Page 91 of The Devil She Knows
Daphne had been right about a lot of things, but about this, she couldn’t have been more wrong.
A sense of calm settled over her. “I wish that—”
“No.” Daphne’s chin quivered. “Sam, stop it.Please, don’t—”
With a flick of his fingers, Lucifer made it so that Daphne couldn’t speak. Thick black threads pierced her lips, sewing her mouth shut. “As you were saying?”
Sam’s stomach heaved, bile burning her esophagus. Her mouth was dry but still she licked her lips as if she could wet them. The sooner she made this wish, the sooner this would all be over. For now, at least.
Here went nothing. “I wish that Daphne was free of her contract so that she can be happy—with or without me.”
The irony of it, loving being the act that sealed her fate, that would damn her soul, didn’t escape her.
The words left her lips, and it felt for a moment as if the whole city held its breath. Eithrig was the first to move, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She stared at Lucifer. “Can she—”
“Shh,” Lucifer hissed, holding up a hand. He tutted softly.“That’s a boring wish, Samantha. Come on.” He smiled, and it was eerie how it transformed his face, made him look sweet and almost boyish. “I could make you the wealthiest woman on the planet. I could make you a queen. Sam, I could even bring your grandfather back.”
She shook her head, adamant. This was what she wanted. “No. I wish that Daphne was free of her contract so that she can be happy—with or without me.”
His nostrils flared and for a moment she could have sworn they billowed smoke. “That is a waste of a wish,” he bit out from between clenched teeth. “See, how it works is that when you make your sixth wish, Daphne collects her thousandth soul for me, thereby ending her contract. To wish her free from her contract would be redundant. I dislike redundancy, Samantha.”
“Well, tough.”
His eyes widened, and Eithrig, already pale, went shock white. Daphne whimpered behind her lips.
Lucifer laughed. “You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that.”
“Oh, buddy,” she said, so beyond over the mind games and the tricks and bullshit. She was tired. She just wanted to go home and sleep knowing Daphne would be there when she woke up. “I worked for Coco Duquette. You don’t scare me. You’re just a puffed-up three-piece. Go to FiDi and you’re a dime a dozen.”
Eithrig made a sound like she was choking.
Twin splotches of pink appeared on Lucifer’s alabaster cheeks. “You are a clever girl. I’ll grant you that.”
“Are you going to grant me my wish?”
His jaw clenched. “Am I?”
She huffed. “You tell me.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “You read your contract.”
A pinch of dread stabbed her between the ribs, momentarily rendering her breathless. “Um. Not the whole thing, no.”
Don’t tell her there was some fine print hidden in the pages that was about to screw her over.
“Page 777, article 12, section 2, subsection 9, paragraph 4.” Fire danced in his eyes, and this time Sam wasn’t imagining the smoke that escaped his nose, his lips. “The hold harmless clause states that benevolent wishes release the damned from liability. See alsocharitable,humanitarian,self-sacrificing.”
Her breath stuttered inside her chest. “Wait. Are you saying—”
“I’m sayingthisis why we don’t make deals with good people.Generouspeople. Do youreallythink no one’s ever desperately pleaded for world peace?” he ranted, pacing the path. “To end a war on some continent far away? No, of course they have. People as a whole are notoriously awful, but there are a few who are good, and we don’t make deals with them. Damn it, Daphne. What were you thinking?”
Even with her lips sewn shut, tears streaking through the soot and blood on her face, Daphne managed to radiate smug satisfaction.
“So I don’t have to give you my soul?” Sam asked cautiously, unwilling to get her hopes up until she knew for certain.
“No.” He sounded bitter about it. Clearly this was not playing out the way he had expected.
“And Daphne’s free of her contract?” she checked.
