The ring continued to expand until it went faint in the distance. I didn’t know whether to be pleased or alarmed that it seemed to have gone all the way to the half-seen city. The outgoing ripple didn’t leave the ever-after landscape unchanged, and my awe shifted to alarm as I realized that in its wake was a smattering of glittering green smears.

Bodies. They were everywhere. Beside me I could see the small ones, some no bigger than my pinky nail. Farther out, only the larger ones could be discerned. My first gut-twisting reaction dulled as I realized the charm was picking up everything that was dead: rodents, birds, bugs, everything. A huge number of big ones lay to the west in neat and orderly rows and columns. I had a moment of panic until I realized they were right where Trent’s stables lay in the real world and were probably the bodies of his past race winners.

My heart slowed, and I tried to remember the last word, the one that would sensitize the charm to show only human remains. Brow furrowed, I stood in Trent’s office, my feet firmly in a gateway to the ever-after, trying to remember what it had been.

“Oh, isn’t this a delight,” came a richly cultured voice from behind me.

I waited for someone to tell me who had just walked into Trent’s office, but no one said a word. The hair pricked on the back of my neck. Anticipating the worst, I kept my eyes closed and my second sight open, and turned. My hand rose to my mouth and I froze. It was a demon dressed in a robe and slippers.

“Rachel Mariana Morgan?” it said, then smiled wickedly. I swallowed hard. Okay—it was my demon. “What are you doing in Trenton Aloysius Kalamack’s ley line?” it questioned.

My breath came faster and I waved a hand behind me, trying to find the edge of the line. “I’m working,” I said, my hand throbbing as I found it. “What are you doing here?”

It shrugged, its stance lengthening as it molded into the familiar vision of a lanky, leather-clad vamp with blond hair and a torn ear. Slumping into a bad-boy swagger, it licked its pouty lips, the chain running from a back pocket to its belt loop jingling. My breath went shaky. It was getting better at picking Kisten out of my mind; it had him down perfectly.

A pair of smoked glasses with round frames appeared in its hand, and it snapped the earpieces out with a quick flick of the wrist. “I felt you, love,” it said, its teeth lengthening to that of a vampire’s as it put the glasses on to hide its red goat eyes. “I simply ha-a-a-ad to see if you had come for a visit. You don’t mind if I be this one, do you? He’s got the balls of a bull.”

God, help me. I shuddered, sticking my hand out of the line despite the stabbing hurt of ever-after imbalance. “I wasn’t trying to get your attention,” I whispered. “Go away.”