“Mmmmm,” said Reese.
“But you just said you were Devon,” I said.
“Right,” Devon said, and smirked.
“Kissed me, kissed me,” said Reese. Her eyes crossed.
“I don’t know who you are anymore,” I said. “If you’re the demon, then you’ve gotten really good at imitating Devon. If you’re Devon, then…”
“Kissed me,” said Reese.
“Okay, what’s wrong with her?” I said.
Devon patted her shoulder. “It’s time to be quiet. Think quiet thoughts.”
Reese swung around and looked vaguely off in the distance. She waved at a cloud. It was freaky, like she was some sort of zombie girl under the demon’s spell. But why would the demon need a zombie-girl minion? And then I realized that he didn’t.
The witch did.
“Holy hells,” I said. “Reese? What’s your name? What’s two plus two?”
Reese looked slyly at me. She mimed zipping up her lips and shook her head. She made kissy faces at the cloud.
“Squishing pixies, finding the phoenix, and collecting hopes and dreams,” I said to Devon/Estahoth. “This is what happens when you take her hopes and dreams?”
“Kinda sucks, huh?” he said. “You think people are going to notice?”
“Um. Yeah,” I said. Reese took Devon’s arm and kissed his shoulder. He patted her head. “Yeah, I think people are going to notice. I think lots and lots of people are going to notice.”
“Sit down,” Devon told Reese. “Pat the mousey statue.”
Reese fed it ivy and whispered, “Kissed me, kissed me,” to it. There were grass stains all over her white T-shirt. The damp spots showed that today her bra was orange, which was just totally annoying. The smell of the wet ivy drifted up from the damp earth. Or was that mold and firecrackers?
“So you were lying before,” I said. “I mean Estahoth. You were lying.”
“About which thing?”
I ignored that, because the demon was obviously trying to provoke me, just like Sparkle’s girls had been. “When you told Devon you didn’t have powers while you were inside him.”
“Oh, that,” said Estahoth. “No, I didn’t at first. But I have them now that Devon is sharing more and more with me. We tried them out last night. We’re trusting each other now, and I’m learning how I can help him.” He smiled wryly at me. “I know I was kind of a jerk at first.”
“Kind of!”
“But think of my disadvantaged background! Stuck in the fires of the Earth, able to learn only little snippets about life on Earth from those who went up and came back. You know, it’s a pretty funny sight, now that I think about it. All the demons sitting around, waiting for whoever was called to come back and tell us every detail. One demon told us all about Elvis. We all practiced shaking our pelvises after that. Well, in our imaginations we did,” he amended. “Demons don’t normally have pelvises.”
“How many times have you been up here?” I said.
“Three,” he said, and there was something venomous in his tone. “I almost had it the second time. Sixteen ninety-two, Massachusetts. I almost made it.”
Involuntarily I took a step backward. “If you’d made it then, you’d be dead by now,” I said. “Isn’t that the catch?”
“But I would’ve lived,” he said. He seemed to notice my expression and plastered a grin back on his face. “But you’re right. I wouldn’t be here helping Devon. He gets to kiss five girls, I get to suck away their ‘hopes and dreams’ to fulfill my contract. Win-win. And this is a glorious little spot of history you’re in.”
“You are not helping him,” I said. “And why did you set it up so kissing a girl is the way to work the spell?”
“To reward him, of course.”
“He doesn’t want your rewards. Does he?”
The demon grinned. “Here, we’ll ask him. I’m not trying to suppress him, you know. We’re friends now. Hey, ask him if he wants to go as Elvis for Halloween tomorrow. I think I could really get the moves right.”
The demon shook his head—and his pelvis—until he blinked and spoke in a different tone. A different tone, but the same hair color, the same stance. It was getting harder and harder to tell when the two of them shifted—or if any of the shifts were real.
“It’s not a reward, Cam,” he said earnestly. “I don’t want to kiss five girls.”
“Oh, please,” I said. “Be reasonable. Who wouldn’t?” The words came out more sarcastic than broad-minded.
Devon stepped over Reese’s muddy legs and took my hand. Electric fire tingled up my hand and I almost jerked away. “Really,” he said. “I’m just playing along to make it out of this alive. I wouldn’t have ended up in the bushes with Reese on purpose. Reese is a nice girl, but a little…”
“Kissed me?” Reese suggested.
“Repetitive,” Devon said.
I laughed and he pulled me closer.
“I want you to go to the dance with me tomorrow,” he said.
“To be there if you need help, you mean,” I said.