“Yes. For your soul.”
“No,” Dad said again.
“Let her decide. If she refuses to give me her soul then I will do nothing more to take it from her. I am self-centered. I’m not unfair.”
“Don’t do this, Delaney,” Dad said. “He wants more than his kind are allowed.”
That—the ‘his kind’ comment—struck hard enough that Bathin’s mild expression slipped into a scowl.
“I want what is owed to me. Nothing more,” he snapped. “This: your father gave his soul to me. In exchange, I agreed not to enter into Ordinary, nor to allow any of my kind to enter. Have I not lived up to the agreement?”
When neither of us spoke, he raised the volume. “I have lived up to every syllable of our agreement. And more. Because this, this is what I’m offering you, Robert Reed. I am offering you one more chance to trade your soul in a way that will bring good to your town. To your daughter, whom I can see you must love.”
“Out of the kindness of your heart,” I said.
“Out of my own best interests. We both know I have no heart. I took your father’s soul and promised to keep it in exchange for an absence of demons in Ordinary. And now, as part of the trade with you, I will set his soul free.”
Dad exhaled, a small sound that somehow carried both desire and sorrow.
“His soul for my soul,” I repeated.
“No,” Dad said again.
“Not just a soul for a soul. In what way would that profit me?” Bathin asked. He took a breath and for the slightest moment, something else seemed to shift in his eyes. I’d say it was curiosity and maybe need mixed with an urgent hope, but that would be too weird. This was a demon we were talking about here. No heart.
And I knew enough Demon 101 to never, in no uncertain terms trust one.
“I will free your father’s soul, and I will grant unto you a single favor for your living soul, Delaney Reed.”
“Don’t do this, Delaney.”
“What are his powers?” I asked Dad. “Myra would know, but I don’t. What can Bathin do?”
“Nothing,” Dad said.
Bathin sucked air through his teeth. “Falsehood, my dear man? I thought that beneath you?”
“Nothing is beneath me when my family’s threatened. You of all things should know that.”
“Yes, yes. How desperately you made your agreement with me. How terribly you wanted to ease the burden your daughters bear in your absence. So humanlythoughtfuland earnest and….” He stuck one finger in his open mouth as if he were going to gag.
Ass.
“What is his scope of powers?” I asked again, wishing I could reach my TASER and dial it to disintegrate.
Dad’s eyebrows shot downward as he tried to recall his demonology. I could only imagine it was harder now that he had been dead for over a year and didn’t exactly have reference material handy.
“Stones,” Bathin said. “I know stones, and herbs, ways in which they can be used. I can move people in both physical and astral forms.”
“That’s it?” I asked.
He widened his eyes before narrowing them again. “That is so much more than you can imagine and all that I will tell you.”
Bathin obviously knew how to keep demons out of Ordinary. Or maybe he didn’t. It might simply be a coincidence that there were no demons in the town. A coincidence he took credit for.
Never trust a demon.
“You’ll set my dad’s soul free for my soul and a favor?”
