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“I have to wonder if your goal is getting kidnapped by a dark wizard.”

“Very much depends on the size of his library,” I quipped back.

Involuntarily, my gaze dipped to his black lounge pants, low on his hips. I made myself look away immediately, but given his smirk, he caught it.

I was certain my skin was tomato red, considering how hot my entire face was.

“You seemed to enjoy your first glimpse of mine. Sugar?”

At first, I was slightly disappointed to have downgraded to sugar. I quite liked being called love. But while I was too busy flushing and gaping, he’d finished the coffees.

The cupcakes were ready just in time, and rather than insisting that we ought to let them sit a little, I plated two, with a generous helping of icing on his.

“So, you do eat your baking, after all,” he mused as I bit into the cupcake. “I wondered. I’ve never seen you actually eat one.”

“It’s hard to bake less than a dozen, and I like them fresh—but I only eat about one per batch, hence why I give so many away.”

“Consider me permanently on the list of interested parties. And I’m not afraid to bargain.”

He knew I owed him far more than cupcakes after yesterday.

“So, what, you save my life, and I bake for you, is that the deal? Let me sign on the dotted line.”

I expected him to laugh. Instead, Lucian stared at me with an intensity that made me fidget a little. I truly didn’t understand that look. “What?”

“I need to tell you something, and I need you to take it seriously.”

I blinked, turning my own words around in my head to try to guess what could warrant such a serious tone.

“Be very careful what you ask of me, love. You might just get it.”

That made little sense. “Sorry?”

“There are some words you should take care to use around me. Deals, promises, vows. People spend those words like they’re worth less than pennies nowadays, but it’s not the samefor me. You met my grandfather yesterday. His father was Hypnos; and Hypnos’s mother, Nyx.”

I might have gasped. I knew he’d come from a god, but I hadn’t realized the line was that direct and immediate. What did that make Lucian? Something completely different from me, that was sure. Were we even the same species?

“And Nyx begot more than Sleep and Death. She birthed the Fates and Destiny itself. They’re my great-aunts and uncles.” He attempted a smile that didn’t reach those eyes, fixed on me, trying to communicate something right into my soul. “When I give my word, when I promise, when I vow, when I make adeal, it’s binding.”

That was hard to wrap my head around. “So if I said you save my life and I get you cupcakes, and you agreed?—”

“We would enter into a binding contract I would never let you—or myself—out of.”

All right. But what was wrong with that, exactly?

“So, everything you’ve ever promised?—”

“I don’t make promises I don’t keep.”

I finished my cupcake and my coffee, thinking it through. Finally, I had to be honest. “It’s nice, actually. Knowing that if I ever get a promise out of you, I can count on you.”

Lucian utterly confused me, putting his elbow on the table and lowering his head to his fist with a deep, defeated sigh.

“What did I miss?”

“All my warnings, apparently.”

“That you’re never going to lie to me when you give your word?” I genuinely didn’t get it.