I shrugged, forcing my face to remain neutral. “No idea. When he knows what my third task is, I suppose. He made it pretty clear he wasn’t going to be making any social calls …”

“And, you can’t, like, text him? Isn’t that how he got in touch with you to begin with? Did you try replying to that number?”

I bit into my gluten-free pizza and chewed violently, tugging my phone out of my jeans pocket. I navigated to the weird purple text thread and typed.

Jemma: Yo

I tossed my phone onto the coffee table, where it was immediately snatched up by Ezra. He took one look at the screen and choked on his drink.

“‘Yo’? You’re crushing hard on this guy, in addition to wanting him to, you know, not whisk your soul down to hell for eternal torture, and you text ‘Yo’ to him?”

Humphrey guffawed while I shrugged, my face heating. “I don’t know, it just seemed like a casual way to start a conversation …? I mean, I don’t know how he even got these messages to me. I doubt he has a phone. He probably just magicked them … so chances are he won’t even see it.”

The living room lights flickered, and Ezra dropped my phone as if it had electrocuted him.

I barely dared to breathe as I jumped up, scooped it from the floor, and glanced down at the screen.

FiendPay: Yo yourself

I swallowed, my heart hammering. “Uh, he said yo back to me.” I flopped back onto the sofa, nibbling on a fingernail. “I feel like a teenager texting a boy from school! What do I say back?” I gazed imploringly at Ez and Humphrey. “Help me! Gay guys are supposed to be good at this stuff!”

“Well, for starters, no self-respecting gay guy would start a conversation with ‘Yo’.”

I groaned, shoving a pillow over my face. “No self-respecting person full stop says ‘Yo’! What was I thinking?”

Ezra snatched my phone. “Didn’t you say you left him with that book? What was like the hottest, filthiest scene in it?”

I flushed crimson. Ezra and I very rarely discussed my books because he was always mildly horrified at the things I found titillating.

“Uh … there’s a part where he uses his forked tongue to … double penetrate her …”

As expected, Ezra wrinkled his nose in distaste. Meanwhile, Humphrey giggled hysterically, his eyes glittering. He hopped up and started perusing my bookshelf. “I think I need to get into reading.”

“The one where the guy’s butt accidentally-on-purpose gets sexily impaled on a demon’s horn … that’s a real eye-opener!” I deadpanned. Ezra made a gagging sound. Humphrey pulled the exact book I was talking about off the shelf and immediately began reading.