I just adore Algaliarept. He's so bad when he's good, and so good when he's bad, and he does it all with such panache. If Rachel doesn't want him I'm totally stealing him for myself.

In Which Evie Meets the Ex

Unexpectedly, we appeared on the surface again, in a completely different part of the Ever After. I felt the slithering of smut over my soul, realizing that Al was making me pay for these trips. Jerk. I didn't fight it. Ash's prediction, weeks ago, that the filthy, creeping sensation would become second nature all too quickly had turned out to be right.

"Why are we still out here?" I asked, shivering in the thin wind. Without the protection of the clouds hanging over UCLA, the sun bore down on us, lending no warmth whatsoever as it tore at my aura, rasping and grating at it mercilessly. It was an awful sensation. "What's the matter with the sun?" I couldn't help asking, appalled.

"It's all getting worse," Al said. "Three new demon women and everything goes to hell in a handbasket."

"Newt thinks we can fix it," I said, and the thought was salt on the recent wound in my soul, at what Newt expected me to do to accomplish this. Maybe Al heard the pain in my voice, or maybe not, but he was silent, giving me time to pull myself back together. I scrubbed at my eyes furiously, glad that the fine grit in the wind was there to give me the excuse.

"So I've gathered," he said, not looking at me. His tone was totally nonchalant as he asked, "You're considering mating with Dali, are you?"

I shivered again, forcing myself to speak past the lump in my throat. "Why do you care?" Great. This was NOT what I wanted to talk about, not out here, not now, and certainly not with AL of all people. "And I thought I made you promise not to interfere in my love life, Al!"

"I'm not interfering in yours, I'm interfering in Ash's," he said, smirking at me. I rolled my eyes, inwardly shaking my head at my own gullibility. His red-eyed gaze traveled over the desolate landscape, the dead, sandy, scorched earth and the empty riverbed we stood beside. He conjured a parasol and handed it to me, doing the same for himself. "It's worse today," he said, squinting at something, and I realized he was looking at another ley line with his second sight. I did the same. This one was lovely, glowing beautiful and proud as it snaked along for a good forty feet. "Rachel's line," he said, nodding at it.

Rachel had made that? Wow. It fairly pulsed with newness and life, glowing brightly in the blasted emptiness. It was nothing like Hope's malformed monstrosity of a line, squatting in the ruins and sucking the Ever After into it one particle at a time.

"It was merely killing us slowly," he said. I wondered if he was referring to the line, or Rachel herself. "Hope's breach has made it all worse. You have no plans to create another line, I hope?"

I recalled what Rachel had said, about the feeling of tearing herself back into reality. "Not any time soon," I replied, with feeling. I shivered again. It was always so cold out here, and I wanted to be warm in the worst way. "Why are we here?"

"Newt is right, to save us all, we will probably need to resort to drastic measures. An anchor can only protect you so much — you'll need to access the true power of your mind, Yvette."

"So I've been told. Ash insists he can't do it," I grumbled, not loving the reminder. "What do you think? Is he right?"

Al's eyes were distant as he scanned the horizon. "Hmm. Quite a lot of variables to consider in this equation. I'm afraid I'm not here to give you advice, Yvette." He moved around me, dragging the toe of his elegant black boot in the foul dirt to form a crude circle. "I simply wish to point out a small flaw in your personality: your tendency to focus only on the short term."

I held my tongue, because he had a point. "OK. I was considering a short-term arrangement with Dali to survive, I admit it. Where there's life, there's hope?"

Al raised an eyebrow as his inscrutable red, goat-slitted gaze returned to mine. "Not even remotely, on occasion," he said. "Let me introduce you to someone. Tezrian! " He brushed a bit of lint off his velvet coat. "You may wish to prepare us a circle, Yvette."

I shivered as the power of the name tore through me, because it was a summoning name — but it felt wrong, incomplete. So did the demon who coalesced before us, skin reddened and aura shredded by the sun. Al's warning registered, and I used Al's crude circle to conjure a barrier around us just in time to prevent the creature's maddened lunge from taking off my head. I gaped in horror as it prowled around, black eyes fixed on us with malevolent, single-minded purpose. It was human-sized, but skeletally thin, covered with red scales. Its hunched body resembled the ancestral form Ash had showed me once, but it was bare of any fur or feathers, and the leathery wings now sprouted from hunched shoulders, separate from the spindly arms that were slowly, methodically probing my circle for weaknesses. It was a surface demon, mindless and nearly barren of soul, though I was loathe to use my second sight for fear of what I'd see. The tattered strips of its clothing revealed something else that shocked me — unlike all the other surface demons I'd ever briefly glimpsed, the demon prowling around us was female.

