"Good enough." Its glasses vanished and its damned, goat-slitted eyes fixed on me. My heart raced, but I had made this choice. I would live or die by it.

Deep and resonate, seeming to vibrate my very core, Algaliarept's voice slipped from between its lips. It was Latin, the words familiar, yet not, like a vision of a dream. "Pars tibi, totum mihi. Vinctus vinculis, prece factis."

"Some to you," I echoed in English, interpreting the words from memory, "but all to me. Bound by ties made so by plea."

The demon's smile widened, chilling me with its confidence. "Luna servata, lux sanata. Chaos statutum, pejus minutum."

I swallowed hard. "Moon made safe, ancient light made sane," I whispered. "Chaos decreed, taken tripped if bane."

Algaliarept's knuckles gripping the vat went white in anticipation. "Mentem tegens, malum ferens. Semper servus dum duret mundus," it said, and Ceri sobbed, a small kitten sound, quickly stifled. "Go on," Algaliarept prompted, excitement making its outline blur. "Say it and put your hands in."

I hesitated, my eyes fixing on Ceri's crumpled form before the gravestone, her gown a small puddle of color. "Absolve me of one of my debts I owe you, first."

"You are a pushy bitch, Rachel Mariana Morgan."

"Do it!" I demanded. "You said you would. Take off one of your marks as agreed."

It leaned over the pot until I could see my reflection, wide-eyed and frightened, in its glasses. "It makes no difference. Finish the curse and be done with it."

"Are you saying you aren't going to hold to our bargain?" I goaded, and it laughed.

"No. Not at all, and if you were hoping to break our arrangement on that, then you're sadly the fool. I'll take off one of my marks, but you still owe me a favor." It licked its lips. "And as my familiar, you belong—to me."