Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Iwoke up in the Bell, Singsong’s best hospital, where my mother had spent so much time in her last year. Time I was still paying off.
I tried to sit up, because I couldn’t be here and rack up more bills that my dad would end up in a cage for.
Or the goblins would unleash another Lady of the Wild Woods for.
But my stomach muscles acted like they’d been chopped in half recently and didn’t do anything but send a spike of pain through me.
Zero upward movement, oodles of pain. Clearly not a winning combo.
“Don’t move,” my dad growled, putting a heavy hand to my upper chest, like I was going to try that again. Nope. Not with the way my stomach was still throbbing horribly.
I tried to smile, but my face wasn’t working great.
Something soft moved against my arm then the rabbit rose up to stare into my eyes.
Wow. His eyes were bright and shiny, like worlds coalescing in a very magical way.
Yes. This was a magic rabbit. Why did he look so good after I’d basically died?
Maybe he was a death rabbit. Vampire rabbit?
“Off,” my dad said, trying to shoo him away.
Divinity sniffed and snuggled down by my side, between my arm and my ribs.
I tried to bring back exactly what had happened in the bakery.
Had he really expanded and eaten the Lady of the Wild Woods?
It seemed like the shadow silhouette had been in the shape of a devil, with a horn and a tail, but maybe I’d been hallucinating.
It was hard to think properly when you were being dragged around by a blood sword.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice crackling and dusty.
“The devil brought you here.”
“Before that. You didn’t come to the front.”
He frowned. “Well, the goblin band came in the back and carried me off. So that’s where I was while the devil tended you.”
I stared at him and grabbed his pointed green ear. “What do you mean, the goblins carried you off? Did they torture you?” I moved his face back and forth, looking for signs of injuries.
He pushed my hand down. “Calm down. I’m fine. The devil doesn’t like his deals to be broken, so he took care of them.”
“Took care of them?”
“Dumped them on Lieutenant Sato, who’s married to the goblin king, who dislikes them and will make sure they’re thoroughly processed to the fullest extent of the law.”
I lay there, fingers twitching as I tried to stay calm and not attempt to sit up then wish to die when my stomach screamed at me. It hadn’t hurt nearly so much when it was happening. No, the kiss had been…
For a moment, the world got beamish and dreamy as I remembered caramel and lightning.
What in the world had he kissed me for? We didn’t kiss.
We weren’t dating; we were dealer and dealee, not kisser and kissee.
But he had kissed me. Unless I was hallucinating.
It was possible that everything, including the rabbit, had been a vivid hallucination.
I shook my head, and even that small movement hurt me. “How long was I out?”
“Three days.”
I glowered at him. “How long until I can get back to work?”
He glowered back at me. “As long as it takes to heal. You’re lucky to be alive, princess.”
“I have to get back to work!”
“You have to get better.”
“What deal did you make so they’d take me here? This room is way too nice.” I looked around at the horribly large, comfortable room with a bed, couch, and huge TV.
His face shuttered. “You’ll have to talk to the devil about it.”
“What do you mean? It had a confidentiality clause?”
“He said you made the deal.”
I blinked at him. “I made the deal? When?”
He shrugged uncomfortably then stood up. “I’ll go tell the nurse that you’re awake. They’ll want to do some tests on you.”
I glared after him then looked down at the rabbit. Did he have a pale blue nimbus around his pale white, fluffy fur coat? Yes, yes, he did.
“You sure got a glow-up. You definitely don’t look like you’re going to die.”
“No, he isn’t,” the devil said where he lounged in the doorway, forked tail twitching back and forth as steady as a metronome.
I stared at the tall drink of deliciousness who I’d hallucinated kissing. Unless it was real. Why had he kissed me when I was bleeding to death? It made as much sense as the vampire rabbit taking that moment to bite me. “I didn’t make a deal with you. I mean a second one.”
He hesitated then walked toward me, looking too dressed up in his three-piece suit compared to me in my blue hospital gown. “It was an unspoken deal. You let the rabbit bite you. Again.”
I blinked at him then down at Divinity. He really did look divine. So pretty. “I was bleeding to death. Not like I could stop him.”
“Quite. However, when you were so close to death, you didn’t need to add to his life force with your own. It was…” He frowned while the rabbit gave him the most judgmental glare I’d ever seen anyone in the whole world give, and I’d known a lot of proud fairies.
