His pants?

Why did it suddenly feel very wrong to be wearing trousers?

Aaron sits at the teacher's desk, head between his hands. The butler seemed to have no intention of teaching her how to be a lady. He was glued to the chair, already exhausted by his extremely flawed pupil.

Nicole, pitying the butler, sits down in her chair and begins to copy the Latin roots off of the board. She does her best to make out the letters in the words between the bullet holes. When she finishes, she walks up to Aaron, handing him the paper.

“You’re still here?” he asks, his head remaining in his hands.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because my blood is on Lillian’s dagger.”

She places the blade on the table next to her paper. “I think all you need to do is help me trace the right pattern to get home.”

“That’s not how it works.”

She glares at him. “How would you know?”

“Because before Cedric, I served Lillian. I know what her daggers can do.”

“Then is there any way to fix this?” she asks.

“I’m not sure. I was her Hand before she fell. Maybe her magic just doesn’t work anymore.”

“No, it definitely does,” she said. “She was able to send me here.” She pauses. “You were her Hand?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’d rather hear that than sit for another lesson,” she said.

“It’s not very interesting. You’re a Hand, too. It’s much more exciting to experience it than hear about it.”

“Try me,” she counters, unwilling to back down.

“Do you even know what it means to be a Hand?” He raises his head, meeting her eyes.

She falls silent, unable to continue her line of questioning. “I … it was just a deal. I scratch her back and she scratches mine.”

“Of course she’d say it like that. But your bond to her is a lot more than that.”

She thinks back to that dream with Lillian, remembering all the touching and kissing. Aaron couldn’t possibly be referring to that, right? There was no way he could’ve known, unless…

Unless she had done the same thing to him.

Nicole opens her mouth to ask the butler about his relationship with Lillian, but the words wouldn’t come out. How was she supposed to ask that kind of question?

“Look, let’s just try what you suggested,” the butler said.

“Huh?”

“Did you forget already? You asked me to help you trace the patterns with the dagger that will allow you to return home.”

“Right.” She picks up the dagger. “Tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

“It’s much easier to show you.” Aaron grabs a piece of chalk. “Copy my movements.”

She does her best to mimic his hand movements, drawing strange symbols in the air with the blade. Still, nothing happens. Frustrated, she slams the dagger on the table.

“Why won’t this stupid thing work?”

“Maybe because it needs me to die,” he said. “That was the task Lillian assigned you, right? Kill the demon?”

“She said the dagger just needed your blood.” In all honesty, Nicole wasn’t sure that she could bring herself to kill Aaron. He had comforted her, even after she fired so many bullets at him. It no longer felt right to take his life, not that there seemed like there was a way to do it.

“Well, clearly the dagger needs a lot more than just a bit of blood if you’re going to return home. I think it needs to absorb my soul.”

She holds the dagger over him, hovering the metal over the left side of his chest. “Like this?”

“My soul isn’t in me,” he said. She lowers the blade.

“Well then where is it?”

“I don’t know.”

She waits for him to say that he was joking, but the butler wasn’t the joking type.

“How can you not know where your soul is?” She understood missing keys but missing souls? And it wasn’t as if Aaron were a careless person. Of all the people in the manor, she figured the butler was the one who knew how to keep track of important things.

“Because I gave it away,” he said.

“Are you stupid?”

He looked offended. “Pardon?”

“You’re a demon. You, out of all people, should know the perils of handing out your soul,” she said. “I thought you were a lot smarter than that.”

“It’s a long story.”

“Everything is a long story!” she explodes. “Just give me the short version.”

“There is no short way to explain it. My life is a mess.”

“Please,” she said, “just try. I’ll do my best to understand why you gave away your soul.”

“Why do mortals sign contracts with my kind? Because they all want something. That’s why I gave away my soul.”

“What could be worth your soul?” she asks. “What did you want so badly that you had to trade away yourself?”

He scoffs. “What could be worth you being here and carrying out Lillian’s orders?”

She thinks about telling Aaron about her cat. Maybe he’d understand since he was a cat person, but at the moment, all she could think of was how stupid she’d sound for saying she’d trade her soul away for her cat. “Touché. But at least Lillian isn’t a demon like you.”

