It had been hardly a whisper, and I pulled my gaze from Minias’s satisfied stance. Her eyes were worried, and she looked frightened. “There is nothing else I can do,” I said. “And he won’t hurt me.” Sandals squeaking, I turned to him. “Will you?”

Flowing into a relaxed stance, he actually bowed. “I promise I won’t hurt you. Until I leave, that is.”

“Promise you’ll go the instant the mark is made,” I countered. “Alone and leaving me untouched.”

He straightened and touched his hat to be sure it was in the right spot. “As you say.”

Yeah. Right. I glanced at Ceri, who nodded, though she had yet to regain her color. Her motions subdued and unhappy, she took a piece of magnetic chalk from her waistband and, with a single unbroken line, sketched a circle a foot outside of mine. Jenks’s wings hummed in agitation, and, steadying myself, I stepped over it. The demon watched it all in a bored satisfaction. Why am I doing this again?

“I’m going in with you,” Jenks said, his wings cooling my neck as he hovered beside me.

“No you aren’t.” I didn’t have time for this.

“Like you can stop me?”

“Jenks…” But it was too late, and I gave Ceri a nasty look when her circle went up, trapping him with me.

“You need someone to watch your back,” she said, not at all apologetic.

Oh, man… I thought, eyeing her through the sheet of ever-after between us. Once she got that hard slant to her eyes, arguments were useless. Jenks landed on my shoulder with a smug harrumph. I smelled the oil he used to clean his garden sword, and I wasn’t surprised he had bared the lethal blade. “Let’s kick this pig,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.

Kick the pig? How about kick the witch? She apparently needs some sense knocked into her. I turned to Minias. “You got any problems with this?”

Taking a symbolic step backward, Minias gestured for me to come through.

Steadying myself, I reached to touch the inner bubble, breaking it. I stiffened as the energy needed to hold the barrier suddenly flowed into me, filling my chi before slipping back to the line out back. I didn’t let go of the line, wanting it in case I had to do something fast, but it was a relief to bring the levels coursing through me to a more reasonable level. Jenks’s wings fanned my neck, and my hair tickled me.

Minias breathed deep as if cataloging my scent now that it wasn’t tainted by a sheet of ever-after, and my stomach knotted. “It’s a pleasure, Rachel Mariana Morgan,” he said.