SkyesatacrossfromZara at the VIP table, their second-floor vantage point giving them an unobstructed view of the stage.Tilted Haze put on a great show, and Remi charmed the crowd as usual, but in between songs, his eyes always darted up to her.
“That man either wants to kill you or fuck you,” Zara said.
He was still staring, so Skye blew him a kiss, and his expression deepened into a scowl.
Zara laughed.
“It’s the first one,” Skye said.“His soul bargain is deteriorating.”
Zara’s face sobered.“The Devil’s soul bargains don’t break,” she said.“I thought that was impossible.Only regular bargains can.”
All magical beings could make bargains with one another, which were tied to their life force and their own personal magic.Hell was crawling with demons trying to snake one another into shady deals.All those myths Remi heard about selling his soul to the Devil and being tricked, those actually came from the demon-to-demon bargaining that went on.
“Are you itching or in pain?”Zara asked, her head tilted to the side in confusion.“Or is the Devil?No wonder he was pissed when I told him you were in the middle of a deal when he summoned you.”
If a demon-to-demon bargain was broken, there were magical consequences.The magic made sure the person not fulfilling their end would suffer until they did what they promised.
“No,” Skye said.“Neither of us is itchy or in pain.”
The Devil’s soul bargain was different.The exchange was immediate.Once the soul was given up in exchange for whatever the demon negotiated with the human, the magic of the bargain snapped into place to make it happen.
Skye had felt the burn in her Devil’s mark when she’d taken Remi’s soul in his bedroom, and she felt the residual ache of it in her wrist two weeks later when the magic was finally set in motion.Tilted Haze’s songs were streaming, and they got their record deal.
“The bargain isn’t broken,” Skye said with a shake of her head.“It’s like being involuntarily negated.”
Negation didn’t happen often—maybe once every thousand years.Skye had only heard stories about the Devil negating a bargain with humans who wound up in Hell for one reason or another.
When the Devil dissolved a soul bargain—the soul returned to its place and everything the human negotiated for disappeared—there were no magical consequences.It was as if the bargain had never happened at all.
But that was what the Devil was trying to avoid with Remi.For whatever reason, he wanted his soul.
Skye explained to Zara what the Devil had told her about Remi’s shadows and showed her where they stayed inside the necklace.Zara reached out to touch the gem, but Skye slapped a protective hand around it.
“You let his shadow soul invade your mother’s necklace?”Zara asked as her hand retreated.“It’s the last piece of her magic you have.”
Skye shrugged.“It’s the easiest solution.I need to keep an eye on it.”
“Fascinating,” Zara said, her eyes wide with curiosity.They bounced between Skye’s necklace and the man on stage who was taking all his anger and funneling it into the best performance the Whisky had ever seen.
“What do you think I should do?”Skye asked, taking a swig of her drink.The burn of the alcohol down her throat contrasted the cool gem buzzing with shadows at the center of her collarbone.
“Fuck him.And let me watch.”
“No.”
“Okay.I’ll fuck him and you can watch.”
Skye put her glass down hard enough that it clinked on the table.“No one is fucking him,” she said and pointed a finger at Zara.“Or any of the other members of my band.”
“Your band?”Zara raised an eyebrow.She finished the rest of her martini.
“My band,” Skye said.“I’m going to be their manager.”
Zara wrinkled her nose.“Ew.Why?You’ll have to do, like, actual work.”She put up a hand as Skye opened her mouth.“Never mind.I know why.You want to play human.”
“No,” Skye said, averting her eyes from Zara’s piercing gaze.“I have to keep up this end of the bargain until the magic has a chance to solidify.Being their manager gives me an excuse to hang around.”
“Right,” Zara said, elongating the word with skepticism.“Have you told Laurie about this?He might know how to make the bargain solidify faster.All that research he does on the supernatural.”
