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ChapterOne

Seven years ago...

My motheralways told me that most of life’s problems weren’t hard on a woman, but that loving a man took everything. The last time I heard her issue that warning to me was the day Jack and I married. After that, Ma focused on the granddaughter I happily gave birth to at the end of my first wedded year.

Maybe Ma stopped hinting at the potential trouble I was in because she honored my marital commitment. Or maybe she simply wiped her hands of trying to get me to see the truth. Or perhaps moving from Galway, Ireland to Salem, Massachusetts changed Jack in ways I hadn’t seen, even if the move had been at his insistence.

Today, though, I remembered Ma’s warning and wished with my whole heart that I’d paid more attention to her then. Maybe if I’d thought aboutwhyshe’d said those things about the man I’d chosen to tie myself to, I wouldn’t be in my current situation.

What situation is that? Well, that would be the situation where a nice Irish witch married a selfish idiot. Most people were grateful when someone saved their life. My husband seemed determined to be an exception of the worst kind.

“Why are ya betraying me, Jack? We made a daughter together. I’m yer wife in word and deed. I don’t understand why ya’re doing this to me.”

This was the demon hunter council room. I hadn’t been in here before because I hadn’t been allowed, but I could well imagine the pilgrim witches being brought here before being dragged away and burned. The stately space had a polished wooden table in the front for the ones who judged ya, and a few equally polished chairs facing it for those like me. Behind us were benches lining each side of the room like a church. They were for a missing audience, but not even my family was there.

Jack’s gaze swept the room, but eventually landed on me. He seemed oddly untroubled about what was happening even though I was losing my mind wondering what he had planned.

Whenever I asked a question, Jack refused to answer. He just kept repeating that he was angry at me. Well, I was angry with him too. I could see no reason for my husband to bring me here to face the people he worked for. He hadn’t even let me comb my hair or wash my face this morning.

Jack was a foot taller than me, so I had to glare up at him when I spoke. Confrontation was the only time in my life that I hated my shorter stature. “I’ve been the best wife I could be to ya, Jack.”

“This isn’t about you being a good or bad wife, Aran. This is about your magick. You called a demon from the Underdark and commanded it to serve you. That goes against everything I believe.”

Everything he said was a little true, but not exactly accurate. “Conn is my familiar but I do not command him. I simply ask him very nicely to help me with a specific problem and he does so. When he bit the mailman on the ankle for opening yer shaving club box, ya didn’t complain about his help then, Jack. I would have thought ya would be grateful that he was willing to fight a demon from the Underdark to save yer life.”

When Jack sneered at my argument, I knew it was a bad sign. He could be stubborn and belligerent when I proved him wrong. As he drew in a long breath to argue back, I realized I was wasting air trying to convince him of Conn’s good intentions.

My husband had already decided that I was the one who was wrong.

“Conn was adogwhen he bit the mailman. You didn’t tell me your familiar was a demon, not once in all the time we were married. I thought Conn was merely a shapeshifter. How could you not warn me about what he truly was?”

I straightened in my chair, which wasn’t easy when my feet dangled three inches above the floor. Such irritations made me grateful my daughter had inherited her father’s taller height, but I was praying for all I was worth that my only child hadn’t inherited his closed mind.

“Conn is a bound imp, Jack, and ya never once asked me for details about him in the time we’ve been together. I don’t see how my familiar suddenly became a problemafterhe saved yer wretched life. Or don’t ya remember that’s part of the story? I notice ya keep leaving it out.”

Jack glared at me with hatred, and it hurt my heart.

“An imp is a lesser demon, Aran. You don’t have to be a hunter to understand the problem with him. Demons don’t belong on this plane.”

Still shocked by my husband’s extreme reaction, I blinked at him. Had Jack always viewed the world through eyes not capable of seeing gray? How had I missed that about him?

Okay, yes. Technically, Jack was right about imps being classified as lesser demons, but that was only a label. Imperial demon history was far more complex than most could handle learning.

The bottom line was Conn had never done anything mischievous to Jack, much less harmful.

It was my cousin, Liam, who called real demons up from the Underdark. And those demons were the kind that caused all manner of trouble just for the fun of it. Why wasn’t Jack worried about stopping him? Liam spoke the demonic language better than I did, and I’d studied hard to learn it.

The demons all liked Liam because they enjoyed being part of his elaborate schemes. Liam was also the reason I came to be Conn’s keeper. My closest cousin had a penchant for using his demon-calling abilities for his own selfish purposes.

Da said I was the only magickal of my generation, on either his or Ma’s side, that could be trusted not to misuse Conn. Had I been foolish to believe Jack also loved me for the innate goodness that made my family consider me worthy of our legacy?

I suddenly had a worse thought. What had Jack told our daughter Fiona about this situation? He’d taken me away this morning before I could talk with her.

I could handle the man I married thinking I was evil, but I refused to let my teenage daughter believe such nonsense. I had enough trouble keeping her outlook positive. As much as it pained me not to spew my hurt like lava all over my disloyal husband, I had to win Jack over before this went too far.

“Listen, Jack. The Dagda himself saved Conn from becoming a wicked demon many centuries ago. I know Da told ya about Conn’s history with our family the first day the two of ya met. I heard the two of ya talking about it for hours. Do ya remember doing that, Jack? Ya have to remember it. I recall ya talking to Da like it happened only yesterday.”

“Of course, I remember it, Aran, but I thought your father was exaggerating because you had saidabsolutely nothingabout Conn being a demon. Everyone knows there are no good demons walking this plane of existence. You’re being foolish to trust even a lesser one. If you freed him from being bound, he’d end your life with no remorse.”