While the broken bargain had destroyed Tilted Haze’s reputation with their former label, the plagiarism case against them was eventually dropped for lack of evidence.Skye explained that the original bargain had been effectively negated when Remi made the new bargain with the Devil, so the immediate magical consequences disappeared, but the stain on their name remained.
The band focused on writing the rest of their sophomore album, and in that time, Skye tried to find them a new label.
Weeks went by, but no one in the industry was willing to even take a meeting with them.
“We still have the van to tour in,” West said, while they were spitballing different options in the living room one evening.“And some money saved up.”Their million-dollar contract was void since their label dropped them before their album earned out, but they weren’t destitute.No one would need to get a shitty retail job, at least for now.
Skye nodded.“And there are a few producers who owe me favors.We could record the album, and I could probably get us another tour set up.I’ve already used my pull to get you guys a few shows.”
“That’s really lucky.How does everyone owe you favors, Skye?”Liam asked from the recliner.
Skye tried to dampen her smirk, but it crept through.She shrugged.
“She just works her demon magic,” Remi said, resting his arm on the back of the couch above her shoulders.
“I’ve got the magic touch right here.”She wiggled her fingers at Remi and winked.
“Ew,” West said from the other side of Remi.“Could you save your foreplay for where I don’t have to see it?”
Everyone laughed.
“Maybe it’s your aunt, West,” Ollie said, coughing through the hit of the bong he’d just taken.“Maybe she’s been casting more spells for us that are making us lucky.”
“I’m sure she is,” West said.
“Maybe we have a guardian angel,” Liam said.“Maybe it’s Emerson.”
Remi stiffened, and his eyes darted to West, who only pursed his lips.
Liam grimaced.He opened his mouth, probably to apologize or something, but West beat him to it.
“There’s no way in hell Emerson is guarding anyone from anything,” West said, bitterness dripping from his voice.“He’s probably haunting us if anything.That’d be more like him.”
Remi fiddled with his lip ring.He’d asked Skye about angels after Laurie’s reveal that he was half-angel, half-demon.She’d told him that she’d never met an angel but knew they existed.She said they were most likely created the same way demons were, which didn’t have anything to do with dead humans coming back to life, just boring, old procreation methods.
Remi leaned over to West.“You really believe that?”he asked.“That Emerson is haunting us?”
West blinked a few times as if coming out of a daze.“No, fuck.”He snorted.“I don’t believe that shit.I was just joking.”
Remi nodded, scanning his best friend.
“Sorry,” West said, shaking his head.“That was a dick thing of me to say, Remi.I shouldn’t talk about your brother that way.”
Remi forced a smile.He wasn’t offended.He was just worried about West, but he bumped his shoulder into his best friend’s.“I really don’t care.Em was a douchebag most of the time.”
“He was.”
“You know what would really piss him off?”Remi asked, grinning.
“What?”West asked, smiling back.
“If we got athirdrecord deal.”
West threw his head back and laughed.
Skye came barreling into Remi’s bedroom, her eyes wide and a vibrant energy swirling around her.He was lounging in his unmade bed, the sheets balled up in the corner and his pillow sideways under his back.
Remi perked up as Skye leaned down and unzipped one of her boots and then the other, tossing them to the side.“What are you doing?”he asked.
