Page 103 of Baking and Angels

“Good luck,” she called.

He turned around, stopping the door from closing. “You’re not coming with me?”he asked.

She shook her head. “My part in thisis over.”

And he knew that was true. So he accepted it. Still, he hesitated. “I need to ask you one morequestion.”

“Go ahead,” she nodded.

He licked his lips. “Is what Helena told me true?” He thought he needed to say more, but before he could form it, she nodded.

“Energy freely shared compounds; it doesn’t deplete,” sheconfirmed.

It felt like the sun rose in his chest, warm and light. “Thank you, for getting methis far.”

Helena nodded. “You got this, my littlestrudel.”

He laughed as she pulled away.

The door from the picture Helena had sent him with her last plea that he come loomed before him. It was exactly the same except for the burly man standing at it with a clipboard and a bunch of cards hanging from lanyards looped over his one arm.

The guardian at the gate, he thought.

The guard lifted his head as Rafferty approached. He gave a cursory glance over Rafferty, eyes noting the chef’s outfit, the red pipping visible over his chest since he hadn’t bothered to zip uphis coat.

“Name?” he asked without anyprompting.

“Rafferty Lares.”

The guard skimmed down his clipboard but didn’t need to go far to find it. With his pen, he made a check, then slid a lanyard off his arm and presentedit to him.

One side had an image of a stylized chef and the words “Cooking Underground” printed next to him. At the bottom of the card was a strip of purple and the word “Chef” printedin white.

“You can head on in. Keep your lanyard on at all times. You will need it on the cooking floor and to get back into the building,” the guard said, then turned and opened the door for Raffertyto enter.

Immediately, warm, savory smells hit Rafferty’s face. He breathed it in, savoring the ghosts of tastes dancing over his senses.

“You heading in?” the guard prompted, a little impatient at being made to wait.

Rafferty nodded and entered.

He found himself in the familiar, zigzagging back hallway of the loading dock of the Wrightwood Ballroom. It was fairly obvious which way to go. There were two tables set up to his left with catered food and drinks as well as a couple tables where other people in chef’s outfits were getting something to eat themselves before they had to cook.

Still, he couldn’t stop his gaze from turning around in the opposite direction. It took a second to even understand why. He wanted to feel it, to sense it. The pull of the closed summoning circle that had changed everything. It was somewhere in one of the side rooms set into the zigzags of thisback area.

But he felt nothing.

“So, you did show up,” Eleanor’s voice said.

Whirling back, he found her standing right in front of him, her arms crossed in that stiff, irritated way that was all hers. She was dressed in her whites, but she had her hair tied back with a blue kerchief that brought out the blue fire in her eyes. His heart lightened at the sight of her, only to crash just as fast as he registered the man standing there as well.

“Nice to see you again, Lares,” Vassago said, grinning as he thrust his hand out tobe shook.

Rafferty didn’t take it, but he stared at his own reflection in the aviator sunglasses the demon wore.

“You know you’re indoors,” Rafferty said.

Vassago’s human eyebrows quirked over the top of the sunglasses. “Idoknow that I’m indoors. What is your point?”

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