Page 203 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

“Hello, Mr. demon,” I say as I address him directly.

His eyes widen in shock. “You!” He points his finger at me—the previous mass of mangled energy has now become more anthropomorphic. I doubt he has much longer before he can become corporeal and separate himself from Holloway. And that truly makes me question what I’m about to do next. Alas, trial and error, no?

“You ugly wench.” He throws the insult at me, but I just shrug, keeping the smile on my face.

He’s almost normal-looking, if not for that scowl dripping with malice as he realizes who I am.

“And you’re so very handsome. You’ve been eating well, haven’t you?” I ask as I pat his semi-translucent belly.

If he could, I have no doubt he’d have steam coming out of his nose and ears like those cartoon people do at the movies. Alas, his only weapon for now is to glare at me.

“I brought you a little something,” I say.

He starts cursing me out before abruptly stopping. “You brought something…for me?” he asks in disbelief.

“Two somethings, in fact.”

His eyes slowly widen and I could swear I detect a hint of anticipation in his features—but he masks that quickly.

“What could you, an ugly wench, have to give me?”

“How about a donut?” I ask as I burrow my hand in my pocket and remove a paper-wrapped donut.

While studying the book this morning, I noticed a passage that spoke about sweetening a greed demon. It didn’t specify how or if it was a figure of speech. So I decided to try my hand at the literal meaning first. Considering I’m wasting a precious donut on him, this better work.

A whiff of the powdery sugar reaches my nose and I have to force myself not to think of it being devoured by a beast. Not when Mine got it for me right before he left this morning.

With more difficulty than I anticipated, I push the donut in front of him.

“It’s for you. I want you to have this sweet treat and enjoy it.”

He opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. For moments on end, he stares at my donut and I wonder if perhaps I read the text wrong.

“For me?” he asks again, unsure.

“Specifically for you. It is freely given,” I add as I push it even further into his face.

Moments trickle by. He doesn’t move. He’s just staring at the donut with an odd expression. But just when I think this plan was all in vain, he snatches the donut from me and pops it into his mouth, paper wrap and all.

Loud, disgusting munching noises echo in the room.

By the Source, I didn’t even know non-corporeal demons could eat solid things.

In a few bites, the donut is gone, after which the demon releases the most vile and disgusting burping sound. It’s so strong, it blows my hair into my eyes.

Ew.

I tuck the stray strands behind my ear and as I get a good look at him, I realize something is off.

I scan him from head to toe and then back to the head again. Suddenly, it dawns on me that he’s no longer as tall as the ceiling.

What? Did this trick actually work? Don’t tell me all we had to do until now was to offer him sweet things and we would have defeated him? Although I am slightly smarting from the fact that he would have that in common with me.

Happy with my new discovery, I quickly administer the medicine to Holloway and leave.

My next goal? Find as many sweet things as possible. In fact, double that. After all, I do require my own commission for it.

And since I still have a little bit of energy left in my pin, I use it to infiltrate the kitchens. But after an hour of surreptitiously rummaging through all the cupboards, I realize there’s nothing here.

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