A velveteen arm went around my neck. A cry slipped from me when his grip on my hair tightened, pulling my head up so I looked at the ceiling. Pain struck through my neck and scalp. I reached backward, and he grunted when I got a fistful of his hair. But he wouldn’t let go. Even when I yanked it out by the roots and sent my hands scrabbling back for more.

“Stop it,” he said grimly, jerking me into motion. “We have an appointment.”

“The hell we do,” I panted, finding an ear and digging my nails in. Where is Jenks?

Al grunted, tightening his grip until I let go. I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t dead. He wanted me alive. For the moment. For an appointment?

“You are going to clear my name,” he snarled, bending to mouth my ear as if to bite it off. I fought him until he pulled my hair so hard that tears started. I could smell blood, but I didn’t think it was mine. I thought I’d broken his nose when I had flung my head back. I tried to shove against the counter, and Al dragged me away.

“I asked you nicely, but like the spoiled brat you are, you refused,” he said. “I don’t mind doing it the hard way. You are going to testify to the courts that Ceridwen Merriam Dulciate is limited to teaching one child how to spindle line energy. That the damage is contained. I won’t do time for an ex-familiar who would be dead but for you.”

My breath seemed to freeze in me. Testify? He meant in the ever-after. He expected me to stand in a demon court? “Why should I trust you?” I panted, fingertips squeaking as he pulled my grip off the counter again.

“It might make things easier,” he suggested, sounding almost bitter that I didn’t.

Easier? I thought. It might also make me dead. I struggled, my slippers sliding on the linoleum as he yanked me backward to the hall. My pulse leapt when the back door opened and the skittering of cat claws rasped. I tried to see, but it was hard with Al’s arm around my neck.

“’Bout time, Jenks!” I exclaimed. “What were you doing? Showing him your stump?”

My bravado died at the snarl that rumbled slowly to life and vibrated to my very nerve endings, reaching deep into my psyche and clenching around my primitive brain to reduce me to fight or flight. Cormel? That ugly sound was coming from him?

“Holy shit!” Jenks shrilled, and Al’s grip on my hair loosened.

Taking a gasp of air, I twisted, falling away and smacking the flat of my foot square across the demon’s right cheek. Al rocked back, his eyes never leaving Rynn Cormel, who was standing in the threshold to my kitchen.