their money, I bet," I said bitingly, and his eyes narrowed.
"I have to eat." Shame, perhaps, made his voice harsh, but I doubted it. "Besides, I didn't think it would be you who showed up that first time. I thought it would be Al and that he would tear them and me apart. End everything."
His words hit me hard, and I looked away, sinking back down into my chair.
"You took Al's name? Rachel, why?" he asked, his voice holding an unexpected hurt. "I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were the good one."
I couldn't look up, unable to speak. I was the good one. Wasn't I?
"Get him out of here," Jenks said loudly. "Both of them."
Jax's wings clattered, and Matalina protested, but a pop of displaced air in the hallway struck me like a slap. Al? I thought with a pulse of fear-based adrenaline as I looked. But it wasn't Al. It was Pierce and Bis. Duh. The sun was up.
The witch caught his balance, lurching to snag his hat as it fell off. "We're back!" Bis shouted, whirling, eyes wide as he landed beside Matalina on the fridge, making her crouch at the sudden wind. He was too big to fly in the house, and as soon as his feet touched the appliance, his wings folded and his eyes blinked shut, the teenage gargoyle going somnolent in the sudden light. As an adult, he'd be able to stay awake during the daylight hours, but as it was, he fell asleep in an instant. Probably just as well. The next few minutes were going to be ugly.
"Who the hell are you?" Nick rasped, ignored.
Sometime between my truncated lesson and now, Pierce had found a trendy pair of black pants and a maroon shirt. His new, colorfully patterned vest looked like it could be the upholstery of an antique chair, but somehow it worked. Everything fit him perfectly, right down to the gold fob running to a hidden pocket watch, and I wondered if the appearance-conscious demon had sent him like this or if Pierce had learned to dress himself.
Pierce watched me from under his wavy black bangs, trying to guess my mood as his shoes scuffed on a stray bit of salt. His eyes were fixed on mine, and I felt a ping of something, which I quickly squashed. I didn't have time for a relationship, and not with a self-oriented, black-magic-using, intelligent... demon killer wannabe who thought I needed babysitting.
"Rachel," Pierce said, shoes grinding on the salt as he came forward after a nod to Ivy and Jenks, and a flash of anger at Nick. His smoothly shaven face was creased with worry, and when he took my hands, I pulled away. Had they really made Al send him to watch me?
"Is she all together? Is she all right?" he asked Ivy, unsure at my reaction.
Ivy nodded, her eyes edging toward normal, standing with her arms across her middle as if holding back her instincts. "As much as she ever is," she said sourly.
Tm of the mind that she's not." Pierce tried again for my hands, keeping them this time. "I've a powerful notion to fix their flint. Did they... Rachel, your wrists," he said, aghast as he turned them over. "They shackled you?" he asked, voice shaking in outrage.
I took a breath, but my harsh words hesitated. He'd crossed a continent to find me. Resolute, I shoved the feeling away. "Al sent you?" I asked, and he knelt to put us on eye level. "Pierce, tell me this is a joke and that Al is going to show up come sundown and drag you back."
Pierce smiled, gaze flicking to Ivy and Jenks. "Newt told the collective that Al nearly let you kill yourself, and that I kept you alive until she could save you."
"Newt?" Jenks shrilled, coming close. "You didn't say anything about Newt!"
"Yow?" I echoed, and Nick scowled. "You're the one who got me in trouble!"
Pierce, though, was still grinning. "The way she remembers it, I saved you. She made an almighty wrath, convincing them that you're too accident-prone to survive without supervision."
"I could have told them that," Jenks smart-mouthed, and Ivy waved at him to be quiet.
"Since Al can't abide here come sunup," Pierce continued, "it was either send me or give you to Newt."
"I thought you said you were the only familiar cheap enough that Al could afford," Jenks chimed in, and Pierce's lips twitched in the beginnings of a frown. Ivy,