Page 26 of Let Me Win You

Kindness pursed her lips.

“One of my brothers is the Sin of Lust, honey, but they’re all made from the same cloth. Sex, over-indulgence, and greed. They’re all guilty of those. They’re not just horned, but also always horny. Add to that that none of my brothers is used to hearing the word no very often. They never deny anything to themselves. Invi isn’t an exception. He takes whatever he wants.” She gestured at me. “As you know.”

I nodded, feeling ashamed of every tender feeling I had ever allowed myself to have for this abomination of a man.

“He steals. He lies. He kills—” Kindness folded a finger with every accusation.

“Kills!” I gasped. “Has he really killed someone?”

“Of course he has. Plenty of times. He has no shame, no restraint, no compassion, no respect for women, either, not even for his own mother.”

“That’s…not how he came across to me,” I mumbled, vividly remembering everything that happened that night, including Invi’s impeccable manners toward both Jess and me.

“Oh, Invi is a master of disguise and pretending. You saw it yourself, how easily he changes his appearance. Now, I must tell you, although it is possible for all of us to alter our shapes in an emergency, it isn’t easy to pull off the dramatic transformation like Invi did yesterday. I wouldn’t be able to change my shape that completely or to stay in the altered form like that for any period of time. But Invi has mastered it, just to deceive others.”

“Oh, wow…” I took a huge gulp of my cooling tea, trying to absorb all the disturbing things I’d just learned. “He truly is a monster.”

“In every way, honey. You definitely deserve better than my good-for-nothing brother. I’m sure there is a nice human man waiting for you out there somewhere.” She patted my hand, sympathetically. “Was I too harsh, sweetie?”

“No. Thank you, Kindness. I needed to hear all of that.”

It was best to hear the truth, no matter how harsh, than live in some sweet illusion fueled by memories that turned out to be based on nothing but lies.

“I’m glad to help.” Kindness brushed down her apron, getting up. “Well, I need to bake some more scones with those blueberries a soul has brought in earlier this morning. You can bake with me, if you wish.”

“I’d love to.” I got up quickly, eager to clear my mind. Baking was the one thing that always helped me get in a better mood. “Let’s make the scones.”

Kindness ran her kitchen in a relaxed manner. Plenty of souls came to help, but most just hung around with nothing to do other than chat while she worked.

I ended up spending almost the entire day downstairs and didn’t make it back to my room until late afternoon.

The balcony doors were still open, just like I’d left them. A wicker basket with a checkered cloth tied over it stood on the hand-knotted rug.

I approached the basket cautiously, wondering how it got here. There were no locks on any doors in the teahouse. A crowd of souls had passed through the house since I’d left my bedroom. Someone might’ve gone upstairs and dropped the basket off while I was baking.

But why wouldn’t they give it to me downstairs instead? Or at least tell me that they had it for me?

I lifted the cloth carefully, finding a round plastic container inside. A mouth-watering smell filled my nostrils when I opened the green lid of the container. Inside was a mound of mashed potatoes and a thick slice of meatloaf with a generous serving of golden-brown gravy. A second container held a green salad with herbed oil for dressing. A set of cutlery was wrapped in a pretty lace-trimmed napkin.

Drawing in another lungful of the delicious aroma, I grabbed the fork and dug in.

As tasty as Kindness’s pastries were, eating nothing but scones and muffins the second day in a row got old pretty quickly. There was just so much tea a person could drink ina day. I was hungry for real food, and the meatloaf with wild mushrooms hit the spot perfectly.

“Oh, it’s so fucking good…” I moaned around the mouthful, stuffing my face with buttery mashed potatoes.

I hadn’t even seen anything edible other than the baked goods for two days now. The beings in Purgatory seemed to know that my body needed food for maintenance, but they didn’t particularly care what I had to eat.

Well, someone seemed to care. As my belly filled, I wondered who my secret benefactor could be. Digging through the basket, I found a folded piece of parchment.

“My dearest Nicole…”it read, written in the familiar strong, decorative handwriting.

I dropped the note quickly, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. The food came from Invi, even as I had no idea how he got it in here.

I glanced back at the calla lily in its makeshift vase on the night table.

Did he make a duck to deliver the basket too?

“That’s some really smart ducks he has in hisswamp,” I muttered.

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