Al’s eyes opened, landing immediately on mine. There was nothing in his expression. “It’s gone,” he said simply, and a thrill spun from my head to my toes.

I scooted my chair back and fumbled at my boot.

“I said it was gone,” Al said indignantly.

“I believe you.” Heart pounding, I wedged my boot off, and it hit the floor with a thump. Fumbling with the sock, I peeled it off like a snake-skin and twisted my foot up and around. Tears filled my eyes, spilling out and down in a warm trickle. The underside of my foot was smooth and unbroken. The raised circle with a slash through it was gone. It was gone!

Blinking furiously, I smiled. “It’s gone,” I said, letting my foot go. “I did it!”

“Yada yada yada,” Al said sourly. “You tricked the big bad demon. Congratulations. The only way I’m going to save face is by snagging some excellent ley-line witches. Coven quality, you say?”

My exuberance died. “Al, wait,” I said as I set my foot on the icy floor, feeling the cold soak up all the way to my spine. “Do you know what they will do to me if you show up and try to snag them?” I’d known this was a possibility, but at the time, it had been me or them, and me always wins when the them is a bully.

Al stood, strutting over to Pierce and looking down at him, nudging him with a toe. “Do you know how rare it is for a coven-quality witch to summon me? Raw and untutored in the art of containing a demon? They kill their own if they become skilled in the dark arts, don’t they, Gordian Nathaniel Pierce?” he said to the unconscious witch. “If you can get out of their circle, Rachel, I can, too.”

My face skewed up in worry as a sheet of ever-after coated him, and suddenly it looked as if I was standing above Pierce, far too sexy and slim in my working leathers, my hair wild and my lips parted. Oh. Shit.

“My name is Rachel Morgan,” Al said, mimicking my voice perfectly. “I like black panties, action movies, and being on top.”

My jaw clenched, and I wondered how much I was going to pay for getting my name back. “I’m never going to get my shunning removed if you do that,” I said as I shook my sock right side out again.

“I don’t give a flying damn.” Looking like himself again, Al shifted his shoulders as if trying to fit back in his skin. “I don’t know why you even care about your shunning,” he said as he returned to the table and began gathering things. “I’ve told you you’d be welcome here. Have a name that is respected. Have I not proved we can work together? That I can honor my word?”