I hesitated, getting the faintest impression of books and candles, but his thoughts weren’t tinged with thoughts of the library. He was in his closet of a room, etching the walls with curses to make a new safe room. Paranoid, are we? “Ah, we might have a problem,” I said, meeting Jenks’s eyes and seeing his encouragement. “It’s Nick.”

How many nasty little men do you need, love? Isn’t Trenton enough? Al thought, clearly distracted. You can’t have him. Ku’Sox would put too high a price just because it’s you. Cut him loose. He’s toad shit.

My jaw dropped. Hovering across from me, Jenks’s wings dropped in pitch as he reflected my shock, not knowing why. “You know Ku’Sox has Nick?” I said, warming. “And you don’t care? You didn’t tell me?”

Of course I know. And no, I don’t care. His thought was distant, as if I was only getting half his attention, and I wondered what he was doing. Why do you? If all you’re after is abuse, I can give it to you far more deliciously than a human.

I frowned at the wave of titillation he’d put in his words. “Do you have any idea what he’s capable of?”

Ku’Sox?

“No, Nick!” I pressed my fingers more firmly into the glass. He was losing interest.

Oh, for the two worlds colliding, Al thought, clearly bothered. Can this wait?

“No!” I said, and Jenks crossed his arms over his chest to mirror my distress. “How did Ku’Sox get Nick? The two of them couldn’t have met before.”

That I knew for a fact. The timing was off. I waited, shoving needlelike thoughts of impatience at Al’s mind, threatening him until he found out for me. Sure enough, he made a huge mental sigh, thinking, Hold on a sec.

I took a breath to complain, but he was gone. I shuddered—it felt as if I suddenly lost half my mind when the thousand half-realized musings that go on in the back of our awareness abruptly vanished. I hadn’t lost my mind, of course, but Al and I had been sharing mental space by way of the scrying mirror, and I felt the loss of his background noise when he left.

“He’s checking,” I said, then jumped as my focus blurred briefly as Al came drifting back into my head.

Ah. Here it is, the demon muttered, and I pressed my fingers against the scrying mirror to improve the connection. Ku’Sox won him in a bet. One concerning you, actually.