Chapter 35
Bill, bill—are you going to have anything to throw in for the rent this month?” Gisele sorted through the mail. “The one problem with averting an apocalypse is that there’s nothing to prevent the rent hike now.”
“My parents sent me a check,” Morgan said, paging through the LinkedIn job postings.
It turned out that when your CEO died on the tradeshow floor in the middle of a demo, everyone ended up laid off.
At least, that’s what happened when it was the exploding physical prototype that had killed him.
No one even bothered going back over the presentation, so no one seemed to have noticed that she’d sabotaged the software part.
Hayley somehow had neglected to file the resignation paperwork and neither Kelly nor Carter had reminded her, so Morgan got the same one week’s pay layoff package as the rest of the employees before Ravenfell liquidated the company.
Fortunately, that meant she was still eligible for unemployment.
Unfortunately, since her title had never changed, she was now job hunting as a former SDR from a company notorious for its gruesome end.
So far, the only job interview she’d gotten was from someone who had been clearly less interested in hiring her and more interested in hearing grisly details.
“Like, a physical check?” Gisele’s eyebrows rose. Morgan was grateful, even if the check was inconvenient. Her parents had never had that much cash to throw around—butt-kicking and archiving weren’t known for paying particularly well—and she appreciated the help while she got back on her feet.
“Could be worse. There are some members of their community that still try to pay for everything in gold bars.” Morgan rolled her eyes.
“Companies like Ravenfell keep people on payroll entirely to deal with the weird tax implications. Although I also heard about some lady up in Connecticut who’s started consulting to folks on the edge of both worlds who have to deal with the accounting going back and forth. ”
“Wizard consigliere?” Gisele said. “There’s a potential career path for you.”
“Maybe. Eventually. I think I need some kind of expertise in either world first.” Morgan sighed and reached down to scratch Rix’s ears. The hardware store bills were adding up.
“What do you want to do?” Gisele leaned back.
“Same thing as always, I guess. What someone will hire me to do.” She tried not to sound bitter, but she was. Here she was, back where she started. “Only I think I’m kind of burned out on tech startups. Which is a problem, since it’s the only thing on my resume at the moment.”
“If they offered?”
“I guess I’d take it,” she sighed. “I’d like to be all idealistic and declare that I’ve learned my lesson and I only want to work for the good of humanity and all, but the good of humanity isn’t going to pay my frigging student loans.
I still don’t have a great passion project or something, if that’s what you’re asking.
Although I’ve been liking the volunteer work with the youth program, at least.”
It was the one advantage of unemployment.
She’d started volunteering at the library to have something to do.
Turned out that most teenagers felt every bit as isolated as she had when she was a teenager, even if they hadn’t failed to matriculate to an elite wizard school. Adolescence just sucked for everyone.
“Cultivating your own garden, then?”
“Shut up, Voltaire. I don’t wanna hear your thoughts on capitalism anymore.”
“Morgan? Are you ready?” Luke padded out of the bedroom in bare feet, buttoning up his shirt. Her mother had helped them buy a Fae talisman he wore in place of his old bracelet. It maintained the glamour now that he didn’t have a sales budget to pull from.
“No,” she admitted and went to him.
He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. “Neither am I.”
She sighed. “But we have to.”
He nodded, which wasn’t the best idea, since she could hear his teeth click against her skull. “Oww. I guess that’s one advantage of your weirdo flat teeth.”
“That you don’t bite through your tongue?”
“I’m still getting used to it.”
“You have all the time you want.” She pressed her hands against the planes of his chest. “Are you all right with this? Being Luke instead of Lucareoth?”
“Luke’s a happier person,” he said. “Although it would be nice to still be Lucareoth from time to time.”
Especially in private, especially at night, she thought. He caught the desire, and gave her a wicked grin.
After a moment, she sighed. “We have to go do this.”
“I know.”
“I’m out of here,” Gisele announced. “Rix, you come with me.”
“You keep complaining about him, but I saw the bolt bucket next to your bed,” Morgan called. Stavrula had given them all a few lessons in dog training. He’d gotten much better at following commands.
“His farts are like literal death, but he keeps my feet warm,” Gisele said over her shoulder. “Not all of us came out of this with a hunky demon.”
Her door swung shut, and Morgan took a steadying breath. “I think the butcher guy at Whole Foods will miss us buying all the chicken hearts.”
