“This is just a dream.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” And there was truth in that too. He was offering. He would give this to me, to us, if I asked.
“You’re still holding my sister’s soul hostage. I have people to de-frog and a unicorn to kick out of Ordinary. That’s my life. My real life. And…and you. You’re going to have to leave Ordinary, Bathin. You can’t just break the rules for your own benefit.”
“Myra…”
“No. You wanted me to listen to you? To really listen? Then listen to me. If you don’t give her soul back. Today. I will use those scissors. I’ll have to. No matter the cost.
“So I’m asking you. One last time. Please release Delaney’s soul.”
His expression was a broad brush of emotion: discomfort, embarrassment, and guilt. So much guilt. And when he spoke, it was a truth I did not want to hear.
“I can’t.”
Chapter 19
He was dressed,back in the jeans, T-shirt, and black leather motorcycle jacket I should not want to take off him again.
I had waited, for every minute it took him to locate his clothes, for every minute it took him to pull them on. Had waited for him to explain his answer.
“Can’t,” I finally said.
“Contracts…” He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Contracts with demons are sacred. Once entered, never released. It isn’t in our nature to give up something we’ve won.”
“You didn’t win it. She traded for Dad’s soul.”
“Even better.”
“So you won’t let go of her soul?”
“I can’t. Not unless there is no other choice.”
“There’s no other choice right now.”
“Not for me. There is nothing I want more than to keep her soul. To stay in Ordinary. That’s…it’s a demon thing.” There was a blush on his cheeks, as if this were embarrassing to him, degrading to admit.
“I can’t let go of it…can’tuntil there is something…more.”
That truth was a blade, a river, a mountain range between us. I could push it, I should. But the things I would tell him were too vulnerable.
That if he cared for me, he would let her go. If he cared more for me than he cared to be hiding from his father in Ordinary, he would let her go.
That if he loved me…
No. That wasn’t what we were talking about. That couldn’t be what we talked about.
“You could let her go,” I said, voice even. “And you could leave Ordinary. We could find you a safe place to exist. We have supernatural connections, gods who owe us favors.”
“But there is no other place I desire to be,” he said softly. “Ordinary has ruined me for every other place.”
Something about that was not quite the truth. He smiled sadly. “Or perhaps it is just a Reed sister who has done so to me.”
There was the truth.
“Oh.”
It was sweet, and the soft fire in his eyes made me want to kiss him. But that was over now, that was done. This love affair, if that’s what it was, this fling, couldn’t continue.
