“Because you’re the ones who healed me. Yeah, I’ve figured that out. You set up the whole thing—giving Todd the idea, answering Ioan’s summons, and then making the deal. Which you think means I owe you. It doesn’t. My mother paid for my cure in full.”

“Do you really think we’d go through all the trouble of arranging your cure simply to add a few mortal souls to our flock?”

“If you’re trying to say I’m marked, I’m not. Nor did Ioan or Pamela bind me to you in any way.”

“You’re certain of that? Absolutely certain?”

“Certain that they weren’t stupid enough to repeat some mystical incantation to bind me? Yeah. There was no part of those deaths…”

I trailed off as I remembered James’s body, Gabriel turning him over for me to see what had been done.

“Liv?” Ricky moved up behind me.

“Oh, the mighty Arawn speaks. Of the three, you certainly got the worst of the deal, didn’t you? The great lord of the Otherworld…reborn as a pretty biker. Even more a child than the others. Are you out of school yet, boy?”

Ricky ignored the voice and murmured to me, “You were thinking about something. What was it?”

“You always stand behind her, don’t you, boy? Walk at her heels. Whisper your thoughts in her ear. The loyal hound, grateful for whatever scraps his huntress might offer.”

“I want Gabriel,” I said.

She gave a soft laugh. “Of course you do. And you say it right in front of poor Ricky. Thrown over again, Arawn. One might think you’d have the self-respect to walk away.”

“I mean that I want you to return the guy you’re holding hostage. Which is obviously not Ricky.”

“Ignore her,” Ricky said. “She thinks she can punch my buttons and I’ll stalk off in a snit. Arawn might have. I am not Arawn. You heard Liv, bitch. If you want to speak to her, bring Gabriel.”

“But we’re already speaking. Her demands are mere bluster. You wish to see your beloved Gwynn, Matilda?”

She fell silent, and then a voice called, “Olivia? Olivia!”

“Not going to answer him?” the sluagh said.

“What’d we have for lunch?” I shouted.

A strained chuckle that sounded like Patrick. “That’s an interesting greeting.”

“She’s making certain she’s speaking to me,” the other voice said. “Thai food, which I am regretting after falling three stories.”

“What happened?”

“The sluagh, evidently. Which is why you need to get out of here. They’ve laid a trap—”

“She’s already fallen in,” the sluagh called back. “We’ve chatted. It was lovely. Now go rescue your lover, Matilda. He’s right down the next hall. Well, down the hall and down two stories, but I believe he’s already managed to crawl out of the hole.”