“Hey, I like the mollejitas en escabeche recipe Gisele’s abuelita sent her,” Lucareoth protested as he took off the talisman and his scales shimmered back into place. “I’d keep eating that.”
“Yeah, I like it, too. And I’d kinda miss Javier the butcher guy.”
“We’re delaying, aren’t we.”
“Yeah. We are.”
Lucareoth took a deep breath and opened the scrying portal.
“Your visual isn’t working,” Bel’aliol growled, his voice appearing out of nowhere.
“Crap,” Lucareoth said, rearranging the chicken hearts. “How about now?”
“No.”
“Now?”
Bel’aliol’s face shimmered into existence and his mouth moved without sound. Morgan surreptitiously swiped at the rune that had gotten a little smudged by her elbow.
“—times you do this,” finally came through.
She let out a silent breath of relief and a prayer that she would never have to do this again, except on Zoom. And Google Meet. And Teams.
“So. I have received the paperwork.” Lucareoth’s former boss did not look pleased.
“Yessir,” Lucareoth ducked his head nervously.
“You realize, if I sign this, you’ll never be able to come back,” Bel’aliol growled.
“I didn’t think you particularly wanted me back,” Lucareoth said.
“You did make your quota last quarter,” Bel’aliol admitted with poor grace. “But your taste in business partners is highly suspect. The folks Upstairs are not happy. Oh, and Niseraz has first dibs on your spleen.”
“Yeah, I’m staying here,” Lucareoth said quickly. Morgan squeezed his hand.
“You ended up ahead in the end,” Morgan pointed out. “Valefar got kicked out of New York and you got a valuable new soul contract.” He glared at her. She continued in a smaller voice. “Even if you didn’t get your war. Or your soul market. Uh. Sorry about that.”
“Well.” He glanced out of the range of the spell. Did he soften the tiniest bit? He dragged something on his desk into view. “I do appreciate my new desk ornament.”
It took Morgan a moment to realize what she was looking at. The unicorn statuette looked like it had been carved from amber and lit from within. The light inside was moving, she realized. Oh. Oh dear. Well, that answered one question.
Bel’aliol’s mouth spread into a smile full of teeth and menace. “Do let me know if you change your mind. Either of you.”
“I’ve decided to pursue other opportunities, thank you,” Lucareoth said stiffly. After a moment, he added, “Rix is doing well.”
Bel’aliol’s smile grew a shade warmer. He nodded, and then abruptly the connection cut out. Lucareoth sagged.
“You never have to see him again,” she reminded him.
“Remind me to thank your mother,” he said, sliding the talisman back on like he was washing a bad taste out of his mouth. “And her immigration lawyer.”
“That reminds me,” Morgan said. “I need to text her.”
Meeting is over. No one got
eaten or de-souled or deported
Best kind of meeting. I never liked meetings
Thanks again for helping with
the Shadow Council paperwork
Least I could do. I never liked paperwork either
Really. Never would have guessed
Your father was hoping you’d come up for the next
big skirmedge game. I know it’s not your thing,
but Stavrula and a couple other folks you used to
know are going to be there for homecoming
Morgan paused.
I’ll think about it
Her phone buzzed, and she wondered what had attacked her mother, whether a dybbuk or a crisis of conscience, that would justify following up with a call. But it wasn’t her mother—it was Kelly.
“Hello? Kelly?” she asked, answering the call. Lucareoth pushed the talisman back onto his wrist and looked questioningly. She held up a hand.
“Hello, Morgan,” Kelly said. “How’s the job hunt going?”
“Mostly rubberneckers so far,” she admitted.
“So you’re still free at the moment?”
Morgan’s eyebrows pinched together. Where was this going? “At the moment, yeah. How’s the hunt for you?”
“It was an interesting thing,” Kelly said, not quite answering the question. “Remember that one investor at the show? The one with the long dark coat and the movie star blond hair?”
Morgan froze. Luke looked up, suddenly tense.
“Well, Carter and I were having lunch yesterday. He’s got an offer from Hwon, the old founder, to join his new venture.
And we were talking over that idea, the one about bootstrapping my own consulting business to help the more idealistic startups make it on their own terms. And the investor just walks over to our table, and says he’s overheard what we were discussing.
And announces that he wants in. Silent partnership. ”
Morgan let the silence stretch a little too long before she managed to croak out, “Did he say why?”
