Her dad shoots her another reproving look. “It’s remarkable that you have a translation,” he says to me. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Do you mind if I take photos?”
“Go ahead.”
He gets out his phone.
“We need to find a way out of this,” Penelope says.
“Yes, of course,” Mr. Bunce agrees. He’s taking very careful photos.
“Hold that paper flat for me?” I spread out the papers.
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t you have any ideas?”
“Well.” He blows out a long breath and sits back in his chair. “I mean, there’s more legend than actual scholarship. I’ve read about people promising their souls to demons in exchange for power or wealth or some sort of intervention … What did you get out of it, Shepard?”
“Nothing,” I say. “I didn’t ask for anything.”
“Of course you didn’t.” Penelope is rolling her eyes.
“No, that’s good,” her dad says. “It would be harder to get out of the contract if you’d spent the money or cured your cancer.”
“Could we argue that I didn’t know what I was doing?”
“We could,” he says, “but it’s not like there’s a judge and jury to hear the case.”
“Then how can I possibly get out of this?”
He rubs his chin. “Well, you could appeal to the demon himself.”
“Herself,” I say.
“Herself,” he amends. “Demons are historically very law-abiding. They love signatures, terms, contracts…”
Penelope looks surprised. “They do?”
“Oh yeah,” her dad says. “That’s how they get you.”
“So we have to find a legal way out of the engagement?” she asks. “We can’t just break the curse? Or dissolve it? Or kill the demon?”
Her dad frowns at her. “Promise me you won’t try to fight a demon.”
“Is there scholarship on that?”
“No, ” he says.
“What about…” She’s rubbing her chin, too. “Could we find someone else to marry the demon?”
I hold up my hand between them. “I’m not damning someone else.”
Penelope cocks her head. “You never know, we might find someone who’s into demons…”
“No, ” I say.
“Well,” she says, “I’m not ruling it out.”
“I don’t suppose you’d been married before?” her dad asks me.
“No.”
“That’s too bad. Any children?”
“No.”
Mr. Bunce covers the lower part of his face with his hand, like just holding his chin wouldn’t be thoughtful enough. “Hmmm…” He shifts his fingers down. “Previously baptized?”
“No. Sorry.”
“That’s all right. Probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.” He sighs, then gathers up the papers, folds them, and gives them back to me. “Thank you for sharing these with me, Shepard.”
“Dad…” Penelope is getting distressed. “Wait. We need a plan.”
“Well, I’ll keep thinking about it,” he says. “I’m going to do some reading.”
“What’s Shepard supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Nothing dangerous, I hope.” Then he smiles at me and nods towards Penelope. “You might want to find different company, Shepard.”
“Dad, ” she says, “I need to fix this.”
“And I’ll do my best to help,” he says. “I’m sorry I don’t have any solutions off the top of my head. It’d be easier if I could consult with your mother—”
“You can’t!”
“I know. I won’t. Just … don’t do anything to make this worse.” He seems to remember something. “Where’s Simon? Is he already off fighting the demon?”
“He’s…” Penelope shrugs. “He got his own flat.”
Mr. Bunce’s face falls. Like this is worse news than my engagement. “That doesn’t sound like Simon. Did you have a row?”
“No,” she says, looking down at her scone, “we’re fine. It’s not like we were going to spend our whole lives in each other’s pockets…”
“Could have fooled me,” her dad says.
46
SIMON
Baz is lying on my bed when I get out of the shower.