Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

voice rumbling through me from where I was pressed against him. “Of course she can balance her line.” His breath was like brimstone against me, sharp and jolting. “Tell them, Rachel,” he prompted, his voice low with threat.
    “S-sure,” I stammered, scared to death.
    Al’s eyes closed in relief. “We can fix it,” he said as they opened.
    “Then why haven’t you?” Ku’Sox said softly, mocking us.
    “My rooms are shrinking!” another called.
    “We have nowhere to go. Kill her now before it’s too late!” a third shouted, and it all started up again. I began to panic. Only Al’s firm hold on my arms kept me from moving. He was not my jailer, he was my rock. Whatever happened to me would happen to him. I didn’t altogether trust Al, but I trusted that.
    “No.” It was a soft utterance, and my eyes went to Newt, still sitting calmly on her bench, legs curled back up under her again. “I said no!” she said louder, and the noise behind Al and me abated. “I told you months ago that Rachel’s line was unbalanced, and you all said I was crazy.”
    “You are crazy!” someone shouted from the back, and she smiled as if in benediction.
    “Tru-u-u-ue,” she drawled when they quieted again. “But no one listened. You will listen to me now. Call it your collective penance.”
    My heart gave a pound, and I tensed against Al. Was it a chance or a sentence?
    Knowing all eyes were on her, Newt stood gracefully. “I will give you space from my own rooms to compensate your loss, Cyclarenadamackitn. I will compensate all your one-inch, two-inch losses because I know how important every inch is to you aged, decrepit men. But in return, I want to see if she can do it. It would be a skill worth having—don’t you think? Being able to balance lines scraped from a reality-to-reality jump? In case we someday can return to reality and abandon the ever-after completely?” I swallowed hard as Newt turned her black, featureless eyes on me. “If she can’t, then you may kill her.”
    There was a breath of silence, in which I could almost hear the demons thinking that over. Behind me, Al sighed, his hands gripping my upper arms easing. It was a chance.
    I looked at Ku’Sox and his evident anger, but he stayed silent as the demons came to a consensus. I couldn’t tell if Dali was pleased or irritated as he stood, frowning once at Newt’s pleased smile as she beamed over all of them.
    “So!” Dali said, bringing everyone’s attention back to the stage. “Are we agreed? Rachel and Al have time to balance the line if Newt compensates everyone?”
    Al held his breath as no one spoke, each waiting for the other to say something first.
    “Ku’Sox?” Dali prompted. It was clear that the bastard child wasn’t pleased, but if he continued to push for my death, it would be obvious that he wanted it.
    His face empty of emotion, Ku’Sox turned on a heel. Pushing past the surrounding demons, he distanced himself, and then, with a soft breath of air replacing his mass, he vanished.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” Dali said as the rest of the demons began popping out in turn, a soft muttering of conversations rising and falling like surf.
    I finally began to relax, turning to look up at Al as he let go of my shoulders. “Now what?” There was no way in hell I could balance that line.
    Al wouldn’t look at me, and I again wondered how I could have gone from fear to mistrust to understanding to reliance in so short of time. “We find a way to fix this,” he said. “Or a way to blame it on someone else,” he added, stiffening as Newt rose and made her way to us. Dali was busy with a few lingering demons, and I watched as Al seemed to shift and change, the mask he always wore sliding over him again as she came forward.
    “That’s it then!” he said cheerfully as he clapped his thick hands again. “I guess we’ll be off to look at the line. See what we can do.”
    “Yes,” Newt said, her smile chilling me as she took my hand and looked at it, noticing perhaps that I now had a metal pinkie ring instead of a wooden one. “You go balance that line. And in the meantime, Rachel’s debt to me grows with each passing second.”
    I winced as I pulled my hand from hers, but what could I say? I did have some income here from the use of the tulpa I’d made for Dalliance.
    Al was huffing and puffing, but I knew there was no deal we could get that was better than our continued survival.
    “Al,” Newt said