The image of Kisten turned to Piscary, belligerently flipping him off. “And Rachel Mariana Morgan summoned me, too. The witch and I have a pre-existing debt to settle. And if she has enough guile to win a circleless summoning from me, then I will hold to it.”

Piscary’s teeth ground together. He lunged at us.

I gasped, lurching back. There was a wrenching sensation, and I stared as Piscary slammed into a wall of ever-after, falling in a shocked tangle of arms and legs. I went cold as I realized Algaliarept had put us in a circle of its own construction.

The thick haze of red pulsed and hummed, pressing down against my skin though I was two feet away. As Piscary got to his feet and adjusted his robe, I extended a finger and touched the barrier. A sliver of ice shivered through me as the surface rippled. It was the strongest, thickest sheet of ever-after I’d ever witnessed. Feeling Algaliarept’s eyes on me, I pulled my hand back and wiped it on my jeans.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” I said, and it chuckled. In hindsight it made sense. It was a demon. It existed in the ever-after. Of course it would know how.

“And I’m willing to teach you how to survive manipulating as much ever-after, too, Rachel Mariana Morgan,” it said as if reading my mind. “For a price.”

I shook my head.

“Later, perhaps?”

With a cry of frustrated rage, Piscary took a wire-weave chair and slammed it against the barrier. I jumped, my mouth going dry.

Algaliarept gave the incensed vampire a sideways glance as Piscary ripped the leg off the chair and tried to pierce the barrier like a sword. The demon took a belligerent stance at the edge of the circle, showing me its tight butt in leather pants. “Bugger off, old man,” it mocked in Kist’s fake accent, infuriating Piscary all the more. “The sun will be up soon. You’ll have another chance at her in about three minutes.”

My head came up. Three minutes? Was the sun that close to rising?

Furious, Piscary threw the bar, which skittered and rolled across the carpet. His eyes black pits, he began to make slow, sedate circles about us in anticipation.

But for the moment I was safe in Algaliarept’s circle. What’s wrong with this picture?

Forcing my arms down from the tight grip around myself, I glanced at Piscary’s fake window, seeing the glint of sun on the highest buildings. Three minutes. I pushed my fingertips into my forehead. “If I ask you to kill Piscary, will you call us even?” I asked as I looked up.

It struck a sideways pose. “No. Even though killing Ptah Ammon Fineas Horton Madison Parker Piscary is on my to-do list, it is still a request and would cost you, not absolve your debt. Besides, if you send me after him, he will likely summon me again as you did and you’d be right back where you started. The only reason he can’t summon me now is because we haven’t agreed on anything and we’re in summoning limbo, so to speak.”