Page 53 of Baking and Angels

It was very clever.

And the only reason the demon would do that was because… “He’s made a deal with someone,” Rafferty said softly, putting it togetherout loud.

Helena looked confused by what he said, but Eleanor spat on the scuffed gym floor with contempt. “Yeah, but good luck doing anything about it. Even if you could prove he took a bribe, in the grand scheme of things, these stakes are way too small to get anyone to make a difference.”

She stared down Vassago, but the demon-in-human-clothing noticed her and simply shrugged as if to say,“Not up to me. Take it up with a higher authority. Oh, wait, there isn’t one.”

Eleanor sneered after him, then she looked at Rafferty with regret. “I’m sorry I can’t do anything to help you. I’d let you use my oven, but there won’t be time to finish up my dish and get yours in. I’m using up every bit of spacein there.”

Rafferty looked to the ingredients table and the refrigerators beyond, his ears still ringing. What was he going to do?

“Rafferty, I could…” Helena was saying, but he didn’t register it. What he did feel was her hand touching his arm, her skin pressing his, her strength flooding into him. It was like golden light turned into a warm liquid, and he felt the freezing in his muscles let go. His mind cleared of Vassago’s fog, and he could think again.

“I can fix it,” he said, as his eyes zeroed in on the one thing that no one had touched. The ice cream maker.

As if he had been brought back to life from stone, he quickly snatched Helena’s hand, kissing the back of her knuckles as his eyes locked with hers. He could see she didn’t realize what she had done, but he could explain it, and chide her for it, later. For now, he just needed her to know how grateful he was.

Then he was off, his long legs eating up the meters between him and the ice cream machine. Grabbing up a half-pint-sized measuring cup, he slid it under the spout to test. To his surprise, the machine was already preloaded with ice cream base, so all he needed to do was dispense it. Filing that under how-is-that-not-cheating, he accepted it as his advantage and left the ice cream unpulled to return to his station. Snapping out the industrial cooking sheet that came with it, he grabbed his batter and proceeded to dump the whole thing onto the sheet, spreading it out witha spatula.

He glanced up at Helena, who had returned to her seat next to Cindy. Their mouths were moving, clearly talking, but he couldn’t hear it. Her worried eyes met his, but he smiled back with a wink. This was when he thrived the most, when things had gone terribly wrong in the kitchen, but heknewhe could fix it. And make it better than it had been before.

Having prepared his batter into the thinnest layer possible, he charged again, this time toward the refrigerators. Opening the frozen compartment, he had no compunction against throwing out whatever was in his way inside onto the ingredient table next to him and shoving his cooking sheet inside. The two officials who were supposed to be assisting with the ingredients just stood there flabbergasted at his boldness as he charged past them to the ice cream machine.

Leaving nothing to chance, he test-pulled the machine again and a smooth, cold swirl of ice cream emerged. This time he tasted it. It was vanilla. Perfect.

But it would take at least ten minutes, fifteen would be better, to chill his dough in the freezer.

Vassagocoulddo a whole lot inthat time.

Despite the agreement, he was leaving nothingto chance.

So, Rafferty needed to make it expensive for him.

“Helena,” Rafferty said, not raising his voice very much, but knowing she could hear him all the same. “I need your help.”

Sure enough, across the space, his beloved perked up, her eyes fluttering in surprise. She said something to Cindy and then got up and came directly over to him.

“What do you need?” she said, her fingers rubbingtogether.

He grabbed her shoulders and planted a quick kiss on her forehead. “Just stand here and don’t let anyone near the machine,” he said. “You can’t help me, I’ll be disqualified, but you are allowed to watch. Watch themachine.”

He could tell she wanted to do more, but she only nodded. “You got it.”

Leaving the only person in the world he could trust to stand guard, Rafferty went back to the ingredients table and grabbed up more sugar, butter, cream, and salt. This was going to take all his remaining time, but he knew he could do it. Everything in his world zeroed in on the caramel sauce as he set the sugar to melt in a pan on the hot pad provided. That was workingat least.

As soon as his caramel was ready, he poured it into a bowl to cool, and he rushed back to the freezer. Pulling out his cake batter, a finger test told him it was firm, but not frozen. Which was fine, he could work with that. Returning to his table he glanced atthe clock.

Seven minutes.

He didn’t even have time to curse as he laid his sheet down to carve up the batter. Then he went back to the ice cream machine. Helena’s influence worked, as it served up four dishes of ice cream in short order. Using his longer fingers, he gathered the glass dishes by their short stems and returned to his prep area. Rolling up the cake dough into spirals, he stabbed them into the piled ice cream, then reached for his caramel. It flowed from the end of the spoon over thecreations.

“Five…” Vassago called over the speaker, “four… three… two… one! Utensils down!”

Rafferty slammed down his spoon onto his table with a mighty clatter.

All four dishes were ready to present.

He was out of breath as he took up another tray and set the dishes on it to take up to the judging table. Glancing again at Helena, she was jumping up and down and cheering with Cindy. Only then did he hear the roar of applause from the gym all around them. Apparently, they hadn’t been the only ones invested in his success.

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