Dustin wasn't surprised to see her swiping one hand across her face before sitting up straight. Her jaw set and her shoulders squared like she'd allowed herself thirty seconds of falling apart and the thirty seconds were up.
She looked at Greg who hadn't moved from his chair. Tyler's chair.
“You were sent to collect my son,” Cathy said.
Greg swallowed. “Yes.”
“So I was right.” Her chin jutted in defiance. “If I hadn't made the deal, he'd have died and you would have walked him out.”
“Yes,” Greg said again. Quieter.
Cathy nodded once.
She looked at Dustin.
“I don't regret it,” she said. “I'd do it again.”
Dustin had no words to say in response. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling. It was neither pain nor relief but something uncontainable that grew inside of him, too big for the space it was in.
His mother had sold her soul for him and she'd do it again, without hesitation.
Hell.
He'd stood on cliffs that were over a thousand feet high but none of them now seemed as monumental as the leap his mother had made—for him.
“Mom—”
“Don't.” She held up a hand. “Don't tell me it wasn't worth it. Don't tell me I shouldn't have.” She pointed at his chest. At his stubbornly beating heart. “You wouldn't be here to berate me if I hadn't done it.”
He closed his mouth.
Cathy turned to Greg. “So what happens now?” she asked, putting herself back together because that was what she did. “You can't collect him, so what now?”
“I don't know,” Greg said, as honest as ever. “I've never seen anything like this,” he went on. “Demonic contracts aren't part of the standard training.”
“There's training?” Cathy asked.
“Very extensive training,” Greg said with a hint of pride before he faltered. “I mean, we received binders and manuals, but…” He hesitated. “None of them covered this.”
Cathy was studying Greg, processing this information. Processinghim.
Dustin could guess what she was thinking.
Nobody expected death to look like Greg.
But Cathy quickly moved past that fact. “Can you find out?”
Greg hesitated again. “There might be something in the archives.”
“What archives?” Dustin asked.
“Back at headquarters,” Greg explained. “We keeprecords. If something like this has happened before, and I'm sure it has, there'll be files.”
That sounded reasonable, but… “Won't you get in trouble?”
Greg looked down at his clipboard. “I'mmeantto investigate,” he said stubbornly.
“Are you still trying to collect my son's soul?” Cathy asked.
