He took a breath, holding it for a moment before slowly letting it out. Hand shaking slightly, he set the amber bottle down between us. “You will be in my room. The safeguards are chiseled into the stone. But I would appreciate the chance to update my own décor.” He took a sip, rocking on his feet. “I thought you would get that mark removed.”

My gaze darted to my last remaining demon mark, the one on my wrist that had started our association. “Uh, I forgot,” I stammered, embarrassed somehow. I sipped my drink, not knowing what it was but enjoying the mild buzz that was hitting me. “Al,” I said, my tongue markedly looser. “You just tell me what you want, and I’ll make it for you. I owe you big.”

He looked at me, emotions hidden behind his silence, for so long I wondered if I’d said something wrong. The fire snapped in the center pit behind me, and when I shivered, Al absently tossed a chunk of polished wood on it, probably gleaned from a broken building at the surface somewhere.

“Um, Al?” I questioned, feeling more than a little uncomfortable, the honey and amber filling my head with a shiny clarity. “I do appreciate you saving my ass. If there’s something I can do to show you that, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”

He turned to me, still no expression on his face. “I’m reasonably sure I had brown hair.”

Oh God. I think I’d insulted him. “Al—”

Finally a shimmer of emotion crossed him. “Drink,” he said as he tapped my glass with his. “It’s a day to celebrate. You have come home.”

I didn’t know about the home part, but I lifted my glass, a sneeze ripping through me as unexpectedly as a slamming door. My fingers shook, and a splat of liquid spotted Al’s pretty black floor. Horrified, I met Al’s demon-slitted red eyes, his first reaction of annoyance shifting to dread as he stared at me in what might be pity. I was sneezing, not him. And it didn’t feel like an incoming call. It felt like a summons. And it was noon?

Ivy? Jenks?

“Rachel?” Al asked as the first gut-wrenching pain blossomed and I pushed the glass back into his hand.

“It’s a summons,” I muttered, jaw clenched and the good feeling from whatever I’d been drinking dying.

“But it’s noon!” the demon exclaimed, gaze going to the clock to affirm it.

Ow. I hunched in on myself as the pull grew stronger. “Maybe Trent only cursed me to need a summons to be able to cross. Apparently I can still walk…in the sun. Ow!” I looked up, wincing. “I gotta go.” Day or night. Trent had said day or night. Tron would be pleased. I could give him the White House pool in the sun after all.

I gasped as Al suddenly had my shirt front, yanking me up. “Who knows?” he snarled. “Who knows you can be summoned in the day?”