“You planned this. You gave me a bad soul. That curse couldn’t contain Krathion, even if she had done it properly.” Al seethed, but not a whisper of power edged his hands, telling me he knew better than to threaten Newt openly.

My skin prickled as the tension rose. Newt was crazy, but Al would lose. I didn’t want to belong to her. Al and I had an agreement, but Newt would see only master and slave. “I’m fine. Really!” I insisted, swaying on my feet and feeling my elbow throb. I’d hit something. Hard. Al, maybe? I didn’t remember it.

Lips curled up almost in a smile, Newt sniffed as if she smelled something rank. “I don’t understand this loyalty. He’s wasting your time, Rachel. You’ll have precious little of it if you’re not careful. You could be so much more, so much faster. Best hurry, before I remember something else and decide you’re a threat.”

With hardly a breath of air shifting the candle flames, she was gone. Al let out a huge sigh and turned to me. “You stupid bitch.”

He moved, and I darted back, slipping on the black floor and going down. His hand swung where I had been, and I skittered back until I hit the hearth.

“You freed him! For a cup of coffee!” Al raged.

“I didn’t!” I protested, tensing for the coming smack as he stood over me. Fight back? Yeah, there’s a good idea. I’d take my licks. Then I’d take them out on Pierce later.

“Algaliarept!” Pierce shouted, and Al hesitated, the sound of his summoning name being enough to give him pause. But it was the pure ting of metal hitting the marble floor that made me jump, not the back of Al’s hand, and I watched the band of charmed silver roll toward us, spinning in ever smaller circles at Al’s feet.

“I don’t need her to slip your leash, demon spawn,” Pierce said darkly, and something in his voice twisted in me. It was threatening, decisive, and utterly unafraid. I went cold at the sight of Pierce, his feet spread wide, a flicker of black vanishing from his spread fingers as he made them into fists. His eyes promised violence.

“I’ve been free since the moment you caught me,” he boasted, making it into a threat. “I’m here to keep her alive among the putrid stink of you all, not wash your dishes and twist your curses. A needed post, if you’re passing off soul-stealing curses as an aura supplement.”

God help me, I think I’m going to be sick. “I don’t need a babysitter,” I said.

Pierce looked at me, deadly serious. “I swan you do, Rachel,” he said, and my eyes narrowed.

Al harrumphed. His hand, once poised to smack me, had turned and was now offered to help me up instead. “How long have you known he could slip his charmed silver?” he asked.

“Not until he just did it,” I said truthfully as he yanked me up. He let me go, and I flicked my eyes to Pierce. “You need to stop underestimating him, Al,” I said, not wanting to be caught between them again. “You’re right. He’s going to get me killed.” My gaze went from Al to Pierce. “Through his own arrogance.”