"Hello, Tessie," Al said, giving her a little bow.

"Tessie" glared balefully at us and gave no sign that she understood. She was bestial, mind gone, and the only expression in her eyes was a long-suffering, endless hunger.

"Al…?" My voice was far too warbly, not hiding my fear. Why am I the one powering our circle? And why does a surface demon have a summoning name? And why the hell is Al showing me a surface demon, anyway? And why the hell is Tessie so bent on getting into my— oh, shit! I flinched as Tessie howled, writhing as she tapped Rachel's line. I winced, because it must have been agonizing with so little aura as a buffer. But agonizing or not, Tessie's attack would have blown through even Al's circle; it was all I could do to hold my own against her maddened blast of undirected power.

The surface demon couldn't sustain the power for long, and I relaxed a fraction as she fell into a fetal position, keening softly. It was such a sorry sight that I nearly dropped the circle to offer comfort, but Al's hand tightened painfully on my arm. "It's a ruse," he said. "Or not. It doesn't matter. There is no comfort for such as her. She'll recover. Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Al didn't answer, eyes squinting at me briefly before returning to Tezrian. He took a deep breath, and I could almost see him pull his nonchalant persona back on before replying. "Yvette, meet Tezrian. Dali's second mate."

I swallowed, staring. "Al… all the female demons are dead. You said they were dead. Ash said they were dead."

"Of course she is. The only way Tessie would be caught dead in such a twisted shape like this would be if she were, in fact, quite dead. And she is. Died two thousand years ago. Gone, and quite forgotten by her kinsmen, and her mate. And indeed, who would associate themselves with such a degraded little wretch? But her precious soul, so very useful to our purposes — how could we let it go?"

"Al, what the hell do you mean?"

"Has Ash never explained the secret of our immortality to you, Yvette?" His eyes were fixed on Tezrian, but I don't think he saw her. "Following the creation of the Ever After, our numbers were in the low thousands. We bound ourselves together, all of us, souls most intimately intertwined. Easy enough to rebuild bodies. Particularly such simplified forms as these." He indicated the prone Tezrian, who was still panting, eying us with cold, undirected fury. "But to power a true resurrection, to rebuild a shattered soul from scratch with flesh and blood and bone to house it… requires a sacrifice."

I gulped. Yeah, call me cliché, but I was starting to get a sickly cold feeling creeping up my spine and down my arms. "She's still bound here, isn't she? Her soul. Bound to the Collective."

"We all are, love." Al hummed, as if we were discussing the weather, but his eyes were pinched and haunted. "All who made the pact, men and women both. Those whose minds we lost to the ravages of the lines, we sent here. Can't save a mind once it's gone, but a soul? We are experts in all the myriad uses of a soul. And why siphon off our own life force, when we can steal what we require from those who no longer have a use for it?"

"Al, that's… that's…"

"Demonic, love. We house them here, on the surface, in forms that are easily repaired. Can't have them mucking about downstairs with the rest of us, can we?"

"Al." I turned to him, the abrupt motion turning him as well, since he was still rather painfully clutching my upper arm. "Al, is your wife up here?"

I was shocked at the naked expression he wore — anger, mostly, and sorrow. "No." He drew a breath, refocusing on my face. "Understand me, Yvette. Dali is a businessman. He held Tezrian in high regard, but ultimately… she proved to be a poor investment. Even he was not proof against the creeping madness that stole our mothers and wives from us."

I looked behind what he was telling me, and didn't like what I saw, not at all. "I'm not part of the Collective," I said.

Al paused, considering, goat-slitted eyes squinting a little as he considered his next words. "Do you honestly think that we'd allow an untapped demon soul to go to waste?"

"I—" I gulped. Of course they wouldn't. Why I hadn't been involuntarily inducted into this madness yet was beyond me. "Ash wouldn't—"

"And what would the punishment be, do you think, for one who defies the Collective and sets a much-needed soul free?"

