“Good,” I shot back, “because you’re not going to get it.” My heart pounded as I waited for him to get over his pity party. Sure enough, after about five seconds of miffed silence, he turned back to me. In a very small voice I asked, “Is there a system in place for a demon to teach another? Sort of a mentoring position?” God, help me. Tell me I’m seeing things clearly and unclouded by pride.

Al threw his head back and laughed. The water surrounding us rippled, and I heard the echo of it come back from the new town houses across the street.

“There hasn’t been a demon needing instruction for five thousand years!” he exclaimed. “I’m about to be exiled to the surface, and you want me to take you on as a student? Teach you everything I know for free just because?”

I said nothing, waiting as he followed my question to the reasoning behind it, and his ruddy face lost all expression. Eyes peering over those damned glasses of his, he stared as my pulse quickened. “Yes,” he said softly, almost breathing the word. “There is.”

My hands were shaking, and I wrapped my arms around myself and tucked them under the shelter of my jacket. “And if you said you had taken me on as a student instead of a familiar—because I could twist demon magic—then you wouldn’t be in trouble for letting me know how to spindle ever-after in my thoughts.”

His head moved almost imperceptibly up and down, his jaw tightening.

“You could tell them that you taught me, then left me here because I was learning more fighting you than I could in the ever-after.”

“But I didn’t.”

His voice was so lacking in emotion, it sounded dead. “They don’t know that,” I said.

Al’s chest rose and fell in a sigh. I could see relief in him, and I wondered what it was like to be a demon and afraid. And how long he would let me live knowing I not only saw it, but had the answer to save him. “Why?” he asked.

I licked my lips. “I want Trent. If I’m your student, wouldn’t I be entitled to a familiar? Hell, I made one of my boyfriends my familiar before you broke the bond,” I said, attention going everywhere as I tried to hide my shame even though I knew I’d never use another person like that. At least not intentionally. “Trent is wearing smut that I should have,” I added. “He took it voluntarily. That’s what a familiar does.”

His fingers twitching with a repressed excitement, Al smiled. “And my reputation is restored.” The demon glanced to the east and adjusted his glasses to hide his eyes. “They aren’t stupid,” he said dryly. “They will say it’s a convenient story.”