Penelope steps between us. “Your arrangement is with Shepard Love?”
“Yes,” the demon growls.
“That isn’t this man’s name.”
The demon lurches closer to Penelope. “He lied to me?”
Penelope presses her lips together and tilts her head. “He didn’t fully disclose—”
“That is a lie!” the demon shouts. My head is full of static.
“Well”—Penelope shrugs, unimpressed—“whatever it is, it voids the contract.”
The demon looks at me over Penelope’s head. “I will disembowel you if this is true.”
“You could disembowel himafterthe wedding,” Penelope says, “ifhe is unfaithful; infertile; or if his face displeases you. The terms are clear. But providing false information merely invalidates the engagement.”
“Where does it say that?” the demon asks.
“Right above his wrist.‘The agreement is null and void, and any favours or gifts shall be returned’—”
It huffs. “He didn’t ask for any favours!”
“That makes it easy, there’s nothing to undo.”
The demon looks especially bearlike and holelike for a moment. “This man called me of his free will!”
“I did,” I say, “I’m sorry.”
Penelope’s elbow catches me in the stomach.
“There were no tricks,” the demon goes on, “no entrapment! I wasn’t evenlookingfor a husband!”
“We don’t dispute that,” Penelope says.
The demon jabs a paw into Penelope’s shoulder. “He summoned me with a time-tested, legally sound marriage proposal.”
“We stipulate to that fact.”
“He offered his name—and much else that I didn’t require!”
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask to see some identification,” Penelope says. “Or attempt any due diligence.”
The demon huffs white smoke into Penelope’s face. “I could kill you both!”
Penelope, unbelievably, steps forward. “You could, but that isn’t what you agreed to do in the case of inadequate disclosure.” She takes another step. “Youagreedto invalidate the contract!”
The demon points at me, right over Penelope’s head. “I could elect to honour our covenant, regardless! I will come for you at the appointed hour, and take you on the long journey to my home, where we will be married for all my brethren to see. You will be immortal, because I will take you to a place where your kind cannot live or die.”
Penelope folds her arms. “Youcouldchoose to flout the law and disregard the contract . . . Perhaps your word is as worthless as his.”
The demon howls—the whole building vibrates—and then lumbers across the room to sit on Penelope’s couch. It looks like a woman again. Beautiful. With skin a color my eyes can’t see. And hair like horns, like hair, like a hole.
Penelope takes a breath to say something.
“Quiet,” the demon says. “I’m thinking.”
I really want to apologize or smooth this over somehow. Maybe I should offer the demon something to drink. Penelope must smell it on me; she presses her lips together and shakes her head, hard.
