Page 149 of Demons Dig Donuts

“His name was Mr. Mitternacht. Very crunchy. Ew. But oh, it was such a good trade! I couldn’t resist. Now. Gimme.” Misingno made the grabby motion again.

“Where did the trade take place?” Gammy held her hand up out of his reach.

“Ugh. Somewhere in the human world. Smelled weird.” Misingno groaned. “Like, bad taffy. No, uh…”

“Do you know an address?”

“What’s that?”

“A memory for a memory then,” Gammy said firmly. “Trade me your memory of meeting with Mr. Mitternacht so I may divine his location, and you get all of mine from dying.”

“That seems like so much—”

“Going once, going twice—”

“Ah!” Misingno grabbed her hand. “It is done.”

Gammy’s lashes fluttered, and she smiled. “It is done.”

Misingno licked his fingers like he could actually taste it and didn’t want to miss a drop. “Mmm, damn. That is wonderful. And oh, is that a little hint of depression that I taste? Lovely.” He bowed to Gammy. “Thank you. Been a pleasure. I’m going to go savor this and watch fucked-up cartoons.” He looked around at all the blood. “Hmm, and maybe clean up a bit. Yeah, but later. That’s boring. I want to see cartoons sing and have sex.” He waved cheerfully. “Adios!”

Indy waited for Misingno to stroll back into his house and the door to shut before he let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “So. Wow. That was fun. Not.”

“I expect the twins will be along soon,” Mr. Heiss said with a grumble. “Which will be even less fun.”

“What for? I get they’d wanna come check stuff out if there was a murder, but Misingno is sort of not murdered now. He is unmurdered. He unmurdered himself.”

“He is still the son of King Zolrya, and I imagine they’re all going to be very interested in finding the guilty party. Such an insult to the crown will be taken very seriously.” Mr. Heiss spat out a short laugh. “I imagine whoever did it had no idea who he really was. They’d have to be an absolute moron to do so knowingly, considering what a target it’s going to put on them.”

“Misingno doesn’t seem that upset about it…?” Indy glanced at the door.

“I can promise you that the king will not be so kind.”

“On that note, I would say it’s time for us to skedaddle.” Gammy smiled at Indy and Mr. Heiss. “I have a memory to analyze, cookies to bake, and you two still need to find some nasty little drug dealers, so! Ready?”

“Yes.” Mr. Heiss grabbed Indy and held him close. “And not a moment too soon.”

“So.” Nyp coughed. “Are we still going to go get coffee or—”

“No.”

They returned once more to Mr. Heiss’s home, and Gammy went right to the kitchen to get to work sorting out the memory Misingno had given her. She was sure she would be able to make sense of it, but it would take her a while to process a faerie’s memory into one a human mind could understand.

Something about faerie magic and faerie this and a bunch of other magical things Indy didn’t understand.

All Indy knew was that it involved a lot of potions.

Like, a lot.

Mr. Heiss left them alone, having said he needed a few moments to take care of some business. Indy figured that was either code for mafia shenanigans or for needing time to recover from Misingno pushing his buttons. Indy never would have thought that the cold, stoic demon had any such vulnerability, but it was clear Misingno’s prodding had shaken him.

Certainly it wasn’t lying constantly and hiding a terminal illness, since Indy had that covered, but it was definitely not good.

“Oh, and the big pot down there!” Gammy was saying, waving at a lower cabinet.

“Right. Got it.” Indy kneeled to get it. “Sorry. Little distracted.”

“Worried about your beau?”