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I winced at the violence but laughed again. It was the kind of gruesomeness I could handle. For a moment or two, I even forgot I was seven years older than the last time I’d done anything like this.

Conn slung the yowling tiger cat at my feet before instantly returning to human form. I spoke a spell to bind the cat that included a muzzle to shut it up. I chanted another to shrink it to domestic cat size for easier carrying. Once the animal was quiet, we went back to watching the winged guy fight the troll.

“Who’s the guy?” Conn asked.

I shrugged. “No idea. He’s wearing a hoodie.”

Conn chuckled. “Maybe he’s hiding an ugly face.”

I giggled. “The parts I could see looked human, except for the wings, of course. Ya don’t see many Shadow Breakers with wings. He seems new at this.”

I chuckled when the guy punched the troll again. The troll didn’t completely pass out, but he calmed enough for the guy to roll him over and put a set of magickal cuffs on him. I admit I was a little disappointed that the show was ending so soon.

When the guy climbed off the troll, his wings folded behind him and disappeared into his back in a way that looked more magickal than natural.

He pulled a length of rope off his belt, reached down, and wrapped it around the troll’s legs. Next thing I knew, he was dragging the troll toward us, seemingly not hearing the barely conscious troll’s groans every time he dragged his prisoner across a pothole or a broken speed bump.

“It’s not a hoodie, Aran. He’s wearing a full face mask,” Conn said, snickering over it.

“See? That’s what watching too much TV does to ya. Everyone thinks they’re a superhero.”

We waited for him to get closer before speaking directly to him.

Before we got the chance to say anything in greeting, he spoke to me first. “I’m sorry he got away from me. Are you okay?” he asked.

I pointed at the hand he’d used to punch the troll. “I’m fine. Ya’re the one with bleeding knuckles. Would ya like me to heal ya? I’m a witch.”

“It will heal soon enough, but thanks for the offer,” he said, continuing his trek toward the building with the troll dragging behind him.

Conn turned to me. “I suppose it was nice of him to be worried about you, but did you notice he didn’t bother saying hello first?”

“Yes, I noticed that,” I said with a grin.

Conn’s eyebrow arched as he met my gaze. We were thinking the same thing. “Rude,” we both said, then laughed at ourselves.

Conn picked up the subdued tiger cat and we started walking toward the building. We were about to enter when the troll busted out through the doors with the magick cuffs still clamped on his wrists.

Laughing, Conn tossed the tiger cat to me, morphed into one of his larger demon forms, and caught the troll in two giant steps.

The masked guy also busted through the doors, saw Conn, and braked to a halt to stare. His startled gaze traveled upward until he spied the troll clutched in one of Conn’s enormous hands.

Chuckling, I carried the cat with me as I approached him. “We stopped him for ya. Do ya have someplace inside that can hold him?”

The guy turned and stared down at me, blinked through his mask’s eye holes, and nodded. We stood there staring at each other until it got awkward. “Lead the way, then,” I said, giving him my best smile. “I hope ya got a special place for his pet too. If ya put them both in the same cage, the troll will eat the tiger cat to keep us from doing something worse to it. They don’t think the same way we do about such things.”

“What could be a worse fate than being eaten by a troll?” he asked.

“Ya might be surprised,” I said with a chuckle, motioning for him to walk. If he didn’t have the imagination for it, I wouldn’t traumatize him with what I’d seen such creatures do to each other.

The guy pointed to Conn. “Is he a djinn?”

“No. He’s an imperial demon. Djinns are a type of demon as well, so that was a good guess.”

“I’ve seen several djinns but never fought one. They can turn to smoke and escape all holds. I watched one do that.”

I smiled and nodded to let him know I was still listening. “Yes, I heard ya have to spell them, bribe them, or get them to give ya their word. I have friends who fought them successfully.”

He walked beside me, matching his steps to mine.