Page 15 of Baking and Angels

“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” he muttered, panicked at what to do. Should he call back downstairs and order something else? March into the kitchen himself and cook her something that would actually bring her solace in her time of pain?

“Oh, you’re hungry,” she said, coming from the bathroom herself to see where hehad gone.

He covered the food as if ashamed, though he hadn’t been the one to prepare it. “It’s not… We can order something else…”

Still naked and beautiful, Helena came the rest of the way to their suite’s table and took the lid from him to look down at her burger. “No, this is fine. It’s what I ordered,” she said, setting the lid aside, sitting down too calmly before the plate as if her entire fundamental being hadn’t just irreparably changed.

Her ability to radically accept all of this was remarkable.

He snapped his hand to hover over her plate, even as she moved to pick up the burger and bite it. “No, but it’s not…” But he didn’t know what to say. He felt stupid and useless. “It’s cold.”

“Yeah, but it would be awful to let it go to waste,” she countered. “And I’m honestly too hungry to wait. It doesn’t matter what it tastes like.”

He had never heard a more horrifying statement inhis life.

That horror must have reflected on his face because Helena looked up at him, then her own eyes went wide as she covered her mouth, realizing what she had said. “Oh, dear, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t want you to worryabout me.”

Her apologizing for something as absurd as dismissing his sentimentalities at a time like this deflated his indignation.

“Helena, I’m sorry,” he said, kneeling down before her and grasping her hands. “This is all my fault. I did this to you.”

Gently, she cupped his cheek. “No, you didn’t,” she said softly. “I was more than willing to pay this price to save you. I gave… whatever that was… I paid the price for our souls…” She shook her head again. “I don’t really understand what happened. I keep feeling like I canalmostremember it, but the part of my mind capable of understanding it… isn’t… able to right now.”

That did not set him at ease. He had always felt there was some sort of higher, or maybe lower was a better word, consciousness that held them in their suffering in hell.Had she spoken to them directly?hewondered.

She then turned once more to her meal and took a bite. After a few moments of chewing she slowed, furrowing her brows as she looked down at it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked fearful that he knew the answer.

“Nothing. It’s just… it occurs to me… what you said about simply understanding how to…” She held her hand out to the plate of food, her eyebrows pursing together as she concentrated on the plate. Then before their eyes, steam rose out from the food. A fresh smell of cooked deliciousness wafted from the plate, as if the food there had just come out of the skillet or pot. She did the same to his plate, and within seconds, more steamwafted up.

Helena’s face burst into a genuine smile. “I did it! I did it!” She grabbed Rafferty’s hands squeezing them with excitement. “I just performed amiracle!”

Chapter 7

Fix

Everything!

“Ican fix everything!” Helena cried, unable to contain her relief. Her face was flushed with excitement as she wriggled in her chair. “We don’t need Vassago’s help after all.”

Rafferty’s heart lurched in his chest. “Vassago?! Yousaw him?”

“Yes, but now that I’m an angel, and I can perform miracles, I can fix everything!”

Rafferty couldn’t take that point in. “Hesawyou? Or youspoketo him?”

“Yes, I tried to tell the agents about it, but they didn’t see him, and they didn’t believe me. He wanted to make a deal with me to undo everything that happened, but I told him no.” She nodded with conviction, and he didn’t think he could love her more at that moment. “Then he said he would see what you thought.Did you…”

“I spoke to him, too,” Rafferty admitted, affirming that she hadn’t been delusional.

Helena’s eyes went even wider. “Do you think… this is all his doing?”

“Getting us out of trouble with the Earthly authorities, yes. This…” He gestured up and down at her. “I don’t know.”

“But why would he do that? Why would he help us like that?Neitherof us made a deal with him, right?”

“Demons will do that occasionally. Expend a bit of free power to show what they offer when they are trying to temptsomeone.”

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