Page 38 of Sleep With Us

“Remind me why Seb is a coward?” Zee asked.

“Tried to get out of service. Fled, several times. Had heavies bring him back. Always trying to fly away.” Copernicus waved a hand. “Had to clip his wings. Then we came here, and nothing made sense no more. No battle to fight, no war to win. New lives. Lots of pies.”

“Where did Sebastien get the money from?” I asked. “If he worked for you when the veil closed, how did he have any money at all? Why wasn’t he sold?”

“Didn’t have money. Made a deal. The more he earns, more he pays, more pies I make.” The general swept his arm toward the windows, encompassing the factory floor. “Delicious pies for everyone.”

“But . . .” I licked my dry lips, sensing I was onto something. “Those payment terms aren’t in the contract.”

“Addendum.” Copernicus shrugged massive shoulders and those limp wings. “What flavor pie you want? Labrador is a solid choice.”

Labrador pies. I pinned a smile to my face and forced out, “Uh . . . maybe, erm, don’t put pets in pies?”

The general’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Why the fuck wouldn’t I?”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit cruel?”

“Humans throw pets away. Better in pies. It’s on the sign. Labrador?”

“Sounds great.”

“Be right back.” Copernicus stomped out the door and down the steps. I moved to the window and watched his barrel-like body plod down the production line, toward the giant masher machine, and out the door behind it.

“I told you this was a fucking waste of time.” Zee dropped into the general’s tattered, exhausted chair behind the desk, and kicked his boots up. “Copernicus is losing his marbles, and the contract is solid. I don’t know what you were expecting, but the general’s not saving me, or any of them. This whole fucking trip is as pointless as a chocolate condom.”

I knew he’d thought the trip was a waste of time, but what I hadn’t known, and what I could see on his face now, was how he’d hoped we’d find him a way out. And now he was crushed.

“It’s not pointless, Zee.” I set the contract down on the desk. “We’ll find a way. Has the general always been like this? Maybe he wasn’t in his right mind when he signed the deal? We could argue he didn’t know what he was signing?”

“Kitten, you’re clutching at straws.”

Zee’s boot nudged the computer mouse, and the computer screen blinked awake, showing a black and white camera feed into a room lined with metal cages.

Inside those cages, were all the unwanted pets. Dogs mostly, but some cats too. “Oh no.” They hadn’t done anything to anyone, and they had no chance of escape. The only good thing, was that they didn’t know the fate that waited for them. Although, they must have been able to hear the meat pounder slamming through their last few hours alive.

Nope. I was done. I’d reached my limit. “I can’t be here. I have to go.”

Zee stood, and grumbled, “We should never have come.”

“Where’s Lycian, huh?” I snapped, lashing out. “Scourge of Demios? Would he sit back and let fate steamroll over him like it’s doing to those poor pets? Is that you, in a cage, like them?”

Zee snarled. “Lycian left the building when that dumb fuck sold me to Sebastien. Are you happy now, Adam? You saw what you wanted and it’s made no fucking difference.”

The stairs clanged as Copernicus returned with two pies, one in each hand. “Fresh off the line.” He beamed, so proud of his monstrous baked creations.

“Nice seein’ you again, general.” Zee shoved by him and hammered down the steps, leaving me to smile and thank Copernicus for the pet pies.

“Are those⁠—”

“Yes.” I cut Reynard off, not wanting to get into why I was holding two pies.

Reynard sat to my right in the back of the car, with Zee squished to my left. In the middle again, I rested both pies on my knees.

The sun was setting as we made our way back toward the airport. Our trip to LA had been awful. Zee hadn’t said a word since we’d left the factory, and now I had two pies that made me sad every time I glanced at them. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, but I definitely wasn’t eating them.

We rode in thick silence until the car pulled up at the airport. Zee was quick to hop out, then Reynard left, and I found myself bereft without them—alone, marooned in the back of the car.

“Adam?” Reynard peered back inside the car. He’d loosely braided his hair, and it flopped forward, like a tail. Like the pets had tails. “You have to leave the car so we can board the jet.”