“No, she’s much worse than that.” She gives him a quizzical look, waiting for him to explain himself. He stares off into space, his eyes empty of emotion.

“What did she do to you?”

“You don’t want to know,” he said gravely. The statement only seemed to confirm her previous thoughts about the relationship between him and Lillian.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, a slight scowl creasing his brows.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re pitying me,” he said. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m not pitying you!” she exclaims, indignant. “It’s just …” She trails off, not sure if she could bring herself to voice her thoughts.

“It’s just what?” His voice was softer than before, coaxing her with the promise of kindness. She had a feeling in her gut that she would regret telling him what she thought, but what the heck? She was stranded in another dimension, without a single friend and her only link back home suddenly mysteriously quiet. Who else could she confide to?

“It’s just that I’m wondering if she did to you what she did to me.”

“Like make a contract? If so, then yes unless you meant something else,” he said.

“I…”

“You mean something else. It’s ok if you can’t say it.”

She looks down at her hands, defeated. She really couldn’t say it.

“Yes,” he said.

“Yes what?”

“To the thing you can’t say. Yes, because I can smell it on you.”

She suddenly felt very dirty.

“It’s not your fault. She does it to every one of us. Lillian has a habit of playing with her Hands.”

“But it is my fault,” she whispers. “I let her do what she wanted with my body and she never even had to touch me.”

“What do you mean?” Aaron’s eyes seemed to glow amber with curiosity.

“It all happened in a dream,” she said, “when you guys had me trapped in the basement. She was just so beautiful. I couldn’t help myself.”

“Fascinating,” he said.

She looks at him, aghast. “Fascinating?”

“Lillian isn’t as powerful as she used to be. She can’t even be present physically here with you.”

"How's that going to help me go back home?"

"It's not," he admits. "But it does mean something else, something you aren't going to like to hear."

"You can tell me. I'm a strong girl." After all she had been through, nothing could faze her.

"Lillian won't hold up her end of the bargain," he said. "She doesn't have the power to do what you want. Her sending you here was a desperate move."

Nicole felt the air escape her lungs. "What do you mean she won't uphold her end of the bargain? She … she possessed me earlier, didn't she? If she can do that, she could fulfill our bargain." And didn’t she say that she loved me? She wasn’t sure that she believed Lillian’s words but somehow it still stung weighing the possibility that she wouldn’t uphold her end of the bargain. Or the butler could be lying.

"You remember Lillian possessing you?" Aaron tenses up.

"Not really. I just remember her shoving me to the back of my mind," she said.

"That wasn't very smart of her. It probably took up a lot of her powers. There's a good chance you won't be hearing from her for a long time."

She thinks about her dying cat. Was there really no saving him?

"That's fine," she found herself saying. "There's no point in going back if Lillian can't give me what I want."

"And what did you want from her?"

"I'm a bit embarrassed to say." Her cheeks flush.

"I could help you get it. I'm no goddess but I am a demon." His eyes flash amber again.

"My cat," she said. "I wanted Lillian to cure my dying cat."

"You gave yourself up and risked your life for your cat?"

"I know it sounds stupid but - "

"Why didn't you say so? It's a noble goal, saving your cat." He grinned at her fiercely, holding back a laugh.

"Stop teasing me!" She folds her arms.

"I'm serious," he said. "I'd give my soul up for a cat, too."

She throws a punch at him, irritated. "I told you to stop teasing me." She pelts his chest with light blows.

He wraps her in a bear hug, restricting her arms. "Not so strong now, are you, Miss Walker?"

She tries to escape his grip. He chuckles, his laugh reverberating through her. Aaron releases her from his hold, his face relaxing to its usual serious expression.

"I can help you get what you want and go back home as long as you don't hurt Lord Philips," he said.

"Really?" It sounded too good to be true.

"You have my word," he said. "I will bring you, Nicole Walker, back to her dimension, and cure her cat as long as she doesn't hurt the master of this manor. Do you accept the terms of this agreement?"

She looks at the hand stretched before her. What choice did she have?

"Yes, I accept." She shakes his hand, a red glow enveloping the two.

"Excellent," he said. "Now our lessons can really begin."