Page 109 of Baking and Angels

Eleanor glanced anxiously over at the helpers, all watching with their own worried expressions that they had a bigger problem.

Rafferty couldn’t have cared less. “With Helena. What was the deal?” hedemanded.

“Not here—”

“What. Deal?” He bit offthe words.

Eleanor swallowed. “If I win, she’ll pay my price with Vassago to get me out of hisclutches.”

He stopped breathing, his eyes going wide, his heart skipping a beat, then tattooing like a galloping horse.

Rafferty shook his head. “No,” he said, the word falling out of his mouth, as if just saying it would change what had already happened. His mind raced. “Does… does he… does Vassago know?”

“That I’ve screwed him out of his deal for my soul? No, of course not. I’m notan idiot.”

“Yes, yes, you are. The biggest idiot in the world,” he said, and went back to his station, her retort unheard.

He needed to bakesomething.

Chapter 41

A Simple

Entry

The rapid beating of his heart didn’t abate, even as he fell into the rhythm of his work. He needed to do something while his mind worked furiously, trying to sort out what had happened while he had been… indisposed and sorting himself out.

Vassago was bound to make sure Eleanor won the competition. By the same token, Helena must have bound herself in the same way to take Eleanor’s place when she won.

How to get her out of this? How doweget out of this?

Those thoughts echoed in his brain as plans formed and disintegrated inhis mind.

Call Agent Archon and Agent Sophia? Tell them what happened? It would not end the agreements, only delay them.

Eleanor had only to win a different competition to fulfillthe terms.

Or at least he assumed so.

Yet he couldn’t assume anything, he didn’t know what wording was used for the agreements…

And once a demon was bound by such things,theywere unable to break them or change the course of the events.

He realized he understood now that the rules in regard to agreements and promises were the same whether demonor angel.

Only Eleanor could freely break them, but there was nothing Rafferty could bargain with that she had not already securedelsewhere.

Eleanor wanted this victory.

She wanted the prize money and the future it would secure.

She wanted the acclaim that winning this highly publicized event couldbring her.

None of those things, he could give her. No counteroffer came to mind that he was sure would dissuade her from her chosen path.

So, he baked, and thought, and desperately looked for anew angle.

Withdrawing his shaped cookies out of his oven, the smell danced in his nose and his mouth watered.

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