“Could everyone maybe sit down?” Ramona gestured at the couch and chairs.
“I’m not sitting,” Posey said, toothbrush still clutched in her hand like a weapon. “I’m standing right here until someone explains why a demon just showed up at our apartment asking for Zara.”
Zara sighed. Sat back down at the table. “I’m a demon.”
Silence.
“You’re a what?” Kashvi said flatly.
“A demon. From Hell. Specifically from the Temptation and Minor Inconveniences Department, though I manage several divisions.” Zara’s tone was clinical. Professional. Like she was explaining a quarterly report. “Ramona accidentally summoned me three weeks ago. We’ve been magically bound ever since.”
More silence.
Kashvi very carefully set her coffee mug on the counter. “I’m sorry. Did you just say ‘summoned’?”
“It was an accident,” Ramona said quickly. “I was trying to do a simple fortune and success spell and?—”
“You summoned a demon,” Felix said. “With a fortune and success spell.”
“I know how it sounds?—”
“Do you? Because it sounds insane.”
“It was an archaic binding variant,” Zara said. “Easy mistake to make if you’re working from incomplete medieval texts.”
Posey pulled the toothbrush out of her mouth. “You’ve been living here for three weeks. As a demon. From Hell.”
“Yes.”
“And none of us noticed.”
“I’m very good at blending in.”
“Blending in,” Kashvi repeated. “You’re a demon.”
“I mean, yes, technically.”
“What was all that about reports and work?” Kashvi threw up her hands. “What does that even mean?”
“It means Hell has a bureaucracy,” Zara said. “And I’m good at navigating it.Wasgood at it. Before I got summoned.”
Felix had finally picked up his phone. Was staring at it. Put it back down. “So when you said you worked remotely…”
“I meant for Hell. Yes.”
“And the paperwork that just got delivered…”
“Is my formal authorization to stay topside for four more weeks while we sever the binding.”
“The binding,” Posey said slowly. “You mean you’re… you and Ramona are?—”
“Magically tethered,” Ramona confirmed. “We can’t be more than sixty-six feet apart or the magic starts hurting both of us. We’ve been working on finding a way to break it.”
“Hence the severance ritual,” Zara added. “New moon is in four weeks. That’s our window.”
Cammie walked in the front door in her running clothes, her face ashen. “You’re never going to guess what I just saw in the hallway.”
“We might have an idea,” Felix said, scrubbing his hands over his face.
