Page 7 of Hellfire & Tinsel
“No, it wasn’t painful,” Kassel said, completely dumbfounded by this little human’s knot of worry. It was different from Oren’s whirl of anxiety when someone messed up the filing, or any of his charges whimpering for mercy.
Kassel wasn’t sure what to do with it.
“You’re sure?” Beau asked, his eyes sparkling now like bright gems.
Kassel nodded slowly.
Beau tilted his head at him for a second before smiling again, casting the cushion aside on its cheery face. “Okay, good. That’s nice to hear. I’d hate it if I hurt you in any way. Are you hungry or thirsty? I made some hot cocoa earlier and some cookies. We were supposed to have carolers, and I thought…”
A shadow passed over his face for a fraction of a moment before he shook it off.
“Anyway… I’ll get you some,” Beau continued, turning his back on Kassel and hurrying toward the adjacent room.
He disappeared from sight before Kassel could turn the food down. He wasn’t actually hungry, but the little human was like a jittery steamroller. There was hardly a chance to stop him.
Kassel heard clinking coming from the next room and the whirr of something going around and around. He didn’t bother peering through the wall, because before he knew it, Beau was walking back with a large, steaming mug in one hand and a silver plate in the other.
Kassel sniffed the air, then immediately wished he hadn’t. The cloying sweetness made him want to sneeze. Or dunk himself in a molten bath to burn it away.
“Here.” Beau offered the mug to Kassel, as bright as the lights behind him.
It was in the same shape as the tree in the corner, only with a mound of white stuff sticking out of the top. Kassel wrapped his fingers around it, claws clicking against the surface. He wascareful not to apply any pressure, lest he smash the thing to pieces.
“Thank you,” Kassel said awkwardly. It was comically small in his grasp, his fingers nearly wrapping round on themselves. He brought the mug closer to his nose and inhaled tentatively.
He had to stop himself from visibly recoiling.
Or casting it into the deepest reaches of Hell.
“Have a cookie!” Beau chirped enthusiastically, shoving the silver plate under his nose next. “They’re fresh, I promise.”
The cookies in question were weirdly shaped and seemed to give off an aura of goodwill that made Kassel want to retch. No rot. No blood. No delicious sinew. Humans were entirely uncivilized.
Kassel took one between his claws. Bringing it up to all his eyes to examine it in detail.
The feeling of being watched began to creep along his tail, making the hairs on it rise and the end flick.
He turned an eye to the culprit.
Beau was leaning forward on his toes, a breeze away from falling into his lap. Beau didn’t blink, his anticipation flooding the space and making it hard to breathe. Maybe Kassel had a thing or two to learn about staring.
Kassel sighed internally, bringing the cookie to his mouth. One bite had half his eyes closing in disgust and half widening at the weirdest texture he had ever experienced. It tasted like someone had poured sugar over a pile of sand. He stopped himself from spitting it out, forcing the crumbs down his throat.
“Are they good?” Beau asked, fussing with the cookies with one hand though he never broke eye contact. “It’s a new recipe I tried. I’m not great at baking, but I did my best…”
Kassel had no idea if they were passable by human standards or not, but he was pretty sure this recipe was the worst thing that had ever happened to humanity. On the bright side, he couldtake the rest of the cookies back to Hell and use them to torture the souls in his care.
“I would like the recipe.”
Beau bounced in place, bitten pink lips spreading into a pleased smile over a sound that was high and joyous and grating on the ears. He rushed into the sliver of space next to Kassel on the sofa and sat down, falling into Kassel’s thigh. The furniture groaned in pain, a more familiar and soothing sound.
“So,” Beau said. “How are you? Have I interrupted anything important for you?”
Beau was practically dwarfed in Kassel’s shadow. He had to strain to even keep him in view. “Just a staff meeting. I don’t mind not staying to the end of it.”
“Staff meetings are always boring.” Beau nodded solemnly before brightening a little. “I guess my summoning wasn’t too bad then?”
“Why did you summon me?” Kassel asked, since the subject had been broached anyway.
