I blinked, trying not to lose it, but my hands shook. I could almost hear him add, “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.” “Yeah?” I barked, glad I’d waited until we were alone to bring this up—this way, there’d be no witnesses when I killed him. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in? The demons are pissed. They can’t control this guy, can’t kill him! That’s why he was imprisoned!”

Trent slowly turned, gesturing as if waiting for me to leave.

“Trying to catch him the first time was a friggin’ war,” I said, remembering Al’s spells slithering through our connected brains. “Ku’Sox isn’t confined to the ever-after during daylight, and he eats people to absorb their souls! He eats people, Trent.”

A flicker of emotion crossed the back of Trent’s eyes. A soft twitch at his lips. I pounced on it, seeing a sliver of humanity.

“You saw him eating those pixies!” I said, hammering the guilt home. “That’s what he does. He eats people because his soul doesn’t work right. Ku’Sox is a magically engineered disaster the demons created while trying to break the curse your people put on them in your stupid war! What they got was something so horrendous and disturbed that they buried it in the next world over. And you go and free him?”

Trent’s green eyes hardened. “I have this under control.”

I snorted. “Like you got him to stop eating pixies? Just because he can’t kill you doesn’t mean you control him! The demons aren’t blaming me for this, they’re blaming you! This emancipated-familiar thing makes you liable. You’re going to have demons with little red robes coming at you for breaking the law of uncommon stupidity if you’re not careful.”

His gaze on mine narrowed, and he turned away. “I have this under control. He’s sworn to protect me.”

Did he not get it? “Protect you?” I yelped. “He ate pixies—alive—to distract them so we could escape with Jenks.”

“You’re welcome for that,” Trent interrupted, and my head pounded.

“If you didn’t think I could protect you, then why am I here? Huh?” I asked, hands on my hips as I stood between the door and him.

A small, infuriating smile showed on his face, shocking me. “Because Quen wouldn’t let me out of Cincinnati without you.”

My teeth ground together, and I forced them apart. I didn’t think Quen knew about Ku’Sox, and I sure as hell believed that Ceri didn’t. “You are an idiot,” I managed, hands in fists.

Trent turned back to the mirror and brushed nonexistent dust off himself. The motion lost something with his being in a casual shirt instead of a thousand-dollar suit. “Right back at you, babe.”

Babe? Did he just call me babe? Shaking, I turned on my heel. This guy was a piece of work. “I’ll wait outside for you,” I said, not trusting myself with him right now.

“If you feel you have to.”

Pissed, I stiff-armed my way out of the bathroom. You can die here for all I care, I thought, the warmth and noise growing as I stalked down the empty hall. Trent was a jerk. A jerk and an ass. The demons might not blame me, but the coven would. And then I’d have to take care of Ku’Sox myself. What in hell was I? Trent’s maid?