“What is his agenda?” Evelyn asked, feeling her brows draw together in confusion. “From our few conversations, he doesn't seem to have a clue what he actually wants.”

C shrugged. “Well, you already have him figured out, then. He doesn't know shit, especially about himself.”

She pulled on the pipe again, exhaling in pink rings and spinning it around one finger in a dizzying, fast gesture. “You see, he left as my student before I could beat some sense into him, sadly. Oh, and to answer your earlier question, he's probably thirty three now. Maybe four. Dunno, I wasn't quite sure how old he was when I found him and the little goober refused to say.”

That's a bit weird, she guessed my age almost perfectly. Maybe it's easier with humans? But I never would have guessed demons started out as children, although it seems pretty much everything I assumed about them was wrong.

Evelyn tried to picture a child Az, but only managed to imagine one around her height. “So you knew him as a child? He was your student for that long?”

“Yup. Probably about eight years, give or take.” C shook her head dismissively, seeming bored of the subject. “Anyways. What exactly happened when he picked you up, kid?”

Evelyn remembered the bleak hospital room as she spoke. Even though she'd demanded that Az put her back, the more time she spent in the strange rooms Below, the more horrible the lonely place seemed. “I was dying—I mean, I was literally in the process of dying— alone in a hospital when he appeared. I thought I was hallucinating, which was really annoying, because I just wanted to watch the snow fall as my organs shut off. He wouldn't quit bothering me and said that he could heal me. So I said to just do it then, instead of talking about it.”

C was giving her another discerning look that didn't match her carefree manner. “And you said yes, specifically, right? Weren't high or anything?”

Evelyn nodded. “Yes, he made sure of that. He cut my IV line so I couldn't get more morphine and insisted that I say yes precisely before he did one of those weird triple snaps. Then everything faded and I blacked out.”

C nodded sympathetically before she took another drag. “Then you woke up in his basement, huh?”

“Huh? I mean, I guess?” Evelyn supposed that the library being in a basement would explain its lack of windows, although not doors. C laughed at her expression again. It was a little annoying to feel like anything she said might be found deeply amusing for reasons she didn't understand, but she was getting used to it. It didn't feel like C was trying to bully her, or make her feel stupid.

“It's a joke. Not my best one, either. ” The demon walked around her desk, tapping glittering ash out of her pipe into a tiny dish sitting on top of a pile of books along the way. Evelyn wasn't entirely sure how smoking pipes worked, but doubted it was like that. It seemed that C was doing it for aesthetic reasons rather than any kind of drug use.

“So.” C dropped back into her chair, and more papers fluttered to the floor as she leaned back. Her tail was slowly undulating beside her in a way that reminded Evelyn of Az when he had been thoughtful earlier. She stabbed at the air with her pipe. “I'm just taking a wild guess here, that you don't wanna stay cooped up with a demon who has the personality of wet socks and a stick up his butt for all of eternity, right?”

Evelyn shook her head rapidly. “Absolutely not. I thought being healed meant that I'd be able to do all the things I'd always wanted. I want to go take a walk outside, and pet animals, and I even had people that were.... well, we were almost friends, I think, but I was never able to meet them in person. I want to enjoy everything about a real life without being in pain. And I don't think Az does any of those things.”

To be fair, she could picture Az strolling in a park—likely in a very specific outfit for the occasion—but the idea of him leaning down to pet a dog was so ludicrous she that couldn't even begin to imagine it.

“Yup, you really are his opposite. You know exactly what you want.” C leaned forward, dropping the pipe to rest in the dish. It somehow landed perfectly balanced despite the carefree movement. She wove her long, pointed fingers together and set her chin on them again. “So… he tell you how you can get it?”

Thinking of the strange expression on his face as he had told her made Evelyn feel uncomfortable, although she couldn't really understand why. It hadn't been confusion, annoyance, or irritation, and above all, hadn't felt aimed at her, somehow; like her request had accidentally triggered something that made him upset with himself. She was probably reading too much into it, she decided. After all, demons' faces were pretty different from humans, and she'd never considered herself particularly good at reading them, either.

“He said that to break our contract, I had to kill him.” Evelyn's brow furrowed deeper as she recalled that Az was at least a foot and a half taller than her, had nails that looked like they could be pretty sharp, and could use some kind of magic powers. Snapping to change her clothing might not be that different than snapping to change the shape of her spine, or perhaps just explode her. “Is that really the only way?”

C's face was unreadable for a moment, then she laughed, spinning her chair slightly to the side and shaking her head in a way that gave Evelyn the impression she hadn't meant her to see the previous expression. “Hell no. Fuckin' drama queen. Him, not you, I mean. But it probably would be the fastest, and easiest.”

I knew it! He was just messing with me! But he's a better actor than I thought... I was really feeling guilty for even asking because of the look on his face then.

C gave a sly smile as she looked sideways at Evelyn. “So... you want me to teach you?”

“Teach me?” Evelyn blinked.

“How to kill him, of course.” C was grinning a bit too much for her statement to be anything but disorienting. Her tail also seemed to be standing up in a natural manner, giving the impression that this was a fake-innocent pose.