I grimaced, because Al had already cut off the flow of blood to my tingling fingers, and might just shear my arm off at the bone if he gripped my arm any tighter. Then I got it, what he was telling me. "You did it," I said. "Your wife. You set her free from this."

Al closed his eyes, but not before I'd seen the depths of the horror in them. "She no longer recognized me. She fought for her life, despite—" He drew a breath, controlling the emotion, though I knew I'd be wearing bruises for days. I couldn't speak, because to offer Al any kind of compassion for his pain would only shatter our latest fragile truce. I waited, thinking about the horrific import of his words. Why was he telling me this? Why share something so personal—

Oh.

I'm not interfering in your love life, I'm interfering in Ash's.

Ash would have to make this choice, if he failed to protect my mind. He'd have to see me damned, or he'd have to see me dead. Ash had known Celfnnah, had probably been there when Al had failed to protect her mind, had watched her slip into madness, had watched as Al made the choice to end her life. Had seen how it destroyed Al. Had seen what the Collective had done to Al in retaliation, which must not have been pretty.

"Ash—"

"Is young among us, inexperienced with the mate bond. Can he protect your mind? Perhaps. Perhaps not." Al shed the last of his bitter recollections, releasing me to straighten his cravat and tug his lace sleeves just so. I tried to rub out the pins and needles burning through my forearm. "I leave it to you to choose. I simply suggest that you consider… the long view."

Tezrian was up again, prowling around the circle, burning black eyes fixed and hungry for our blood. My mind, still slow with horror, recoiled from the thought of becoming… this. What was Al trying to tell me? That this was my destiny? That if I bound myself to Ash, this was what I could expect? Or was it an indictment of Dali, who had not only failed to protect his mate, but was sanguine about her abandonment on the surface, nothing more than a battery for their shared immortality until the worlds collided? What could I expect from Ash?

Ash was afraid. And now I knew what he feared. There were worse things than death. There were worse things than watching the one you love die. The demons would have taken steps, to prevent future euthanasia, wouldn't they? If Ash failed, this would be my fate. If Dali failed, this would be my fate. But Dali didn't give a damn about me, did he…?

"Al."

Al had been staring into Rachel's line, gaze distant once more.. But now he refocused on me, aloof and calm once more. He raised an eyebrow. "You've seen what we came to see, Yvette. We should return."

"Would you do it again?" I left the question vague, perhaps referring to the whole mating thing, or revisiting his difficult decision. That he'd even considered moving on and repeating the whole ordeal with another mate… well, I'd always known that Al had a steel core inside him, I just hadn't even guessed at its tenacity.

His face never changed, but I saw him swallow. His red, goat-slitted eyes fixed on mine. He left his answer just as vague, but his voice was quiet, fervent. "It was worth it, Yvette. All of it."

My breath caught. "Al, about Rachel. If things work out, somehow. I'll still be her familiar, if it would be appropriate. You know that, right? We don't need to have a deal, you and I."

Al regarded me for a moment before inclining his head and humming noncommittally. "Things working out is a tall order, of course," he replied, bare hint of an amused quirk on his lips. That faded quickly as he once again scrutinized my face. "Yvette, I have seen your soul; as deeply as I've seen his. You're well-suited to each other, for all your flaws. I would point out one in particular — a singularly masochistic streak you both share, that you really ought to address prior to making this decision."

I had to admit, Al was a bastard, but he was a smart bastard who was telling it straight, so I shoved aside my pride and listened.

"Have you given any thought to the events of last week? In particular, why you allowed me such liberties with your body and mind? You gave me leave to put you through agony, and while I admit I enjoyed it, I did wonder why you never thought to question whether there was another method."

He was wrong; I had wondered. I just hadn't asked. I knew why; it was just humiliating as hell to admit it to Al. But I figured he knew it too, or he wouldn't have brought it up. "I felt guilty," I said. "You know that. I felt guilty about Ash and let you torture me."

"Hmm. As you say. The two of you are well-suited. Shall we go, then?"

What the hell did that mean? "Wait… what?"

"I am done interfering. Even this much is likely to earn Dali's ire, but I find myself not giving a damn every time I visit the surface and see the remnants of our kin. He couldn't have prevented her demise, but…" " Al's emotionless eyes roved over Tezrian, who had finally lost interest in my circle and was now wandering aimlessly over the landscape, seeking shelter, perhaps, in the dusty, empty riverbed. "We could have, perhaps, found another way. Desperate times, and all."

