I kept my body stiff, even as my insides turned to goo from the relief his words gave me.

“You’re just going to trust him?” Hellen demanded. “He’s probably up there whoring with the human slags instead of working, and you’re just going to take everything he says at face value?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the Token pulsed in my hand. Searing heat, and then cool. And searing again. I gritted my teeth.

“You overstep, Hellen!” Father growled. Hellen continued to whine, ignorant of Father’s rising ire.

Both were unaware of my sudden inability to care what Hellen said about me. Something very upsetting was happening to Jemma Bliss. And I needed to work out what it was.

Without so much as a ‘by your leave’, I stood from the table and strode from the room. Father and Hellen were too busy locking proverbial horns to notice.

Halfway back to my chambers, Beezle and Bub morphed out of the shadows, blocking my path, their canine faces contrite.

“Boss, we’re so, soooo sorry about⁠—”

“There is no time!” I snapped, cutting off Beezle’s apology. “Jemma Bliss is very unhappy, and I must … we must determine what it is that is causing her distress.”

I surged past them, and they trotted along behind me.

“As research, into how to really dig deep into her misery ourselves, right, Boss?” Bub asked tentatively.

“Yes, yes, just hurry!” I snapped. I entered my chambers and immediately opened a portal, my body already morphing into my human skin.

I would not allow myself to think about why I was so agitated. I stepped through the portal, Beezle and Bub on my heels.

13. Brunch with the Stinking Undie Stain

Chapter 13

Brunch with the Stinking Undie Stain

Jemma

The Spice Girls were performing a reunion concert. But the entire stadium was deserted, except for me. They were all wearing devil horns and tails, and there were flames shooting up into the sky behind them, throwing an eerie orange glow over them. They began singing Two Become One while making the universal hand gesture for peen in vag. And when the song finished, they began it again. And again. And again⁠—

I woke with a start. Sunlight streamed in through the crack in the curtain, and I rubbed my eyes at the brightness of it. The dulcet tones of Baby Spice still seemed to linger in the air.

I rolled over and groaned into my pillow. Because suddenly, the memory of that kiss returned, with startling clarity, to the front of my mind.

I’d kissed the Devil … well, the son of the Devil. And even though it had been for show … I hadn’t hated it.

He was just so … potent. There was something about him, something devilish, but also … desolate. I couldn’t quite figure him out … which was infuriatingly intriguing.