Page 73 of Cookbooks and Demons

She turned in a circle, but still he stood theresilently.

“And you’re not answering me—what the hell did you do to my friends?! Why did Cindy almost commit suicide!? Why is Chris cheating on Charlie? Why is any of this happening? They all say it had something to do with your food. What did you do? Answer me!”

“I granted them their heart’s wish,” he said, his voice barelyaudible.

“What? What did you say?” Helena pressed, crossing her arms as she leaned forwardone ear.

“That’s essentially what demon magic is. It grants your wish. It’s the same magic no matter who itaffects.”

“I don’t understand.” Helena spun in a circle again, burning her rage energy, when what she really wanted to do was hit something. “How is Cindy killing herself her heart’s wish?”

Rafferty sighed and closed his eyes. “That’s not quite right. I’m not explainingit right.”

“Then do better!”

“It’s magic, okay,” he said, finally raising his own voice. “It… it puts the cosmic thumb on the scale. Sometimes we can manufacture things in this world, but often people want nebulous hard to define things so sometimes you get nebulous results. I think she wanted her suffering to be over, and it resultedin that.”

“So youdidput something in the food?”

“I used demon magic to make some of the food, to make up the ingredients I needed because you had burned half of it to shit. And you and your friends ate what I made.”

“But what does that mean? Any food you make for me… you’ve been feeding me demon magic?”

“No, no. I’ve been cooking with real food, and real food is real food. I already told you this. It doesn’t matter what hands make it, but if I made the food out of demon magic, that is what gets the demon magic inside you. And yes, I didthatthe first night. And—” He stopped, but she wasn’t going to let him.

“And—?”

“And yesterday when I made that pot pie,” he admitted. “You didn’t have Parisian carrots or English peas, so I made them out of some demon magic.”

“I still don’t understand. If you are using magic to make a thing, how is my consuming it causing allof this?”

He pressed his fingertips together, using them to point at her as he spoke. “Because the magic is formed by my intention for it. I intend the food to be delicious and whatever else I want it to be. So that night, I gave it the intention to push you through whatever barrier was holding you back.”

Helena stood there stunned, finally getting it.

Chapter 38

Chose Body

This Time

“Iwas trying to give good service as a demon,” he said, throwing his arms out sharply as he paced in an erratic circle. “We don’t really have to deal with the consequences of what we do. But whatever happened that night… my food pushed you through to the next level in your career, didn’t it? You said or did something that got you noticed by your boss, and now you have everything you want.” He gestured sharply at her, figuratively throwing the statement ather feet.

“It affected your friends differently. They all wanted different things, but something was holding them back and my magical meal pushed them through it. You’re welcome!” he shouted. Then he fully turned to face the door like he meant to leave, but instead he stopped and stood there.

“We don’t choose what we get to do in this world. You choose. You tell us what you want and we provide—for a price. But whatever it is, we don’t get achoicein what it is. We can only do our best to…Icould only do my best to mitigate the damage.” His voice cracked, and with it, Helena’s anger started to bleed away.

This wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t hers either. Cindy had been in trouble either way.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t been fair to you—”

“No!” he shouted, slashing the air. “Don’t do it. Don’t pity me. I can’t stand youpityingme. I’m a horrible person alright. I earned this! I just didn’t… I just didn’t want…”

“What?” she urged when he couldn’t finish.

He lifted his head to look to the unresponsive heavens, his back still facing her. “I just didn’t want to hurt you,” he said, his voice thick.

She came up behind him, slipping her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek againsthis back.

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