“Fairy tale?” Al brushed a piece of nonexistent dust from himself. “No, just very expensive and normally impossible. It’s not supposed to last past sunup either. But your father?” Al looked from Trent to me and back to Trent. “He made Lee special.”

It had been mockingly sincere, and I went cold. Lee’s blood could kindle demon magic. So could mine. Ah, swell. Just peachy damn keen. But Lee was smarter than this. He knew that Al couldn’t hurt me and get away with it. There was more. We hadn’t heard it all.

I could smell the clean scent of crushed green leaves, and I realized Trent was sweating. “You tricked him,” Trent said, the distress clear in his voice. I didn’t think it was fear for himself. I think he was truly distressed that his childhood friend was alive and trapped in his own head by a demon.

Al put his shades on. “I got the better end of the deal, yes. But I’m following it to the letter. He wanted out. I gave him his freedom. In a manner of speaking.”

“Lee,” Trent said, moving forward, “fight it,” he encouraged.

Al laughed, and I drew Trent back. “Lee’s gone,” I said, feeling ill. “Forget him.”

“Yes, listen to the witch.” Al wiped his eye with an elegant hankie drawn from a pocket. He wasn’t using the ever-after. His sunglasses had been in a pocket, too. His abilities were diminished to Lee’s. It went along with what Ceri had said about demons being no more powerful than a witch, apart from several thousand years of storing charms and curses inside themselves. If he was truly in Lee’s body, then he was limited to what Lee could do until he brewed himself back to omnipotence.

Very expensive. Normally impossible. It added up to one person. One crazy person. “Newt did this, didn’t she?”

Jenks swore softly, and Al spun, his anger looking wrong on Lee’s face. “You are getting annoyingly perceptive,” he said. “I could have figured it out on my own.”

“Then why didn’t you?” I said, fear tightening all my muscles. “You can’t twist a curse complex enough to best the sun. You’re a hack,” I prodded, and Jenks’s wings hummed.

“Rachel, shut up,” he pleaded when Al reddened. But I forged ahead, wanting to know why he was here. My life might depend upon it.

“You had to buy a curse from her,” I goaded. “How much did it cost, Al? What do you want that you’re too dumb to get on your own?”

He stared at me through the shifting bands of color of my bubble, and I stifled a shudder. “You,” the demon said, chilling me. “If it gives me a shot at you, then it’s worth my everlasting soul,” he intoned, his voice sliding through me to leave the taste of lightning on my tongue.