“That is good.” She smiled, and it was lovely, too. “They didn’t let me stay, but I heard… that is, there was a great deal of confusion. I assumed the stories were exaggerated.”

The same wild thoughts battered the inside of my skull, striving for attention, but I shoved them back. Later. Deal with it later.

Act sane right now.

I tried a smile of my own, although it felt more like a grimace. “Yeah. Exaggerated. But I’m afraid you’re going to be upset.”

“Upset?”

“About your coat. There was an, uh, unfortunate accident—”

“An accident?”

“—and it didn’t make it. We ran into some trouble on the river and—”

I stopped, because the confusion on her face had just changed into something closer to horror.

I thought that was kind of over the top for a coat. But with my luck, it had been her favorite, gifted to her by her dying granny or something. In which case, lending it to Calamity Cassie had not been a great move.

“Look, I’m really sorry—”

“Is that what you think,” she whispered. “That I’m worried about a coat?”

“Uh, yeah?”

That did not appear to be the right answer.

“I’ll replace it,” I offered.

“I don’t care about the coat!”

I don’t know what was on my face, but her expression was half angry, half gob smacked. “Okay?”

“Yes! Yes, it is! I would never—” she stopped for a moment, and then took a deep breath. “My apologies, lady.”

“For what? I burnt up the coat.”

She stared at me some more, then closed her lovely eyes. And when she opened them again, the serene smile was back, and so was the elegant curtsy, which she showed off again for some reason. “The Lady would like to speak with you, if you are able?”

I almost remarked that of course I was able, I was talking to her, wasn’t I? But she was acting a little weird. “Okay. I’ll be there in…” I looked down at my rumpled, salve-stained self. “An hour or so?”

She nodded, curtsied for a ridiculous third time, and fled. I stared after her in confusion. Sometimes, I didn’t get this place at all.

I pulled my head back into the room.

And was immediately reminded that I had a demon in it.

“Shit!” I jumped back, hitting the now closed door, as a shadowy figure lurched at me out of the darkness.

“I find you entirely frustrating,” Pritkin’s incubus informed me, boiling blackly.

I didn’t even respond to that. I just sank down onto my haunches with my back to the door, put my face in my hands, and let the cascade of wild images pour over me. A few moments later, I finally had a complete picture of the day, most of which I didn’t want.

Kind of like my companion.