Of course, it would have helped if I’d gotten some kind of comfort, or at least acknowledgement of the problem, from the demon! But he was being unusually silent. And when I finally looked up, I found him lying on the floor, with an arm thrown over his eyes.

It was bizarre enough to leave me staring.

After a moment, I poked him. “What are you doing?”

“Grappling with a concept.”

The lying on the floor, looking like an overwhelmed southern belle thing, did not change.

I poked him again. “What concept?”

“The concept that we just defeated Zeus, the most powerful being of the ancient pantheon—and yes, I know it was from a world away, but we beat him.” The arm was thrown off, revealing blazing green eyes, and then he came up on one arm so that he could get in my face. “We beat him as few, and possibly no, other people have ever done, and what are you thinking about? Having to discuss a threesome with your boyfriend!”

I scowled. “It’s a problem!”

“It is not a problem! It’s absurd! And in any case, you won’t have to discuss anything, as I brought his subconscious—”

“What?”

“—his conscious mind being asleep at the time.”

“He was asleep?”

“Yes, he was asleep, so can we finally get back to—” the demon stopped, probably at sight of the pure horror on my features. “What is it now?”

“He was asleep? He doesn’t know?”

“It would have taken too long to wake him up and explain everything, assuming he would have listened to me. Which is why this whole thing is even more ridiculous than—” he broke off again. “Stop looking at me like that. Why are you looking like that?”

I hit him. “I have to tell him? You left me with—I have to explain this?”

“Explain what? What we did saved your life—saved all our lives, if I may remind you? We are linked via the Lover’s Knot spell. If you had died, we would have as well—”

I put my head back in my hands. I thought that death might be preferable to the mess I’d been left with. Pritkin hated his incubus side, and was not remotely a fan of Mircea. This hit every hot button he had and yes, I assumed he’d prefer for me not to have died, that he would understand. But what would it do to us?

“You don’t have to tell him,” the incubus pointed out, apparently having no problem with eavesdropping on my thoughts.

“Get out of my head! And yes, I do!”

He sighed, and it sounded exactly like one of Pritkin’s. “I can’t get out of your head. It is the only way we are able to communicate, through the vampire’s mental abilities. And this is exactly what I mean.”

I did not ask what he meant.