“Trial?” I yelped, and Ivy uncrossed her legs in a show of worry. But Al being out for two days would explain how he’d had time to create a disguise to look like my dad. I hadn’t wanted to go to the demons but if Ceri twisted the curse, one of us would have to take on the smut—assuming she would still do it—and if I went through the demons, I could negotiate the smut away. That Minias was reneging on our unfinished arrangement ticked me off. “When is his trial?” I asked, trying not to freak out.

I pressed my hand harder into the scrying mirror when Minias’s presence seemed to fade while he presumably searched for the answer. I was very glad the calling glyph worked when the sun was up. Actually, this was the best time to use it since Minias couldn’t follow the connection and simply…appear.

Here it is, came Minias’s bothered thought, diving through my idle musings like ice water. He’s down for sometime in the thirty-sixth.

I closed my eyes and struggled for strength. “The thirty-sixth. Is that this month?” We only had thirty-odd days a month, but they were demons.

No. It’s the year.

“Year!” I yelped, and Ivy’s face pinched in worry. “This isn’t fair! You came to me. I said I’d think about it. I thought about it. I want to do it! He’s terrorizing my mother.”

Not my problem. Al is functioning within the law, and everyone is happy. You’ll get your say in court after he does, and if it’s determined he broke his word to you, Newt will put him in a bottle and that will be the end of it.

“I won’t survive twenty years waiting for him to come up on the docket!”

It’s not an important case, and you’ll have to wait, he said. I’m busy. Is there anything else you want to bitch about?

“You little will-o’-wisp of a ghost fart,” I snarled, borrowing one of Jenks’s favorites. “I know who’s summoning him. I can’t touch him because summoning demons isn’t illegal.”

You should go into politics and get a law passed, Minias said, and when I took a breath to protest, he snapped the connection.

I jumped, catching a yelp of surprise at the abrupt sensation of half my mind vanishing. It wasn’t really, but I’d been functioning with an expanded capacity and was back to normal.

“Damn it all to the Turn and back!” I yelled, then shoved my scrying mirror across the table to thunk into the wall. “Al cut a deal. He’s out on bail and free to harass me all he wants. By the time his ticket comes up on the docket, I’ll be dead and he can say anything he wants.”