She was the devil's agent all right. And so was he. But she'd be lying through every tooth in her head, every pore in her skin, if she wasn't also flesh and blood. That she'd let him in when there was no place to let him in to. And there wasn't. She ended this now.

"All right, Princess," he sighed. "You can stop pretending. What did they promise you?"

Persistent, wasn't he? As if, at every turn he just had to keep her there still. And all this hair stroking and ...