“Something about needing to check off an action item for ‘restoring balance’ or the balance sheet would be off,” Kelly said. “It was, well, to be honest, it was seriously weird. But then, get this—he drops a literal gold brick on the table and says it’s his stake, and then walks away.”
“Did you go after him?”
“Oh, I tried, but I supposed I spent a little too long being dumbfounded because by the time I got to the corner, he’d vanished.”
Of course he had.
“It was bizarre, to be honest. I’ll admit I’m not even sure how to deal with it from a tax perspective.”
Maybe she’d give the lady in Connecticut a call. “I might know someone who might have some thoughts.”
“Well, that would be useful,” Kelly said. “Which brings me to the reason I called. Assuming I can figure out this gold thing—it’s shockingly heavy, among other issues—I’m getting this started. And I could use some marketing help.”
“What’s the title?” Morgan asked cautiously.
“Marketing manager,” Kelly said, a note of caution in her voice. “And I’ll warn you, when we get a little bigger and start having a real budget, we would probably bring in an actual VP over you.”
Morgan sighed in relief. “That would be ideal, actually. I’m not ready to take on a head of marketing role for real.”
Kelly’s voice warmed a bit now that she could be sure Morgan was going to be reasonable. “Glad you feel that way.”
“Who’s on board?”
“Just a few more from the office. Ayumi from Accounting; Josh is handling tech. I asked Vijay, but apparently he took a job doing make-up for the weird monster theater people upstairs. He seems happy. I don’t suppose you know where Luke is going now that his internship is over?”
“Actually, he just landed an offer he’s really excited about,” she said. Jamal at the Make-A-Wish Foundation had turned out to have an opening. The pay wasn’t huge, but it would certainly help offset the rent increase and Luke got all shiny-eyed whenever he mentioned it.
She noticed that Ronaldo and Hayley were not on the list.
“So, you in?”
For a moment, she thought about it. Was it her passion project?
No, it really wasn’t. But then, did it need to be?
It would pay the bills; it probably wouldn’t make the world worse.
It would give her a road forward—a few years working with mundane consultants, then who knew?
Maybe Gisele’s suggestion of being a bridge to the magical world was a good one.
Her work didn’t have to define who she was.
Any more than her lack of magic did. Her knowledge and her actions and her friends could do that instead. “I’m in.”
Gisele poked her head out of her room after she hung up. “I heard what sounded like the end to some conversations.”
“Yeah. And some beginnings.”
Luke came over and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she filled them in, his heat welcome even at the tail end of summer. It felt right, at least for now. She didn’t have to have it all figured out yet.
She texed her mum.
Luke and I can come up for the game. But why don’t
you guys come down here next weekend? I can show
you how to make focaccia, Dad can meet Luke.
You can make focaccia? Like in a kitchen? We’re in.
Love you, Mom.
Love you, too, pumpkin.
“So that garden,” Gisele prodded.
“Not sure leaving external affairs alone to focus on my little concerns works very well,” Morgan said. “I don’t think it would have been great if I’d let Brad do his thing.”
“I’m not sure I get the gardening thing,” Luke confessed. “You put a bunch of seeds in the dirt and hope that maybe something comes up, and then wait? What if nothing ever comes up? Or you’re not around when it does?”
“I think it’s more an exercise in hope,” Morgan said. “That you’re trusting that, even if you’re not still around, someone will want the flowers. But we live in New York. We’re not really dirt people. I was thinking maybe something more like baking.”
“You’ll cultivate your bread starters?” Gisele asked, looking amused. Rix rested his head on her knee and wagged his tail. Morgan made a mental note to make sure his paperwork was in order, too.
“I’ll cultivate my bread starters,” Morgan confirmed. “And I’ll bake, and I’ll bring it in to share even if it’s not good for my career, because I don’t want to work somewhere that doesn’t appreciate how baked goods bring people together.
“Because that’s what I want to do,” she said, realizing. “Not in some big, disruptive way. I want to bring people together more. Myself. In little ways. I can’t fix the world, but I can make some rolls.”
“I’ll help carry them for you,” Luke said loyally.
“And then no one has to eat a sad desk salad,” Gisele laughed.
“With dog as my witness,” Morgan declared. She snuggled under Luke’s arm, enjoying the warmth. “I’ll never eat sad desk salad again.”