Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “You too,” I said shortly, huffing because of that pumpkin. “I mean it,” I added, then smiled so the girls wouldn’t think I was mad. But it was kind of obvious.

            “She means it,” Al grumped cheerfully as he held his arms out to Ray and the little girl went willingly to him. “Ray, did you know you can get sprinkles on your caramel apple?”

            But Ray was having second thoughts, thumping her feet into Al to get him to stop.

            “Daddy? Daddy!” the little girl demanded, and, grimacing, Al turned around.

            Lips a thin line, Trent took Ray’s hand, clearly distracted. “Yes. What is it?”

            Ray had a surprisingly big vocabulary, even if she was content to let Lucy do most of the talking. Still, she didn’t always use her words right, and my anger flared at Trent’s impatience.

            “Lucy and me supersecreted hide-and-seek,” she said, the worry in her high voice obvious. “Aunt Rachel was brave. A Were bit Aunt Rachel, but we were supersecret hide-and-seek.”

            I blinked fast to keep my tears away, and I held that big pumpkin wishing I was holding her. It wasn’t fair that she’d had to see that, but she had, and it was my fault.

            Jenks’s wings rasped as he sat on David’s shoulder, and Trent’s expression eased as he glanced between Ray and Lucy. “I don’t want you to be scared, Ray. Ever.”

            Ray’s brow furrowed as she tried to find the words, and then she pushed off from Al to get to me. Panicked, I dropped the pumpkin as I scrambled to catch her.

            “My pumpkin!” Lucy shrieked. “Uncle Al, fix it?”

            My arms found Ray with the surety of the sun rising, and the scent of snickerdoodles and cinnamon filled my world as her arms went around my neck and she clung to me. Lucy’s pumpkin, though . . . The top had snapped off. Al was crouched before it, trying to console the little girl, but seeing him unable to do the magic, I got only more mad.

            Glaring at Trent, I patted Ray’s back as Lucy wailed. “Ray?” I said, trying to help her find the words. “You’re not scared now, right?”

            She blinked at me, her face holding a very real worry. Not about Weres or fighting but about Trent being mad at me. “No.”

            “Good.” I set her feet on the earth as her sister wailed in Quen’s arms, Jenks grinning at Lucy’s heartache. “I don’t want you to be scared. Go get your apple. I’ll be right there.”

            Hesitant, Ray put her hand into Al’s, and the demon harrumphed in satisfaction. Jenks darted down, and he led the way, blue and green sparkles falling from him.

            “Wait until they can’t hear us,” I muttered to Trent as David, Quen, and Al beat a hasty retreat with Lucy still wailing about her broken pumpkin. Ray trusted me. So did Lucy.

            Frustrated, I picked up the busted pumpkin. They had charms at the front to stick the tops back on. “I’ve got it,” I snapped when Trent tried to take the pumpkin, and he retreated a step, his green eyes cross. I wasn’t simply talking about the pumpkin, and he knew it.

            “Please don’t make this into something it isn’t,” he said, and my pulse quickened, my steps hitting the earth hard as we found the beaten pathway to the main building.

            “Don’t you dare try to gaslight me into thinking I didn’t hear the anger in your voice when you called me earlier,” I said, and his fingers twitched. “I know you’re mad that I had the girls for one morning and managed to expose them to violence.”

            For a moment, Trent seemed as if he was going to pretend everything was normal. But it wasn’t. “I said the mage might want the ring, flipped or not,” he said, his eyes narrowed.

            And so it begins. . . . “I agree that I made a mistake—”

            “You can’t make mistakes when it comes to them,” he interrupted, and my jaw clenched.

            “Trent. I made a mistake. And I took care of it. There is not a scratch on them,” I protested, even as the guilt tightened around my heart.

            “Not that you can see.”

            I took a breath, then let it out slowly. The girls were halfway to the apple hut, a demon, a pixy, and a Were as their awkward guards. A part of me agreed with Trent, but another part, the part that kept me going when the world seemed dead set on bringing me down, knew better, and I pulled my gaze from Lucy and Ray.