We were halfway through the campus, on our way back to the car, when Jacky pulled out his phone.

“Emerra, would you be willing to make another stop with me?”

I smiled at the absurdity of the question. “Gosh, let me check my calendar.”

Jacky walked beside me, phone in hand. After a few steps, he said, “And?”

“It was a joke, Jacky. I’ve got nowhere else to be. I’m happy to tag along.”

“Good.” He pressed on the screen and put his phone to his ear. “Hello? Abraxas? This is Jack Noctis. I’m well, thank you. I need to talk to you…I would prefer to do it in person.” He paused. “It won’t take long. I can meet you at Junco Park, but it’ll take me about an hour to drive there.” Another pause. “Shall we say ten minutes after ten? Excellent. The first bench along the trail. We’ll see you there.”

He hung up and tucked the phone back in his pocket.

I was buzzing with curiosity, but I didn’t know how much I could get away with when it came to asking death a bunch of questions.

On the other hand, if he didn’t want to answer one of them, all he had to do was tell me it was a good question.

“Friend of yours?” I asked.

“That’s a good question.”

So much for that.

One car ride later, we pulled into a graveled parking lot. The park itself was nothing but an inlet to a jogging trail that ran through the woods. The sign pointed out the broad dirt path. We followed it south until we came across the first bench, then sat down to wait for someone who may or may not have been friends with death.

I started tapping the soles of my borrowed boots together and wondered how Jacky could sit so still.

“Time?” I said.

“A useful construct for making appointments. Otherwise, I find it a confusing concept.”

“Jacky, what time is it?”

He pulled out his phone. As he put it back, he said, “Ten-oh-nine. He should be here shortly.”

“Is he usually punctual?”

“Exactly so. Thus proving that punctuality isn’t a virtue.”

“I thought punctuality was supposed to be the politeness of kings or something.”

Jacky turned his skull toward me. “What does politeness have to do with virtue?”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into an argument about morals and civility with death. And not just because I wasn’t sure how well I could defend my position.

Instead, I gazed at the scenery.

The black tree trunks were almost lost in the blaze of autumn colors around them. Some of the green leaves had morphed into an almost neon shade before their switch to yellow. The older red and orange leaves stood out against the vivid blue sky. The ones that had released their hold on life had fallen to the ground, to be swept away by the wind. I could see them peeking out from the dark undergrowth or drifting along the gray path.

“It’s beautiful here,” I said.

“Is it?”

It took me a second to realize Noctis wasn’t being sarcastic or making fun of my admittedly basic tastes. His voice had been too simple, and when I glanced at him, his skull was rotating, as if he was searching for something in the trees.

Before I could overcome my stupefaction, the person we were waiting for arrived, and I had a whole new chance to be stupefied.

The name Abraxas had sounded a bit unusual, but I thought he might be foreign. I did not expect him to be a demon.

He stood a little over six feet tall. There was a slight shine to his gray suit and red tie—the bright red tie that exactly matched his skin color. He had large, pointed ears and two curled horns that split out of his bald forehead. His smile showed too much of his teeth, and too many of them were sharp. His oversized eyes were completely white, but you could tell he wasn’t blind. His eyes moved with too much purpose—especially when they fixed on me.

“Well, well. What do we have here?” He turned to Noctis. “You didn’t say you’d have a friend with you.”

“I didn’t think to mention it,” Jacky admitted.

The demon held out his hand to me. “I’m Abram.”

All I could do was stare at him.

Jacky may not have thought politeness was a virtue, but he must have seen some value in it.

“Forgive her,” he said. “She’s never met one of your kind before.”

The milk eye shifted to the skeleton. “She can see me?”

Noctis inclined his skull.

The demon put his hand back in his pocket. “Oh dear. There goes my biggest advantage.” To me, he said, “I’m still pleased to meet you. Any friend of Jacky’s is worth knowing—even the ones that aren’t as interesting as you.”

I covered my face with my shaking hands.

This was…hard. But was it really harder than being welcomed into a Victorian mansion by a walking, talking skeleton? Or meeting a vampire, a wolfman, and a mummy?

I mean, a bog-monster had sat on my lap during breakfast. When I shared some of my food with him, he spat it back on my plate and announced that he didn’t like toast.

And was I really going to let a demon show me up when it came to manners?

I took a deep breath and uncovered my face.

“Sorry. I’m still a little new at this.” I held out my hand. “Would it be a bad idea for me to give you my name?”

He laughed as we shook. “Not at all. Unless we’re under contract, the only thing I could do is use it to get your attention.”

“I’m Emerra Cole.”

