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If I hadn’t been so mad at Rasmus, I would have laughed when he looked down at his weapon in alarm.

“Freaking amateur,” I muttered, sweeping a hand, and making his weapon turn into a bouquet. “I was trying my best to give ya a chance, but ya’re no more trustworthy than Jack. I was on the fence right up to where ya pulled yer stun gun out.”

“Aran...”

I held up a hand and Rasmus went quiet. “No. I refuse to listen to more lies.”

Rasmus started to get up from his seat and found he couldn’t. It served him right.

I looked over my shoulder at Jack. “Unless ya want tooinkall day, get yer arse into the seat across from yer lackey. I’m done being nice. Don’t make it worse.”

Jack stumbled free of the invisible foot restraints I placed on him, and then scrambled into the chair I’d been sitting in earlier.

“Good. Now stay there for a few minutes while I pack. I’m going to let Rasmus keep talking normal because the other folks in here having their breakfast don’t deserve to have it ruined by the two of ya.”

I counted to ten... and then to twenty. If I didn’t calm down soon, I was going to make a scene that would ruin everyone’s day. They’d made me too mad to be rational.

I turned and glared at Jack again. “If I could go back in time and find another man to give me my darling child, I would do that. Unfortunately, The Dagda himself told me time travel was forbidden. But I swear on my Da’s grave that if ya keep coming after me, Jack, I’m going to do to ya what Da would have done... and what Ma still might do. So go on about yer other business until ya hear from me. I want nothing to do with ya.”

Then I turned to Rasmus. “Ya’ve betrayed me over and over, not in big ways, but in a lot of small ones. I don’t think we can work together now. I will finish the search on my own.”

“Oink, oink...”

I turned to glare at my ex. “Shut up, Jack. I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to yer fan boy.”

I put my attention back on Rasmus. “When the rules are fair, I play by them, but ya haven’t been fair. Ya’ve been a pain in my arse since I laid eyes on ya. I’m done with being nice to ya, demon hunter. Don’t come after me because I won’t be as kind if I see ya again. Do ya understand?”

“Oink..”

I swung my head. “Ya’re a pig, Jack. Ya’re a worse pig now than the day ya betrayed me.”

Rasmus gaped at me in surprise. “You’re behaving worse than anything you’ve accused us of doing to you. You’re humiliating us all in public.”

“Sure, and this is all my fault because I’m not rolling over and letting ya have that last word on the matter. What kind of woman could find the two of ya scheming against her as embarrassing or hurtful? I mean, every divorced woman should be grateful for the continued harassment of the man who cheated on her. Is that what ya’re saying to me, Rasmus?”

He frowned at my tirade. This time, I didn’t care about his feelings.

“Expecting you to talk to Jack like a mature adult is not a crime,” he said.

I lifted my lips and sneered. “Neither is expecting people to understand that I’m still coping with my former husband’s total lack of remorse for all he’s put me through. If ya knew how truly angry I was with my ex-husband, ya wouldn’t be goading me to chat. Ya would advise him to keep away from me until I’d had some time to calm down.”

“You control a demon, which makes Jack right about you. How are you not a criminal to mankind? Explain that to me.”

I lifted my hand and rubbed my forehead. Rasmus was worse than Jack because he was too brainwashed to think straight.

“Goddess bless, I have to get out of here before I do something I’ll regret. I’m getting déjà vu just talking to ya because I know we went over all this yesterday. So let’s skip the redundancy and get to the bottom line. Breaking yer word voided our agreement about ya shadowing me. I’ll not be going up against the forces of darkness with someone I can’t trust by my side. I’m better off alone.”

“You have no right to throw your power around and restrain us,” Rasmus commanded.

“And ya have no right to trick me and bring my ex here without warning me. Everything I do concerning Jack is a matter of self-defense. Ya pulled a freaking stun gun on me only moments ago. I have every right to use my power to protect myself from the likes of both of ya. Yer restraints will fade away in thirty or forty minutes. I meant what I said. Don’t come after me, Rasmus.”

I assumed ending my agreement with Rasmus would also end the council’s agreement to put me up while I was looking. Well, no matter... I’d find the portal like I promised. And I might have to contact Jack to turn the location in. In the meantime, though, I was done dealing daily with people who couldn’t keep their word to me.

I walked out of the dining room with no money, no place to stay, and no one to help me find the demon portal. The only bright spot was that I wasn’t still stuck in the cottage. If I’d been younger, I’d have been weeping in frustration at my bad luck, but I’d outgrown that sort of complaining years ago when I’d learned wishing people were different was a waste of time.

I left my worries behind in the dining area and calmly went to my rented room. See? There were some bright spots to aging. Being older meant being less prone to drama. And I really enjoyed going about my business without the regret I might have if I’d maimed or tortured someone who annoyed me.

Maybe maturing would be okay.