Oh, yeah, I thought, remembering hearing the bell in the belfry toll when I had pushed Newt from my thoughts. The expression “ringing the bells” wasn’t just a figure of speech, and I wondered how much energy I had channeled to make the bell in the tower resonate.

From the living room came the ugly noise of paneling being ripped from the wall. Ceri’s blond eyebrows rose. Crap, she was calm and sedate, and I was shaking in my underwear.

“It’s a demon,” I whispered, wondering if we should leave or try for the circle I had etched in the kitchen floor. The sanctuary was still hallowed ground, but I didn’t trust anything except a well-drawn circle to protect me from a demon. Especially this one.

The questioning look on Ceri’s delicate, heart-shaped face went hard with anger. She had spent a thousand years trapped as a demon’s familiar, and she treated them like snakes. Cautious, yes, but she had long since lost her fear. “Why are you summoning demons?” she accused. “And in your sleepwear?” Her narrow shoulders stiffened. “I said I’d help you with your magic. Thank you very much, Ms. Rachel Mariana Morgan, for making me feel worthless.”

I took her elbow and started dragging her backward. “Ceri,” I pleaded, not believing that her delicate temper had taken this the wrong way. “I didn’t call it. It showed up on its own.” Like I would even touch demon magic now? My soul was already tainted with enough demon smut to paint a gymnasium.

At that, Ceri pulled me to a stop, steps from the open sanctuary. “Demons can’t show up on their own,” she said, the flicker of concern returning as her white fingers touched her crucifix. “Someone must have summoned it, then let it go improperly.”

The soft scuff of bare feet at the end of the hallway cut through me like a gunshot. My pulse catching, I turned, Ceri’s attention following mine an instant later.

“Can’t—or don’t?” Newt said. The kitten was in its arms, paws kneading.

Ceri’s knees buckled, and I reached for her. “Don’t touch me!” she shrieked, and I was suddenly battling her as she swung blindly, pulling from me and lunging into the sanctuary.

Shit. I think we’re in trouble.

I lurched after her, but she jerked me back when we found the middle of the empty space. “Sit,” she said, her hands shaking as she tried to yank me down.

Okay, we weren’t leaving. “Ceri—” I began and then my jaw dropped when she flicked a dirt-caked jackknife from her back pocket. “Ceri!” I exclaimed as she sliced her thumb open. Blood gushed, and while I stared, she drew a large circle, mumbling Latin. Her waist-length, almost-translucent hair hid her features, but she was trembling. My God, she was terrified.