“Since you can see me, I can be either Abram or Abraxas—whichever you prefer.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Are either of them your real name?”

“No, but they will get my attention.”

“Has anyone ever told you, you look really good in red?”

He straightened his tie. “Why, thank you.”

“Tolerance will do, Emerra,” Noctis said. “You don’t have to charm him.”

“Don’t stop her, Jacky! I never get tired of compliments.”

“I know, but we can’t stay here all day.”

“Wretched. Oh, well. Then what can I do for you two?”

“A soul is missing.”

The demon clicked his tongue. “What a waste. If they didn’t have any use for it, they could have given it to me.”

“Did they give it to you?”

Abraxas scowled. “You think it has something to do with us?”

“I’m asking.”

“Jacky, we haven’t had trouble with you in centuries.” His voice was clipped and frustrated. “We’ve abided by your rules—what more do you want from us?”

“Something out of the ordinary has occurred and I need to know what. I want assurance that an infernal wasn’t involved.”

“Do you plan on interfering with our deals now?”

“Not at all. What a human does with their own soul is their business. But if an infernal has interfered with the soul of Trevon Wayde, they will be compelled to prove that a contract existed.”

The tension was enough to make my shoulders curl, but they only watched each other. Not a muscle on the demon’s face twitched. Jacky’s skull, of course, couldn’t twitch.

Abraxas slow blinked, then raised his eyes to the leaves above our heads.

“Of course, Jacky. We wouldn’t want to upset you, and I, for one, treasure our good relations.”

His smile was easy. I would have thought everything was fine, if it hadn’t been for the micro-tone that had snuck into the word “treasure.”

Abraxas looked down at Noctis. “I’m glad that you thought to call me about this.”

“Do you know anything or not?”

The demon sighed. “Well, the fiends are required to tell me if they’re calling in a debt—”

“Required?”

Abraxas grinned. So many pointy teeth. “Oh, dear. Maybe you haven’t heard. I’m the new king. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to bow.”

Ha! It seemed like punctuality was the politeness of kings.

“You have my condolences,” Jacky said.

I remembered the bit about the pastry stroll and decided to help him out.

“I think the word is ‘congratulations,’” I muttered.

“You don’t know much about hell’s politics,” Jacky muttered back.

There were more shadows on the demon’s face when I glanced at it. Most of them fell across his smirk.

“I don’t plan on being destroyed,” Abraxas said.

“Neither did your predecessor.”

“I would like to think I’m more…capable…than she was.”

“A familiar refrain.”

“We’re straying from the topic! No souls have been taken recently.” Abraxas’s head twitched to the side. “And wouldn’t you know if we had taken them?”

“Normally, yes. What about the hellhounds?”

“My, you really are stretching, aren’t you?”

“You have to stretch to cover all the forts.”

Abraxas’s smile faltered. “Bases, Jacky. ‘To cover all the bases.’ It’s a baseball term.”

“Protecting a series of defensive forts calls for more effort than a game.”

“If it will make you feel more comfortable, I’ll check the hellhounds, but I assure you, none have gotten out.”

“You sound certain.”

“I am.”

“You have the devils under control?”

“No one can control a devil, but you can punish them. There are strict new rules in hell for any devil foolish enough to toy with this world, and the consequences are delightful.”

“What do you do?”

“I feed them to the hellhounds. So you see, my beloved puppies are all fat, happy, and unlikely to try to break free.”

“I wonder if the last king felt as confident in her knowledge as you do in yours.”

The demon’s nostrils flared, but that was the only sign that he’d heard Big Jacky.

Noctis added, “Have any new deals been made?”

“You think a Faust might have done this?” Abraxas asked.

“I think nothing. I’m trying to find possibilities.”

“Why are you asking about our magicians when this world has plenty of its own?”

“I’m asking everyone.”

I was trying to be polite, but my curiosity was at its limit. I lurched forward on the bench. “Sorry, but what’s a Faust?”

Abraxas turned his attention to me. Those white eyes made me shiver, but I was too eager to sit back.

“That’s what we call people who are under contract. It’s a fashionable nickname. Haven’t you seen the play?”

I shook my head.

“Oh, it was all the rage a few hundred years ago! I thought everyone had seen it.”

“That was before her time,” Jacky said.

“I suppose.” Abraxas moved closer to me. “Humans and demons occasionally find it advantageous to make deals with each other. Since we’re infernal beings, we have a range of things that we can offer— ”

“And in exchange, they give you their soul?” I said.

His chuckle came out no louder than a whisper.

