back in her chair.“You’re going to need to say more.”
Bile claws at my throat as I have to face the reality of losing Midnight once more.
“There’s nothing we can do to stop it,” Midnight says.
Lex glances between us, swallowing hard.
“The short of it is that the original deal is still in play, and because it’s in play, it’s eating Midnight’s soul.”
“We just have to make the most of what time I do have,” Midnight says, but her tone is so forlorn, as if she’s already given up that it makes me want to scream.
“I said fucking stop it,” I bark so loudly that Lex jumps in her seat and Midnight’s gaze snaps to mine.
“You will not give up, do you hear me?We have time.”
“How much?”Lex asks.
“A week.A little more if we’re lucky.”
Midnight sighs.“The real question is how long can I hold on?”
We’re all silent for a moment.My jaw flexes; I refuse to quit.
“It’s long enough.We will find a way around this.Some magic we can use to extract enough of the contract from your soul.Hell, maybe we can use the demon magic you have now to make a deal with yourself.Or we could use the power I have.I’m getting better at controlling it every day… I… We could…”
My cheeks are wet, everything is blurry, and Midnight’s hands are around my waist.
“Don’t… don’t you do that to me.You stop hugging me this instant.You’re hugging me like we’ve already lost.”
“It’s okay, baby,” she whispers in my ear.But none of this is okay.
None of it.
“Finis won’t recommence for weeks.Not while we’re in danger of having our realm destroyed.I will spend all my free time researching.MORTEM…” Lex barks.
Mortem doesn’t even raise his head but mumbles from under his paws, “Mortem is sleeping.Please leave a message after the beep and he will get back to you when he can find a fuck to give.”
Lex scowls at the fluff ball, shoves her chair back, marches to the sofa and scruffs the cat.He’s so shocked he doesn’t have time to shift incorporeal.So she carries him kicking and hissing to the kitchen table and dumps him unceremoniously onto it.