The devil straightened and adjusted his cuffs. “I suppose the unspoken deal needs clarification. The rabbit is my soul.”
I stared at him. “What?”
He winced. “That doesn’t make things clearer, does it?”
“No. Devils don’t have souls. Everyone knows that. They particularly don’t have souls inside rabbits.”
He gave me the slightest glimmer of a smile while his dark eyes sparked and my mouth felt really big on my face. Kissing a devil was worth dying for. “You see,” he said in his low, silky voice, “I was given a split soul.”
I stared at him. He was so nice to stare at. “That makes literally no sense. You make deals with lots of whole souls. Why would you make a deal for half?”
He cleared his throat. “It was a long time ago, my first soul-exchange, and I kept it for myself. It seemed like having a soul would be a good idea.”
I squinted at him then shook my head. “But how did the soul get into a rabbit? You’re saying that you’ve had a rabbit soul hopping around biting people for hundreds of years?
How old are you, anyway? Never mind. Let’s focus on the most relevant bits.
” I frowned down at Divinity, and he was ridiculously glowing and ethereal.
Very soul-like. “Why does your soul bite me?”
“Ah. That’s also something I should explain.” And then he didn’t explain.
I stared at the devil with his cut cheekbones and mesmerizing eyes.
He stared back.
I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you going to explain why your rabbit soul bites me?
If it is your soul, because that part still makes no sense.
Also, splitting my soul to give to someone would kill me.
Why would anyone do something that stupid?
Does that make them your soulmate? And why would your soul be so judgmental?
Is it really yours if it’s part of someone else’s?
And how could they possibly make it yours?
” I shook my head. Ow. That took stomach muscles? Annoying.
He gave me a blinding smile. “So you see,” which I absolutely didn’t, “you don’t have to worry about hospital bills or anything else because I owe you for saving my soul. Consider us even.”
“How did I save your soul?” I looked at Divinity again. The thing glowed like he could save other people’s souls. “Are you really his soul?”
Divinity glowed at me.
“Because if you are, don’t you think you should be inside his body where you can be the most use?
Like, you could be his conscience. Judgmental looks aren’t nearly as good as pressing against his brain in long diatribes listing all the reasons he’s doing stupid things.
You could’ve kept him from releasing the Lady of the Wild Woods before she turned my cupcakes into confetti.
” I looked up at the devil and found him staring, but the expression on his face was soft, amused, like he found me talking to his soul charmingly sweet.
“The Lady of the Wild Woods had no respect for my baked goods. That’s what happens.
You stop enjoying life, go on too many diets, cut out too many pleasures, and the next thing you know, you’re slaughtering transients and happy bakers. Oh! How much money did I make?”
He stared at me. “Um. Am I supposed to know that?”
I gave him a look. “I’m paying you back. Shouldn’t you be concerned about my profit margin?”
“My soul is in a very good state. If you’d like to cancel the deal, and—”
“What? Just because the rabbit’s not dying doesn’t mean you’re out of the deal. I’m keeping the bakery. In five years of profits, it’s mine!”
He gave me a soft smile. It had to be a lie because devils weren’t soft, but it looked real.
Creepy. Also incredibly beguiling. “Of course it’s yours.
I’m saying that…” His smile faded. “The rabbit soaked up your life force, particularly when you cuddled it to sleep all night. It was a bit like cuddling me.”
I stared at him while the caramel kiss hit me and made me want to burrow under my pillows and never emerge. “Oh. You didn’t mention it.”
“No. I never had to say anything to his last keeper. Prudence believed strongly that animals should stay in their proper place.”
“So she put your soul in cages. Didn’t that hurt?”
He stared at me. “I don’t mind pain, particularly when it’s deserved. I shouldn’t have made that deal. There were a lot of deals I made that thoroughly destroyed people.” He raised a hand with rings, many with glowing stones. “I still have their souls. Some here that won’t be forgotten.”
I stared at those rings, which were now quite creepy thanks to knowing that they held souls. Super creepy. Like sleeping in Divinity’s dead mistress’s bed. With his soul.
“So, why did your soul bite me?” I asked, staring at my hands, not him, not the rabbit, which was his soul, just my normal, ordinary, impossible fairy-goblin hands.
“To take your love.”
I looked up at him, confused and weirded out. “My love isn’t in my blood.”