“Why add all the complexity of the repayment system? Why not just keep doing things the old-fashioned way?”

Ice threaded through my veins. I had to be honest. Didn’t I?

After all, it was her soul that I was toying with. My stomach twisted into a knot, but I pushed onwards with my dogged honesty.

“Do you recall me mentioning that the Soul Token was … filling with energy … when we had our sordid little bathroom meeting at Ratty-Man’s awful establishment?”

She grunted. “Seems that sordid meetings in bathrooms are becoming our thing.”

Our thing.

My brain turned into Hell Hound dung. A thing. That was ours. Together.

“But, yes, I remember,” she continued.

Remember what? my addled brain slurred. Oh yes, the Soul Token, and how I’m using her …

“Well, when a … when a devil reaps a soul, it can be years … decades even, before that human’s life ends. Years before their soul descends to sustain the demons. And because of the lax entry requirements for Heaven, the demons are⁠—”

“Starving,” she finished, her voice low. “And the energy in the Token?” Her head pressed against my chest like she couldn’t bear to look at me while she asked her next question.

“Is my energy feeding them right now?”

I was the worst sort of monster.

“No,” I grated. “It’s not. It’s still in the Token, and the Token never leaves me.” I swallowed hard around that lie—it was tucked inside the pocket of my ruined trousers on the floor of her bathroom. But I was not going to admit that to her because I was not prepared to leave this bed … to leave her … to fetch it.

And why is that, SJ? Might it be that you are finding being with her to be much more enjoyable than breaking her?

I needed that little voice to shut up.

“Why did you say your father used to come up here? Did he pass that job onto you?”

“Not as such.” A growl rumbled deep in my chest at the mention of my father. She felt it, gasping and pulling back from me.

“He decided to go into semi-retirement. No one was bringing any souls to Hell for a long time, and the small trickle that comes to us naturally is not enough. It has not been enough for years now.” I sighed, my breath fanning her hair. “There were … there were riots, and my sister⁠—”

“You have a sister?” She gaped up at me.

“Yes, and she’s about as delightful as your brother,” I explained, not wanting to get bogged down in the details of my fraught relationship with Hellen. “My sister got in our father’s ear that someone needed to step up. She thought he would pick her—she’s very … Hellish … but he commanded me to find a quick solution to feeding the demons … and bringing more souls to Hell.”