1I own nothing save my overactive imagination. Kim Harrison owns the rest.

I relaxed a bit, knowing the rest was really just details. "What about Trent?" I asked.

"You're a demon, dove, just do what comes naturally, and Trenton Aloysius Kalamack will fall in line."

My eyes widened. "Of course!" I exclaimed happily, "That's it!"

Jenks groaned. "Why do I have a feeling I don't want to hear this?"

"That little cookie-maker has been treating me like I'm a demon for years." I grinned secretively. "I'll just give him what he wants and act like one."

Ivy snickered, the light-hearted sound easing some of my tension. "You have enough problems without going after Trent. Again."

"Oh, I'm not going after him," I explained. "I'm just preparing for the inevitable event that he comes after me. I can't even go a whole week without being stalked by him or one of his lackeys."

"He wasn't the one that tried to kill you with the Pandora Charm," Jenks pointed out. "He wasn't faking his surprise about that."

I nodded. "That's true, but it doesn't mean I can trust him. We're in a holding pattern right now because he feels indebted to me for saving Quen and going to the ever-after with him. Ceri managed to convince him to back off because he thinks that the only reason I made the deal with Al was to rescue him. But, the minute I start actively using my powers on this side of the lines, he'll label me a demon and hunt me. He told me himself that he owes it to his father to keep me in check and stop me if I turn."

"I thought the only reason you made that deal with Al was to save Trent," Ivy said.

I sighed. "Rescuing Trent before he got sold was the reason I was in such a rush, but it's not the reason I went to Al. Or the reason why I made that specific deal."

Al stared suspiciously at me, and I could tell he was mentally running through the conversation we had that day with a fine-toothed comb. Then he laughed, putting the pieces together. "I'm impressed. Even I never realized that you wanted to be my student."

"Why in Tink's contractual hell would you want that?" Jenks demanded.

"Look," I said. "I used to think that the only reason I wound up on demon radar was because of Piscary. While it's true that Piscary's the reason I wound up on Al's radar, he's not the reason why demons in general were noticing me, even way back then." I paused, gathering my thoughts. "Al and I even had a conversation about it, in the middle of one of our fights, when he realized that I was the one responsible for ringing the bell at the town square. He said that the demon world was all abuzz over it."

Al arched a brow. "Well, when it normally takes an entire coven on a Solstice day to raise enough power to ring the bell on both sides of the lines, demons will notice when a single witch does it by accident."

I rolled my eyes.

"Ditto when she suddenly appears in the demon registry for having successfully worked one of our curses to take a human as her familiar," Al pressed on.

"Yes, thank you ever so much Al, for proving my point," I said blandly. "They were already watching me in the ever-after, before I even realized I could kindle their magic. Freaking Newt, for example. The first time I met her, when I bought a ride across the lines, she kept telling me I looked like her sisters. Then, she came over here and possessed me to find out what was so special about me that Minias spelled her to forget. I thought she was looking for the focus, but she was looking for me because she had remembered, briefly, that I was kin."

Jenks landed on the counter despondently. "I never really looked at it like that," he admitted. "I just assumed that it was because of Al that other demons started showing up."

"Me too," Ivy said quietly. "I know you keep this part of your life separate for our sake, and trust me, I get that, but we'll worry less if we know where you're coming from."

I nodded. "Fair enough." I glanced at Al. "Would you like to tell it?"

"Oh no," he demurred, "You're a lovely story-teller, and besides I enjoy getting this little glimpse into your thought process."

I eyed him warily. "So you can use it against me later?"

He smirked and let me draw my own conclusions.

"I realized that demons are going to keep popping up in my life and creating chaos unless I tie myself to one and get integrated into their hierarchy. Demons take their knowledge and the act of passing on their skills very seriously, and I know because of the Newt situation that they haven't been successfully breeding for millennia. So I figured I could use the fact that I can kindle demon magic to give me a place in their society that raises me above the level of familiar. Dealing with demons has become a foregone conclusion, but I wanted to try and do it on my terms."

Ivy's eyes cut from me to the demon beside me, taking in his red, goat-slitted eyes, and she shivered. "Why Al? He's been actively trying to kill or enslave you for two years."

I struggled for the best way to explain my reasoning, but it was so instinctual that I couldn't find the words. "Because he's Al," I said finally.

Her raised brow illustrated just how impressed she was by that sentiment.

"Is this about you letting him go free that night?" Jenks asked warily.

"What?" Ivy demanded, incredulous.

I looked at her. "Rynn Cormel didn't tell you?" I asked. "He was there."

She shook her head. "He just made some vague comment about how he understood the lure, now, and I was right about your ability to take care of yourself."

I sneered. "How very nice and condescending of him. If I hadn't stepped in, Al would've wiped the floor with him."

"You should've seen it, Ivy," Jenks said, his love of battle temporarily overwhelming his disapproval of my choices. "Rynn was trying to fight Al and they were destroying the kitchen. You know how pissy Rache gets when someone messes with the kitchen. So, I pix Al in the face and distract them while she sets a circle. She grabs Rynn, uses his momentum to fling him across the room, and then she circles Al. It was classic: our little Rache corralling two Titans. We should sell tickets, people would pay to see that."

The demon in question growled at the undignified image.

"So," Jenks continued, "Al starts destroying her books, and then they have this weird staring contest. Suddenly, she just lets him go without even banishing him properly." He turned to me. "What was that about?"

I met Al's eyes, as usual having a difficult time articulating the wide mix of emotions he evoked in me at any given moment. "I don't know if it's all the time we've spent at each other's throats, fighting each other off or making deals, looking for any scrap of advantage... We sort of have this connection now. And I knew that he was just as tired, and frustrated, and at the end of his rope as I was." I paused, unable to express what I didn't really understand myself.

"So your solution was to free him and give him another shot at you?" Glen asked, shocked. His face went through a series of expressions as he attempted to categorize this new curve ball.

Jenks snorted. "I hear ya, man. I was there, and it still doesn't make sense."

I sighed, and glanced at Ivy. "Kistin told me once that I tend to demand more of people than they're capable of giving. I just... somewhere along the way I realized that what I really wanted from Al was respect. But I wasn't willing to show him respect in return. So I decided to trust him with a temporary truce."

"Gambling that he wouldn't go on a spree and destroy Cincinnati, and then come back to rip your throat out," Glen said, tone accusing, and suddenly I felt like I was on the wrong end of an interrogation.

"Yes," I said simply, still certain that my decision had been the right one, but feeling wary of Glen's authoritarian demeanor.

Jenks hovered in front of Al. "And you went along with it. After two years of this unending bloody war that's ravaged both sides of the lines, and nearly destroyed your lives, you both just decide in the middle of a battle to take a mutual siesta? Quit pissing on my daisies." He was sifting pixy dust everywhere in his agitation.

Everyone looked at Al and I, clearly aligned with Jenks in their disbelief.

"I thought it was perfectly reasonable," Al murmured.

"She had you circled," Jenks said. "She could've called up Minias, who would've sent you directly to jail: do not pass Go, do not collect Rache's soul."

Ivy snickered. "Jail doesn't really seem to stick with Al," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but we would've had at least a week of peace before he got out again," Jenks persisted.

I scoffed. "I wasn't about to call up that pissant to handle my problems when I can handle them myself. What better way to prove myself worthy of respect from Al than to trap him, and then let him go?"

Four faces stared at me blankly, clearly rethinking the idea that an explanation would help them understand my life better.

Al grinned evilly. "An attitude so fantastically demonic I just had to respect it."