‘‘Would I do that?’’ Jim asked, its eyes closed in bliss.

I frowned at it as it peeked at me.

‘‘Yeah, OK, I would,’’ it said with a laugh. ‘‘Guess the only thing you can do to keep me quiet is take me with you.’’

‘‘For the love of . . . no!’’

‘‘Oh, but May!’’ Cyrene said, patting it on its furry head.

‘‘Absolutely not. We’ve got enough trouble without having a demon tagging along.’’

‘‘It could help us!’’ she protested as I moved over to the door, feeling it again for signs of any magic I might have missed earlier. There was nothing but the arcane spells the mage had bound into the door.

‘‘How can a demon help us?’’ I asked, hoping to point out the irrationality of her statement.

‘‘Distraction,’’ the demon answered quickly. ‘‘You want to get your twin out, right? What could cause more attention than a demon? I drag everyone over to one side of the yard, and bingo! You take the lovely Cyrene out the other side.’’

‘‘Yes! What a good plan!’’ she said, nodding vigorously.

‘‘Uh-huh. And who’s to say that Jim isn’t going to sound an alarm when I’m getting you out of the garden?’’

Cyrene’s face, filled with hope, fell. Before she could answer, the demon snorted. ‘‘Are you kidding? Kostich almost killed Ash last year. There’s no way I’m going to do him a favor.’’

‘‘Then why did your master take a house next to him?’’ I couldn’t help but ask.

‘‘She didn’t know until we got here who lived next door.’’ Jim smiled again. ‘‘She went all potty mouth when she found out, too, but Drake pointed out she wouldn’t have to see Kostich unless she wanted to. You don’t have to worry that there’s any love lost between Aisling and Kostich.’’

‘‘There, you see?’’

The triumph in Cyrene’s voice was an indication that I wasn’t going to rid her of this idea without a whole lot more trouble than I was prepared to go through. Rather than argue the situation for the next fifteen minutes—increasing the chances that the dragons would come out to see what was keeping their demon—I gave in to the inevitable, and opened the door to Dr. Kostich’s garden.

‘‘Stay back and out of sight until I tell you to cause a distraction,’’ I told the demon, grabbing it by its collar as it nodded. ‘‘And so help me, demon, if you betray us, I will hunt you down and—’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah, do horrible things to me with a small fruit knife and a couple of nipple clamps. Heard it before, sister,’’ it said, brushing past me to enter the garden.