Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            Trent slumped on the stone, stymied.

            “You don’t give your prize possibility a piece of paper that might land her in Alcatraz,” Al said, his good mood restored. “No . . .” He practically sighed the word. “Your mother was too smart for me. But they say intelligence skips a generation, like hair loss. Lucy is very clever. She hides it behind her prattle. How did she learn to do that so quickly? Surely not her mother.”

            Annoyed, I gave Al a soft nudge in the ribs. “Now you’re being mean.”

            “I am being a demon.” Al pulled himself straighter. “It’s all I have left. Ah, the coals have relit. S’mores, anyone?”

            Clearly frustrated, Trent frowned as Al stretched, sighing happily as he reached for a carefully wrapped bundle tucked behind a rock. With an overdone flourish, he unrolled the rough silk to show a bag of Piggly Wiggly marshmallows and a set of roasting sticks more elaborate than his poker. The incongruity between the two was striking, and as Al fussed and worried over the marshmallows, I bumped my knee against Trent’s.

            “Wait until you have something he wants,” I suggested, and Al made a low, knowing chuckle.

            “I shouldn’t have to bargain to get my own books back,” Trent complained, and I set my hand atop his. Our matching pearl rings glowed pink and orange in the firelight . . . and then faded. Brow furrowed, Trent pulled away, his focus distant as he mentally went through his artifact vault for something the demon might want. Agreeing to stop seeing me would do it, but that wasn’t going to happen.

            Clearly feeling as if he’d scored points, Al jammed a marshmallow on a stick and handed it to me. “You’re here concerning David and that would-be alpha Were you tricked into believing the focus was destroyed. Walter Vincent.”

            “Yep,” I said, glad that someone finally got it right.

            A rumble escaped Al. “I am sorry, Rachel. David was downed by a chakra curse. There is no cure. It’s not like melting ice to water and refreezing it. Stilled chakras can’t be set into motion again. I apologize for leaving you at the time, but Hodin is the only one of us who knew how to craft such an abomination, and I feared he had escaped.”

            My reach to show him the ring faltered. “Has he . . .”

            “No. Hodin still abides in his prison. I’m guessing he passed the ring on to someone before we caught him.” Al hesitated. “Someone is doing demon magic in Cincinnati, someone other than you. Have you considered . . . your roommate, Stephanie?”

            “It isn’t her,” I said as Trent’s attention snapped back to our conversation. “It’s some guy calling himself the mage. He’s under a disguise, but David said he swore like a witch and he invoked the Goddess in one of his spells, so . . . who knows?”

            Al’s grip on his roasting stick tightened. “Hodin’s reach extends to you even from his prison. Rachel, your future is more important than your present. If you are here for my advice, it is to retreat to the ever-after to pursue your studies.”

            “Ah,” Trent started, and I took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

            “Leave Cincinnati to Walter?” I said tartly. “Not happening.”

            Al shrugged, his teeth gleaming in his not-nice smile. “Walter Vincent’s goal is assuredly the focus, but that’s not my concern. Hodin’s student is. He is after you. You will be safe here.”

            I doubted that. The ever-after had its own set of dangers, and if I was here, Al’s kin would take a stronger interest in me. “Then he is going to fail,” I said, stiffening when my marshmallow caught fire. I jerked it free of the flames, accidentally flinging the burning wad right off the tip. Arching dramatically through the air, it hit the flattened grass with a splat. Ruined.

            Al nonchalantly grasped my stick, angling it toward himself as he stuck another marshmallow on it. “I’m not so sure,” he said as he let go. “David is a pillar of your three-prong power base. Hodin tried and failed to bring you down through the vampires. Now his student is trying the same with David. I’m betting he manages it, seeing as he has both grudge and aim. Congratulations, itchy witch. You are no one until you have a nemesis.”

            Trent snorted his rueful agreement, and my mood soured.

            “Gee, thanks,” I muttered as I bobbed my marshmallow in and out of the flame, daring it to catch fire. Which it did. I quickly blew the flame out, but the puff was too black for my liking.