Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            Trent touched his chin. It was one of his tells that he was worried, and I didn’t see it often. “Hodin wouldn’t have a problem with that,” he whispered.

            “Mmmm.” Al tugged a colorful scarf from his sleeve and carefully wrapped the two s’mores. “Don’t tell Vivian. She might overlook spelling a vampire into forgetting his name, but not this.”

            Crap on toast, I didn’t have the cure for the chakra curse, I had the Turn-blasted curse itself. The former was legal; the second, not so much. “But a Möbius strip has only one side,” I said, wondering if this might be the mythos behind the coven using a Möbius strip as their emblem. “It’s safe, right? As long as we don’t say the phrase to invoke the curse?”

            “I don’t know,” Al whispered, the three words sending a chill through me. Shoulders hunched, he fell into a memory. “Möbius curses don’t expire, but flip from curse to cure and back again, and I don’t know what initiates that. My concern is that if the mage was upset that Walter turned it to uncurse David, it’s more than likely that it requires another death to flip it back to curse mode. Be glad that it’s presently set to cure and mourn its last victims.”

            He said it as if it was over. But it wasn’t, not with four of Cassie’s people still in a coma and the cure phrase out there somewhere. I stood, my knees wobbly as I looked down at Trent’s ashen complexion. I had to go. If the ring was set to cure, I could wake Cassie’s employees. I only had to find the right invocation phrase. Locating Walter was one option, but if Hodin had made the ring, the book and invocation phrase might be in his old room.

            Trent stood as well. “If it’s Hodin’s magic, then perhaps we should talk—”

            “Stop!” I said before Al could do more than take a breath. “Hodin would only lie. Getting into his room is a hindsight easier than finding Walter and beating what we need out of him. I bet Walter is kicking himself for uncursing David at all, but he clearly wasn’t planning on us interrupting his mage’s magic to pull the focus out.”

            “Mmmm.” Al peered up at us, a hand extended. “Perhaps I should hold the ring for you. You’re lucky that Walter knows David needs to be alive to pull the focus out, or they would simply shoot him.”

            My fist tightened, and I stuffed the ring into a pocket. “No,” I said, and Al’s eyes narrowed. “Tell you what. You can have it after I uncurse Cassie’s employees if you give Trent his books.” Head lifting, I peered into the firefly-filled night. “We have to go.” I stepped over the flat stones, eager to make the trek home—or at least get to reality, where I could call Glenn. He still had that finding charm sensitized to Walter. I’d have some time tomorrow after I watched the girls. Jenks and I could tour the city. Find him. Beat the cure’s invocation phrase out of him.

            But Trent’s hand pulled from mine as I moved away, his expression blank as he stood beside Al’s fire. “What?”

            “Ah . . . about tomorrow with the girls,” Trent said. “That mage might want that ring back, flipped or not. It’s the only thing that slows the focus down enough to best David.”

            “The ring he said was useless? That he couldn’t remake?” I said, quashing a twinge of worry as I recalled how the mage had thrown himself after it. “Go do your drug-lord golf outing. We’ll be fine.” It was the first time I’d have the girls alone, and I wanted to try out my mom skills—such as they were.

            “Mmmm.” Clearly unsure, Trent took my elbows. “I’m going to cancel.”

            My smile faltered. “I said we’ll be fine,” I insisted, eye twitching when Al nudged the fire with his foot to send more sparks flying. He was listening. “The mage is not about to crash a cider mill filled with kids for a ring he can’t use. If he wants it that bad, he’ll wait until I’m alone.”

            Trent’s grip on my elbow tightened. “Perhaps you should stay at the estate tonight.”

            I leaned in to give him a kiss, the small smack of lips turning awkward when I began to smile at Al’s annoyed growl. “I’ll be fine,” I whispered, loving them both. “I need to go home and see if I can get into Hodin’s room. The sooner I can find the phrase to cure Cassie’s people, the better. I’ll see you tomorrow at eight thirty at Junior’s with the girls.” I could give him his present then, too.

            “Here.” Al handed me the silk-wrapped s’mores. “For the girls,” he said, and Trent sighed. “Rachel is right,” he added. “The ring is set to cure, and if the mage can’t turn it, it has no worth.”