Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff

All of a sudden he didn’t feel like dessert. Her eyes were wild and he wondered just how close the “crazy lady in the desert” was to the surface.
    â€œWhat are we going to do about this there?”
    Good question. Too bad he didn’t have an answer. Wait…“We can start by reading your fortune cookie.”

Four
    â€œI HAVE TO SAY THAT I’m not surprised you lost the fortune cookie in this mess.”
    Tony sat back on his heels in time to see Leah shake her head at the pair of boxer-briefs dangling between thumb and forefinger, then toss them to one side. She’d calmed down a lot in the car, and by the time they got to the apartment, she’d either got a handle on things or slid so deeply into denial she was living in Egypt. Tony wasn’t sure which, but that was okay because he didn’t care which. Whatever worked. “I told you, I was sorting laundry.”
    She prodded a pile of jeans with the toe of one sneaker. “Historically, most people sort laundry in order to do laundry.”
    â€œI was going to get to it.”
    â€œWhen you get down to a pair of paint-stained sweats and a T-shirt you got free from a promo guy?”
    â€œPretty much, yeah.” He smothered a yawn with the back of his hand and nodded toward the kitchen. “The garbage is under the sink. Try there.”
    â€œYou said you didn’t throw it out.”
    â€œI didn’t throw it out on purpose.” Shoving a pile of old newspapers out of the way, he dropped to his belly to look under the sofa bed. Dead batteries. Firefly disk two. Blue silk tie. One dress shoe. Where the hell was the other one? Assorted balled-up socks. Empty Timbit box. Three issues of Cinefex. As the cheap parquet floor warmed under him, it got harder and harder to stay focused. Empty sample bottle of guava-flavored lube. Empty beer bottle. Unopened can of generic cola. No fortune cookie.
    Clutching the can of cola, he shuffled backward until his head cleared the bed frame, dragged himself up onto his knees with a handful of mattress, and allowed his upper body to collapse onto the bed.
    Something crinkled.
    Setting the can aside, Tony rummaged in the tangle of sheets. “Found it.”
    Leah stared down at him in disbelief as she turned from the sink. “You slept with it?”
    â€œCalm down, we’re just good friends.” Although the packaging had maintained physical integrity, the cookie within had been crushed. He got himself up on his feet just long enough to shuffle around and sit down on the edge of the bed. Then he reached out and dropped it into her hand.
    Her other hand moved to cover the scratch on her side. “This is foolish.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œYours could have meant anything. It didn’t have to refer to the demon; that could have been coincidence.”
    â€œCould have. But I doubt it. Wizard,” he added with a shrug when she glanced at him.
    Crumbs whispered against each other as she shook the package, the motion hiding the way her fingers had started to tremble. “Yeah, but this is my cookie, and I’m no wizard.”
    He understood why she was delaying; a certainty she had held for her whole life had changed and, given the length of her life, that was saying something. Change could be terrifying. He understood; he just didn’t have a lot of patience with it since these days his life changed every twenty minutes. “Would you just open the damned thing?”
    She hesitated a moment longer, then caught the edge of the plastic between her teeth and ripped. A small strip of paper spilled out of the pile of amber crumbs on her palm.
    â€œ Ambitious change requires help; timing is everything . Oh, yes, very clear and extraordinarily anticlimactic.” Eyes rolling, she dusted the crumbs off into the sink. “That could mean anything.”
    â€œIt could mean that your Demonlord is getting ambitious and is using the Demonic