Page 96 of Cookbooks and Demons

He groaned as he leaned against the wall. She came around to help hold him up at the shoulders. “You need to take from me whatever you need. My mind, body, or soul—whichever. I don’t care!”

“No,” he said, grabbing her shoulders to push her away. “You don’t understand. What needed to be done tonight… it had a very high cost. This cost will kill you, maybe even wipe you from existence forever.” He cupped his hand around her cheek. “I can’t let that happen to theperson I…”

Helena went still. “Did you know that when I asked this of you?” shepressed.

His eyes told her the truth.

“So everything you were saying to me, how cold you were being… it was because you were angry at me? I … disappointed you by asking for it, right?”

“Everyone does in the end. Why would you be any different?” he said snidely, his contemptbare now.

It hurt, but not as much as losing him was going to hurt. “But why didn’t youtellme what the price was?”

“You didn’t ask until it was too late to change it!” he barked back. “You proved me right by not caring what the price was, just that you got what you wanted!”

“You have your own agency, dammit! You could have told me without making me ask twenty questions,” she barked at him. She wanted to shake him, but instead she pushed in and hugged him tight. “No, you can’t die. I won’t let it happen.”

He deflated a little bit, wrapping one of his arms around her. “I’m already dead, Helena,” he whispered. “I’ve just been putting off the inevitable.”

“It’s not inevitable. We can figure this out. Please. Stop trying to be right and start working with me to figure out how tosave you!”

“You… you want to save me?” he asked as if he were only just now hearing it.

“Yes! I love you! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I didn’t want all of this in exchange for your life. If anything I wanted… I wanted your help, but mostly I wanted a hug!”

“Then why didn’t you askfor that?”

“Because … I don’t always have the right answer right when Ineed it!”

Rafferty blinked at that, understanding finally. “Oh dammit. I screwed up.” He leaned forward to set his weary head on her shoulder while she thought desperately.

“What if…” she said, idea starting to form. “If the price would kill one of us, what if … weshare it?”

“What?” he gruntedgroggily.

“You and I. If we combined what we have, would that be enough to right the imbalance without killing either of us?”

“I…” He shook his head. “I don’t know… maybe?”

“Okay, well, it’s all we got, so we got to try. Put your arm around me.” He leaned his weight into her and immediately Helena regretted it. Now he was really giving in to her, and she just did not have the right shoes on for this. Still, they stumbled across the hall toward the forbidden door.

“But Helena, it will hurt. It will leave you devastated,” Rafferty mumbled, shifting again to his demonic form.

“Yeah, well you can’t heal if you’re not alive, and at this point, I would say this situation is both our doing, so it makes sense we’re going to have to fix it together.” They were only a few feet from the door when another woman’s voicescreamed.

They both stopped, staring atthe door.

“That came from in there,” Helena said.

“Someone found the summoning circle,” Rafferty said warily.

Together, they spurred forward, Rafferty reaching out his free hand to push the door open as she hauled them boththrough.

Within the darkened room, the summoning circle glowed, casting up a sickly, dim light. Helena stared at it. She could feel its eerie gravity pulling at her, its hunger. The debt was large, and it needed to be satisfied.

Rafferty laughed dryly. “Huh, I racked up a bigger debt than I imagined.” Then he cried outin pain.

“I should say so. Holy hell in a handbasket, that was quite the feat tonight.” Within the depths of the dark, Vassago’s voice sang out mockingly musical. “Come in and shut the dooralready.”

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