I was the one who had come up with the rest of it. My plan, the one that I had developed specifically to work in tandem with the Soul Token. My plan, that I hoped would be the thing to turn our Hellish bad luck around. Not to mention impress my father and get my sister off my back.

But two sulky Hell Hounds were the last thing I needed, on top of everything else I was dealing with back at home.

“As I was saying, our plan needs refining. I believe I have worked out the Soul Token side of things, but I do not believe we have seen enough of this human to truly know what she is prepared to barter for …”

“Wait …” Bub interrupted. “Didn’t she just say to the sausage dog man that she would sell her soul for … I want to say some sort of nut?”

I blew out a long-suffering breath. “This is why we need more! We do not know if that is simply a human turn of phrase! My family has wangled their way into the mortal vernacular over the centuries. Perhaps we need to observe her in another environment? Somewhere she is more … accessible. I cannot easily follow her inside the healing building. Somewhere outdoors would be ideal.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Beezle panted. “Like, you want us to … stalk her?” His tongue lolled, and a string of drool stretched towards the ground.

Bub’s tail set to a frantic wag. “Oh, please Boss! Pretty please can we stalk her?”

“Yeah, I wanna know what Luci is!”

“I wanna know what ‘The Little Mer-ferret’ is!”

“I wanna know what a sausage dog is!”

“I wanna know what’s so funny about a crotch-aye penis!”

“Aren’t all penises located in the crotch?”

I stifled a smirk, crouching down and scratching them behind the ears. It was the only way to calm them when they got this over-excited.

“We will do a little more research before we take my plan to my father,” I assured them. My chest did that fluttering thing again. Maybe I needed to see a healer.

I shook my head. The next in line to the Throne of Hell did not require mortal healers!

“Can we go home now? I’m starving!” Beezle whined. I stood, my eyes drawn again to where I had last seen her. She was long gone by now in her little, rusty, motorised carriage.

I thought, as we headed away from the lights of the healing centre, and I drew on my magic to open us a portal home, about the way her hair had looked almost fluorescent in the lights of the eatery. I thought about the way she’d been touching the hand of that male with the ridiculous rose-gold hair in the stupid pyjama suit.