Sebastian

wondered, "when a particular woman complaining that you hog the bed makes you feel happier than a dozen other women undressing you with their eyes?"
    "Don't ask me," Teaser grumbled. "I'm not the one sighing and moaning every night."
    "Lynnea doesn't sigh and moan." Not loudly enough to be heard in the next room, anyway.
    "Wasn't talking about Lynnea." Teaser gave Sebastian a long look to make his point, then a quick once-over. "You're dressing hot these days. More than you've done in quite a while."
    Sebastian smiled. "I've got a reason to—and I don't want her to forget it."
    Oh, yeah. Despite being a one-woman incubus and the Den's Justice Maker, he was dressing hot these days. Tight black denim pants and a black denim jacket, a green shirt to enhance the color of his eyes, and a pendant—a flat green stone on a gold chain that Glorianna had given him years ago—that he'd found in the back of a dresser drawer when he went rummaging for something interesting to catch a woman's eye. He wasn't sure if there was something about the stone or something about him wearing it, but Lynnea—
    "You keep thinking what you're thinking, you're going to sproing in public," Teaser said.
    "That's crude."
    "I'm just saying. And since we all know who you sproing for these days—"
    "Why aren't you out trolling?"
    Teaser shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Because the last time I saw an attractive woman who looked safe enough to nibble on, it turned out to be your auntie."
    "I'm trying to forget that."
    "Me too."

    "Really trying to forget that."
    "Me too." Teaser sighed and started to turn toward the street. "All right, then. I'll take a stroll and—
    Daylight! What's one of them doing here?"
    Sebastian looked in the same direction and felt the heat of anger and the chill of fear run through him.
    "Have a word with the bull demons," he said quietly as he watched the wizard stagger down the street.
    "Tell them to watch over Lynnea and keep her safe."
    "You going to get testy if they start goring people or bashing in skulls?"
    "No."
    "Right." Teaser looked at Sebastian. "He can call the lightning, too. Remember that. If it comes down to it, you need to be the one standing when it's done."
    "Don't worry," Sebastian growled. "I will be."
    He strode up the street, knew the wizard recognized him the moment he started moving—which was more than he could say about recognizing the wizard. He'd never seen Koltak so dirty and exhausted.
    Obviously reaching the Den had been a long, hard journey.
    But Koltak shouldn't have been able to reach the Den. Not anymore. Which was something Sebastian needed to tell Lee at the first opportunity. If Koltak could find his way to the Den, what else might be wandering through Glorianna's landscapes?
    He stopped and waited for the wizard to get within a man's length of him. "You're not welcome here."
    "Sebastian," Koltak gasped. "There's danger. Great danger. We need your help. You have to listen."
    "The way you listened when I came to you for help? Go back where you came from. You'll get nothing from us."
    "You have to listen." Koltak started to raise his hand, perhaps in supplication, perhaps for a different reason.
    Sebastian didn't wait to find out. His hand shot up, the power crackling through him, balling in his fingertips, waiting for release.
    Koltak stared at the hand, then slowly lowered his own. "So. The power awoke in you. You're a wizard."
    "Justice Maker," Sebastian snapped. "I wouldn't expect you to understand the difference."
    "But I do," Koltak cried. "I do! I—" He swayed. "Sebastian, if there's anything human in you, show a little pity."
    "Don't throw that in my face, old man. You've always said there was nothing human in me, never wanted to see anything human in me. So now—"
    "Do you think this is easy for me?" Koltak said, the familiar, angry venom back in his voice. "Do you think I want to grovel for your help? To be here ? But I'm willing to put aside our differences to save Ephemera. Are you enough of a. Justice Maker to do the same? Or are you going to let everything be destroyed as a way of farting in my face?"

    To save Ephemera. Which, for him, meant saving Glorianna's and Nadia's landscapes. Which meant saving the Den, the place he'd promised to protect. Which meant keeping Lynnea safe.
    "Come on," Sebastian said. "We'll get you some food—and I'll listen."
    Leading Koltak back to Philo's, Sebastian hurried along the edge of the courtyard until he reached the