Page 10 of The Signature Dish of the Underworld

Although, the meats that Lexie had sourced – Rae didn’t recognise the cuts or which animal the Lamia had taken them from, and she wasn’t about to ask – were served on anactualmini crackling fire, where the customer got to cook the meat to theirliking.Rae hadn't seen anything like that before.

“Fire’s a waste of time,” Lexie had winked at her, grabbing an additional piece of meat that wasn’t up to Garth’s standards on the pass and dangling it into her mouth, before swallowing it whole.

“If you say so,” Rae had replied wide-eyed, scared to make a move.

Lexie had just smirked and moved back to her station.

By the time dinner service had begun winding down, Rae had a pretty good idea of which dessert was her favourite. The fig σορμπ? was light and creamy, it melted only when it came into contact with a creatures tongue, meaning it could be shaped on the plate into any form.

Garth told her to have fun with it – to create whatever shape she wanted. At first, Rae made a simple pink pyramid and balanced the fig beside it. Garth had merely raised his eyebrows and said, “Come on Sunshine, you can do better than that.”

Letting out a little “hmph,” Rae set about getting a little morecreative. She decided to mould the frozen treat into the shape of a small horse and had the horse bending down to eat from the fig itself.

This time Garth laughed. “Nowthat’smore like it! Service!”

The other two signature desserts weren’t as fun, but they were just as delicious when Rae sampled them. One was a pomegranate tart that was both tart in its nature and description, with the perfect golden crust. The other was a walnut souffle – the biggest souffle Rae had ever seen.

The skill and complexity in flavour palettes and techniques in this kitchen had shown Rae exactly what she was up against. And though her time in the kitchen had flown, that she’d survived a whole shift and held her own, she knew her one-Arae bistro couldn’t compete with the likes of this place.

Perhaps, she considered, Garth did deserve his reputation. Or perhaps this was simply what libations and belief got you. Power.

“You did well,” he said, as they all began to pitch in with the cleaning of the kitchen once service was over. Large buckets of soapy water and thick bristled brushes had begun busying themselves, but it was a rule of thumb that chefs were meticulous about their clean kitchens. They wouldn’t allow sentient objects to take on that responsibility alone, which was why everyone was on their knees, or balancing on benches, as they scrubbed the life out of the kitchen surfaces until they shimmered back at them; radiant.

“Thanks.”

“When we’re finished up here, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Probably to tell her she should drop out of the competition and stop wasting her time.

Instead Rae said, “You’re not leaving us to do the cleaning ourselves?”

Garth grabbed a fresh bucket. That sad look was back in his eyes. “Your boss isn’t very decent to you, is he?”

Rae snapped her mouth shut at that, but Garth wasn’t budging. “Is he?”

“He gave me a job. I’ve got nothing but gratitude,” Rae managed to get out between clenched teeth. Her tone, thankfully, remained neutral, though she began scrubbing her ‘patch’ on the pass more aggressively.

Garth left Rae to it after that. By the time the team was finished, Rae was so exhausted that she just grabbed her belongings that she’d put in the staff locker room before service had begun, and headed out the service entrance.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Rae turned around, her shoulders slumped, her body exhausted from two back-to-back demanding jobs. “Home. I’m going home,” she told Garth.

“You didn’t think I was going to ask you for a favour and then not pay you, did you?”

He stepped forward, a token in hand.

“Oh, right. Yeah. Thanks.”

“Well, aren’t you going to read it?”

Rae glanced down at the parchment. “Dinner at Zeus’ Watering Hole.”

“It was the least I could do seeing as you helped us out tonight. And you held your own – just like I thought you would.” Garth crossed his arms and gave her a dashing smile.

“I don’t know about that. It’s too … busy. I felt like I was barely getting the dishes ready in time. I was surprised you didn’t bark at me to hurry up, to be honest.”

It was a brush off, an intentional one. If Rae admitted she wasn’t cut out for his world then Garth couldn’t beat her to it.

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