“It sounds unbelievable to you because you can see me. Try to imagine a handsome man in a nice suit”—he ran a hand over his crimson scalp—“with perfect hair. He comes up to you, gives you his best smile, and asks you for something you barely even realize is there.”

His voice was soft and compelling, but my skin was crawling so bad it felt like it was trying to turn itself inside out. How would I have reacted if he had looked human? Would I have laughed?

“Much less frightening, isn’t it?” He gave me his best smile. The curve of his teeth shone in the sunlight. “When I dress like this, even the ones that take me seriously think hell is nothing but another long business meeting. Appearances are everything.”

“What do you do with the souls?”

“We eat them.”

My heart started beating as fast as a rabbit’s.

“Don’t worry, Emerra Cole,” he said. “I don’t think we could get you under contract, and we can’t take a soul by force.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t let them,” Jacky said.

My eyes moved between them. It felt like there was something in the space between their bodies. It wasn’t a scattering of dry leaves and a few feet of air; it was power, knowledge, and ages, and all of it was far wilder and larger than anything my microscopic life had prepared me for.

Jack Noctis said, “Have there been any new Fausts?”

“The fiends have been working on one or two deals. I’ll call you with the details this evening, but I don’t think you’ll find a magician among them. We haven’t had a request like that in a long time.”

“What do people normally ask for?” I asked.

“Well, let’s see. What would you ask for?”

I shut my mouth and bit the inside of my lips together for good measure. Even the world’s dumbest rabbit would know better than to tell a fox its weakness.

“Ah,” Abraxas said. “Let me see if I can guess.” He put his hands in his pockets and stared up at the sky. “You’re a little brave, and very easy-going…but you do ask a lot of questions.” When he lowered his all-white eyes, they stared into my black ones. “You seem like the type that would ask for knowledge.”

I unstuck my lips. “Is that what other people ask for?”

“It’s odd, isn’t it? You’d think it would be riches or fame—and I’m not saying that people aren’t obsessed with those things—but the type of people who’re willing to deal with us all seem to be looking for something else. Knowledge and power. Those are the two commodities we trade in the most. That’s what people sell their souls for.”

“Knowledge and power?” I repeated.

“Perhaps because it’s so much harder to come by.” He eyed me. “Let me know if you’re ever willing to consider a deal.”

Noctis said, “Abraxas—”

“I thought what a human did with their soul was their business, Jacky. You are willing to live by your own agreement, aren’t you?”

Jacky eyed the demon for a second, then turned to me. When he did, Abraxas also looked my way. That was four funky eyeballs-slash-eye sockets too many for my comfort.

I waved both hands in front of me. “I don’t think I’m that curious.”

“Not yet.” Abraxas flicked his hand, and a business card appeared between his fingers. “In case you change your mind.”

I took the card. It wasn’t everyday a king was going to offer me his contact information, and I wanted to see his phone number. How good was hell’s cell reception?

The demon looked at Noctis. “Is there anything else?”

“You’ll call me as soon as you check on the situation?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s always a pleasure to see you, Jacky.” Abraxas nodded to me. “Ms. Cole.”

I nodded back.

He walked further down the path, deeper into the woods. Before the trees could completely hide his body, he disappeared between one step and the next.

“Huh!” I sat back. “He seemed…polite.”

“Demons usually are,” Jacky said. “They find it useful.”

We stood up and headed toward the parking lot.

“Did you learn what you were hoping to?” I asked.

“Hoping to? No. But I learned what I expected to learn. It’s unlikely Wayde’s soul disappeared due to infernal influence.”

“Unlikely, but not impossible?”

“If Abraxas is the king now, I have no doubt he’ll launch a full investigation. He can’t afford to not know what’s going on. When he calls me this evening, we should know, one way or the other, but I already suspect we’ll have to look somewhere else for our answers.”

“So where do we go next?”

The day was still young. I had no doubt there would be a next.

“There’s an expert on monsters I’ll have to get a hold of.” Jacky’s voice dropped an octave, and he grumbled, dismally, “Then I’ll have to contact the local Torr.”

After a thoughtful pause, I ventured, “You don’t sound too happy about that.”

“Trying to arrange a meeting outside of the regular appointment can be troublesome. I’ll have to call an emergency meeting, then listen to them debate, endlessly, about whether or not they have to attend.”

There was a longer, more thoughtful pause.

“Jacky, you’re death.”

“I’m aware.”

“Why don’t you tell them it’s come to the meeting or you’ll come to get them?”

He slowed. “Do you think that would make a difference?”

My next two steps had a little more bounce in them. “I sure do! Hell’s Highness may think it’s all about appearances, but I think it’s all in how you say things.”