I shook my head.

“You don’t know how to hold even an ounce of ever-after?”

Again I shook my head.

The woman sighed. “Your father was right.”

“You knew my dad?” I questioned. Why not? Everyone else seemed to.

“I taught one of his undergrad classes,” she said. “Though I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t see him again until thirteen years ago when we met to discuss you.” She sat back and cocked her eyebrows. “He asked me to flunk you if you ever showed up in my class.”

“Wh-Why?” I stammered.

“Apparently he knew how much strength you could pull from a line, as he wanted me to persuade you to turn to earth witchcraft instead of line magic. He said it would be safer. My class was over-crowded that year, and bending to a father’s wish to protect his daughter was no skin off my nose. I had assumed he meant safer for you. In hindsight, I think he meant everyone else.”

“Safer?” I whispered, feeling ill.

“Making a human your familiar isn’t normal, Ms. Morgan,” Dr. Anders said.

“Could you do it?” Nick asked, and I flicked a glance at him, glad he had asked, not me.

She looked affronted. “Probably. If I had the binding spell. But I wouldn’t. It’s demonic. The only reason I’m not calling Inderland Security is because it was an accident which we will soon rectify.”

“Thanks,” I breathed, numb. I had made Nick my familiar? I had used demon magic to bind him to me? Dizzy, I put my head between my knees, figuring it was marginally more dignified then passing out and falling to the floor. I felt Nick’s hand on my back and stifled a hysterical laugh. What had I done?

Nick’s voice came out of the blackness as I closed my eyes and struggled to keep from throwing up. “You can break the spell? I thought familiars were lifelong bonds.”

“They generally are—for the familiar.” She sounded tired. “But you can unbind one if your skill rises to the point where your familiar is holding you back. And then you have to supplant the old familiar with a better one. But what is better than a person, Nick?”

I pulled my head from between my knees to find Dr. Anders grimacing. “I need to see that book,” she said. “There’s probably something in it about how to unbind a person. Demons are notorious for taking something better when it comes along. I’d like to know how a book of demon magic ended up in your attic in the first place?”

“I live in a church,” I whispered. “It was there when I moved in.” I glanced out the window, my sick feeling starting to diminish. Nick had my aura. That was better than a demon having it. And we would be able to undo this—somehow. I had told Glenn I’d meet him at the FIB tonight, but Nick came first.

“I’ll go get the book,” I said, looking at the closed door. “Can we do this here, or does it have to be somewhere more private? We can go to my kitchen. I’ve a ley line in the backyard.”