"Is there anything to be done for them?"

"Not until the worlds collide," Al said quietly. "As they may do, very soon. Don't waste your compassion on the poor damned souls here, Yvette… consider how best you will avoid becoming one of them."

"Al, tell me… do I have a chance?"

Al regarded me thoughtfully. "There's always a chance, love. There's a chance you'll survive. There's a chance we'll manage to save this cesspool of an alternate reality. There's even a chance Rachel will return to me. She taught me this much, you see. She calls it 'the eleven percent.' A slim chance may be a long shot, but unless you believe in it with every ounce of determination you possess, it will be no chance at all."

The doctors had given me a ten percent chance of surviving the aural damage I'd done to myself at sixteen. They'd given me a twenty percent chance of walking again. Hell, once I'd finally been snared by Ash, I'd given myself a ten percent chance of getting out of the Ever After alive. I smiled at his clear evasion, though. He hadn't answered me, but it didn't matter. I'd always believed it.

"And I disagree with their assessment of your mind," he added slowly, voice thoughtful, and my breath caught. "Yes, I took a risk by burning your neural pathways as I did. But where they see damage… I see… difference. Rachel, Lee, and Hope, they are demons born of witches and elven tinkering. But you… Yvette, you're something new. I've never seen anyone who can channel the lines as you do. You should have been left a drooling vegetable at least thrice over, and yet here you are. I don't know what it means, but I saw barriers in your mind, and I removed them. You should mate… if only to see what you have the potential to become."

I stared at him, heart pounding. I wanted to ask him more, but the sun had shredded our parasols and was starting to etch and sear its way through my aura as well. The sandpaper sensation was uniquely nauseating, like something alive squirming in my innards, and I was impatient to get out of here. "Al, would you still consider instructing me?" I asked in a rush, before I could think too closely about asking.

He gave me a small, but genuine smile, and a bow. "For Rachel's sake," he insisted, though a moment later he looked heavenward as he added jovially, "Although I admit, I've become rather fond of you, Yvette."

I snorted, finding the thought amusing. Then I blinked. "You are kidding, right?"

"The best relationships often arise from the most unpromising of beginnings. Remind me, sometime, to describe my infamous first year of marriage." He dusted some of the red, ashy dust from his frock coat with a disgusted expression. "Or the first time Rachel and I met." He glanced at me over his glasses. "You would trust me again, Yvette?"

I swallowed, realizing that for all he'd done to me, for all his cruelty and his unpredictability, I'd grown rather fond of him as well. Perhaps that was why his betrayal had cut so deeply. And yet, knowing how much Rachel meant to him, yes, I thought perhaps I could forgive him. Eventually. I met his gaze, seeing the man who had taken so much from me, but had also given me back my scar, my dignity and was now helping me make the most difficult choice of my life. "I'd say there's about an eleven percent chance," I replied.

Al clapped once, all seriousness falling from his demeanor. "Capital! Now let's get out of this foul sun. There's a Coven to be destroyed!"

"Oh, God, you had to remind me." The thought of meeting up with Dali again clenched at my stomach. But after this conversation, I found myself energized and empowered. I knew what was at stake. Once more Al had stripped away barriers in my mind, though it had hurt like hell, and I found myself grateful to him for granting me agency once more. I could face down Ash, Dali, and a whole Coven's worth of angry witches. I even found myself smiling a little, thinking that Dali would arrive expecting easy prey, and would instead get a live wire. "Dali's going to be furious with you, isn't he?"

"Now why would you say that? I brought you out here to show you what will happen to you if you don't make a practical choice," he said lightly, though his grin had a lot of teeth in it. "Who am I to predict how your crazy little mind works?"

I snorted. He'd done a pretty bang-up job of reading it and fucking with it so far. I just prayed he was on my side this time. But even if he wasn't… I got the impression that he was on Ash's side. "Knowledge is power," I said.

"Yes," Al agreed. "Which is why if I ever catch you sabotaging your own reason and hiding under layers of denial again, I shall flay you. For your own bloody good. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Barexda." The words slipped out before I realized what I was saying. I blushed, mortified.

Al preened, pleased as punch. "Excellent. Now let's be off."