Chapter 18 #2
He’d loved her? Given her his heart? Did he still love her?
Of course he did. She was power and perfection.
And she wouldn’t have had power over him and his heart if he didn’t still love her.
My shoulders sagged, and I wanted to cry.
But goblins didn’t cry when they came up against an obstacle.
They gnawed their way through it, or exploded it, or found something else to worry about.
“You didn’t think he could have loved you, did you? Really? Such a foolish child. The devil is a complex creature with such deep magic someone like you can barely begin to understand. What could he possibly see in you to love?”
It was like being publicly weighed all over again. Only worse. I’d never asked the devil to love me. I’d just loved him. And now where was he with this monster holding his heart in her evil, vicious, beautiful hand? “I’m twenty-six. I’m not a child.”
The fairy king made a sound in his throat.
“That’s exactly what twenty-six is. Absolutely a child.
At least you aren’t crying. Yet. Did your mother teach you nothing of fighting?
Of spells? Of how to use your magic to protect yourself and defeat the enemy?
You’re the most crushable creature I’ve ever met.
Perhaps in the next five years you can learn something of defense and make the time when I come to kill you more interesting. ”
I shivered and stared at my beautiful rabbit. “The deal…” I said slowly, looking up at the enchantress, “is that I have dinner with the devil every night. You can’t break the devil’s deal or it will release him from your power.”
She laughed, all delightful and delirious. “Of course you’ll have dinner with us this evening. Like clockwork.”
She waved her wand, and I was whirled around in a storm of glitter and poison until the storm stopped and I dropped onto my bed, in my room above my shop, still clutching Divinity in my arms. I lay there trembling for a moment, my skin stretched over my bones like a rubber band until I slowly sat up and put the rabbit on my pillow.
I stared at him, those luminous eyes that were still glowing brightly.
“I need to go to the library of antiquities.” The collar around my throat tightened at the words, and I grasped it with my fingers, panicked and choking until it gradually loosened, letting me breathe and fall over on my bed in a heap. Well, that was interesting.
I got up, took a shower trying to get all the glitter off my scalp, failed, then got dressed in my prettiest tea-party outfit. I’d never be able to sleep, and I had baking to do if I was going to keep my end of the deal. And I absolutely was.
My father smiled when he saw me. “How was the ball? I thought you’d sleep until four today.” He didn’t look at my throat. Of course he couldn’t see the collar.
“I need to get a cookbook,” I said, focusing my mind on a new kind of cookbook, something with treats that used chili peppers. The devil would like more spicy treats to go with a smoky licorice tea.
Beneath my thoughts was another layer of knowing. Goblins had the kind of brain that could keep a tally while plotting nefarious plots underneath. It didn’t seem like the most useful thing, but when my upper thoughts were being monitored by the collar, it was very useful indeed.
I needed to research how to defeat a fairy enchantress and her ally, the king of the fairies. The fairy queen from fairyland could subjugate him easily enough, but the collar wouldn’t let me go anywhere near her. And it wouldn’t let me say anything about it.
“Do you?” My father started frowning. “Is everything all right? No, it isn’t. What did that devil do?” His glower was downright frightening.
I laughed and squeezed his fingers. “It’s all right. I just need a cookbook that I can read while I’m doing something else. Do you know a spell for that?”
“A spell for consuming knowledge while working on a different task? Of course. It’s fairly common for goblins. Can you perform such a spell with your magic?”
“I can probably bake it into something.”
“All right. Here’s the sigil you draw on the book.” He took a sharp claw and carved it into my butcher block. “And here’s the incantation you use.” He singsonged the spell in goblin, a language he’d taught me but we didn’t use much.
I frowned intently as I memorized it then smiled at him. “Perfect. Will you go get me the cookbook?”
He stared at me. “What cookbook specifically do you want?”
“A book of cooking things that are spicy that the devil would like.”
His eyes narrowed. “Of course. Anything specific you have in mind?” Did he get it? Did he understand that I was under some kind of spell or curse? He was very smart and understood subtlety very well.
“Clockwork hearts,” I said then gasped when the collar constricted.
I filled my head with pretty pastries with chocolate clockwork bits stuck to them.
So cute. Customers would love them. And donuts with swirls of chocolate and peppermint cream.
I needed cream puffs with chocolate and peppermint cream.
There wasn’t enough peppermint in the world.
“Sure.” He picked up one of my vegan sweetbreads and bit into it with his sharp teeth. “I’ll go to the bookstore as soon as it opens. It’s still early if you want to take a nap before you bake.”
I ran my hand over the sigil he’d carved into the wood then looked up at him, pretty sure my desperation was written in my eyes.
I felt trapped, locked in a glass case the shape of my body and unable to escape.
Unable to speak. Unable to scream. “I need to start right away. I don’t know very much about peppermint cream and pepper chocolate. ”
“Sure thing. I’ll be right back.” He hesitated then pulled me into a hug, squeezing me tight while he let his strength soak into me.
I clung to him and took in a trembling breath that he must’ve noticed. “Hurry back.”
“I’ll take my time to make sure to get the right books. Sounds like you need two, one for the peppermint cream and one for the spicy chocolate.”
I nodded. “Two books. Yes.”
He pulled away and gave me a sharp smile before he turned and left my kitchen.
I held very still while I considered the kind of pastry I needed to make that would hold that sigil.
Best would be a pastry actually in the shape of the sigil with mini sigils underneath.
Would it be possible to create something that could help me absorb different books at one time?
Probably. If I failed, it would give me a stomachache, but what was that? Nothing.
I hummed as I focused on my work, sifting flour and stirring while I danced, the tune we’d danced to filling my head. I spun around the room, lost in the spell, the magic, lost until I slipped the pan into the oven and set the timer.
Now what? Might as well start on the macarons and some pop cakes. And some caramel-swirled cinnamon rolls.
I exhaled and got started, although my energy was at an all-time low. I’d used more magic for those things than I’d ever used before.
I worked until the magical sigil pastry was done. I pulled it out, inhaling the scent of vanilla and a hint of smoky apple cardamom.
I stood at the table staring at the pastry, the first thing I’d really pushed my magic into. Finally, I ripped a corner of the twisted bread apart and nibbled on it.
A shuddering shock went through me, like being electrocuted by the devil’s magic but less delicious. And that was just a taste. Imagine eating the whole thing. I took a deep breath, shivering as I picked it up and had a huge bite.
By the time my dad got back, I was a shivering, sweaty mess.
He barely glanced at me or the tiny bit of pastry still on the pan. “I got your books,” he said, setting a stack of cookbooks on the table then sliding another stack onto my lap beneath the table. “And don’t worry about paying for them. It’s on me.”
“Dad! Did you steal them?” I demanded, almost distracted from how my whole body felt like a wavy strand of taffy filled with uneasy bursts of magic.
He grinned at me and patted my head, lending me some comfort and calm to the erratic magic. “Don’t worry your pretty head about it, princess. Just read your cookbooks and come up with something marvelous for your devil. You’re going to dinner with him tonight, right?”
I nodded and felt queasy. “Of course.”
“There’s not enough time to read all those books before dinner. Pity you don’t have any way to stop time.” He winked at me then turned and left.
I stared after him, feeling like an idiot.
Divinity stared at me from his place on the table.
“Can you get it for me?” I whispered.
He hopped forward and dropped the pocket watch onto my lap where the books rested then nosed my cheek.
“Thanks,” I whispered then I took a deep breath and clicked the watch. Time stopped. The rest of the world stopped. I placed a hand on the stack of books on my lap as I opened the first cookbook on the table.