“All of it. The… that whole thing… it was some incubus-induced dream you made up, some trick to fool Zeus?”

The demon frowned. “What are you talking about? Do you still not remember what occurred?”

“I remember,” I said, a little knot of panic growing under my breastbone. Because he didn’t look like he understood. “But I don’t really remember, right?”

He frowned at me some more. “I have no idea. I prompted your mind so that we could talk—”

“Yes!” I cut him off excitedly. “Yes, that’s what I mean. That wasn’t real. You did something, messed with my brain—”

“It appears to be messed up enough already.”

“Just tell me that you did that!” I grabbed him, and somehow found purchase on the smokey body. I used it to shake him. “Tell me!”

“What I’ll tell you is that you need to calm down—”

“I’ll calm down when you tell me the truth!”

“I have told you the truth, and let go of me—”

I did not let go of him. “Tell me that wasn’t Pritkin earlier, that it was you—”

“Very well, if it will help. It was me.” I loosened my grip slightly, feeling a huge rush of relief flood my overtaxed body. “After all, we are one and the same—”

“Augghhh!” I shook him some more.

“How are you doing that?” he demanded. “I’m not in physical form—”

“But you were! That was you in that body you made, right? Not Mircea; he contacted family, so that had to be him. But the other—that was you!”

The demon stared at me for a moment, and then bizarrely, he shook me back. It was hard enough to make me feel like a human maraca, which was unpleasant, although nowhere near as much as the full-blown panic now clawing at my breast. I grappled with him, sending us rolling around the floor.

“Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!”

“I saved your life, you maddening woman!” he snarled. “Repeatedly! And you’re worried about—I don’t even know what you’re worried about!”

“Pritkin! And Mircea! And me!” I stopped fighting and shoved him away, before putting my head in my hands again, although I felt more like tearing my hair out. “Tell me I didn’t just destroy my entire life!”

I sat there for a while, rocking back and forth, feeling like I was going crazy. I thought about screaming, but my throat hurt, and the last thing I needed was to summon additional company. I rocked some more instead, telling myself that it was fine, it was fine, it was all going to be fine, but it wasn’t fine and the words rang hollow.