I fiddled with the bowl of crackers, nervous. I had to make a deal with a demon. Damn it, I had to make another deal with a demon. The difference this time was that I was making this choice with a clear head, not being forced into it with death as the only other option. So I dealt in demons. So the hell what. It didn’t make me a bad person. Or stupid. Or rash. It made me dangerous to everyone around me is all. “So I buy a trip,” I said softly, knowing I’d never look at demon summoners the same way again. Maybe I’d take them seriously now, instead of writing them off as idiots. Maybe I’d been really wrong to accuse Ceri of not knowing what she was doing.

Ceri sighed, oblivious to my thoughts. “Back to the beginning,” she muttered to her legal pad. I looked down at it to see a second pair of eyes, decidedly masculine this time.

“So I buy a trip from Al,” I finished.

Ivy jerked, and Jenks took to the air. “No,” Jenks said. “He will kill you. He will lie and kill you. He has nothing to lose, Rache.”

Which is exactly why it will work, I thought, but didn’t say it. Al had nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

“Jenks is right,” Ivy said. Somehow she had crossed the kitchen without me seeing and was right over me.

Ceri’s expression was thick with alarm. “You said Al is in jail.”

I nodded. “They incarcerated him again when they realized I can spindle line energy. But he can still bargain. And I know his summoning name. I can summon him out.”

Her pretty little mouth open, Ceri looked at Ivy and then Jenks. “He might kill you!”

“And he might not.” Discouraged but seeing no other options, I pushed the legal pad of sketched maps away from me. “I have something he wants, and holding on to it will not do me any good. Giving it to him might get Trent free….”

Ceri gave Ivy a pleading look, and the vampire dragged her chair to the other side of me and sat down. “Rachel,” Ivy said, her voice soft and full of pity, “there’s nothing you can do. I don’t want Trent stuck there any more than you do, but there’s no shame in not waging a battle that can’t be won.”

Jenks stood before me with his head bobbing, but his relief made me even more angry. They weren’t listening, and I really didn’t blame them. My tension rose, and I scrubbed a hand across my face. “Okay,” I said shortly, and Jenks flew backward as I stood. “You’re right. Bad idea.” I have to get out of here. “Just forget the entire thing,” I said, looking over the kitchen for my coat. The foyer…I think.