The world was a kaleidoscope of sound and color as Asa hung onto the demon’s back for dear life. The demon moved so quickly that it was like the Station was standing still, rendering them practically invisible to anyone passing by. Asa had no control, his fingers digging into the demon’s fur with an iron grip, his eyes watering from the cold air until he closed them. It was like the worst kind of pod-racing. He was plastered against the back of the demon, his thighs clamping down on the demon’s sides, feeling like he was about to get thrown off any second.

  The demon’s body moved like an eel, like he didn’t have muscles or bones. PQ-9 beeped frantically in his ear, huddled into the neck of his jumpsuit, and Asa couldn’t even reach back to pat his head in comfort. Asa had never been this close to a demon before. He had never expected to be this close to a demon. It was unsettling to feel the bond between them, warm and pulsing like a human heart, even as Asa shivered from the cold that the demon’s speed generated.

  When the demon finally stopped, Asa’s muscles were so tense that his body froze in place. He slowly lifted his head to see where they were.

  The demon had stopped in a private back-alley in front of Nora’s bar, which was situated on the border of the Pearl District and the Garnet Market. Asa checked PQ-9’s settings through his holo visor to see the number of degrees his own time-line was from this newly settled time-line—and then Asa closed his eyes in relief. Since this was a second-degree time-line, it should be significantly proximal to his own. People littered the street now that the alarm had stopped, stumbling out of restaurants in the Pearl District and then venturing further downtown into the Garnet Market for after-dinner partying.

  Nora’s bar had a blue neon sign that said The Moonlit Butterfly. The sign was pink in Asa’s time-line. The neon flamingo logo was the same though. “You’re sure she’s here?” Asa said dubiously. In his time-line, Nora wasn’t picky about customers but the girl had looked like, ten, which even Nora balked at.

  The demon’s body rippled and suddenly Asa slid onto the ground, almost falling when he landed due to the shakiness of his limbs. His entire body hurt from clenching his muscles so hard. When Asa turned, the demon had shrunk to his original size. “You messed up my fur,” the demon complained.

  PQ-9 immediately fired back in binary his (very poor) review of the entire trip.

  The demon hopped up on Asa’s shoulder, crowding PQ-9. “You wanna say that again?” the demon said.

  “Do not fight,” Asa said sternly. He felt like he was Head Apprentice again, herding the smallest initiate apprentices to their training. “Also, I don’t think animals are allowed in the bar.”

  “I’m not an animal,” the demon said haughtily, before pointedly cleaning his fur.

  Asa rolled his eyes as he turned to cross the street to The Moonlit Butterfly, swinging open the heavy door of the entrance. Nora’s bar was dark and dingy, the neon lit sculptures of butterflies lending the room a strange spectral glow. Asa recognized a surprising number of people who also enjoyed visiting the House for their entertainment activities. Old-school video games lined the back wall, although no one was playing. People chatted and drank and gambled at long, narrow tables, as well as the bar itself where Nora was arguing with a customer. Hyper-pop music played in the background, all digital instrumentals.

  Asa moved toward the bar, his hands in his pockets, slouching, the demon digging his sharp claws into his shoulder and back.

  “I am too sixteen,” said the indignant voice of the customer as Asa moved into earshot. Asa raised his eyebrows. The girl that had stolen his collar stood in front of Nora with her hands on her hips. Nora looked distinctly unimpressed, leaning against the bar with her arms crossed.

  “I don’t serve kids,” Nora informed her. “You’re like, three feet tall. No.”

  “I have money,” the girl insisted, starting to pull out her chip stick.

  Nora shook her head. “Why do you even want alcohol? Shouldn’t you be like, playing blocks or something?”

  “I’m not a little kid!” the girl said, stamping her feet, her hands balled into fists at her side.

  Nora snorted. “Could have fooled me,” she said. “Now get out of here.” She shooed her hands at the girl and then spotted Asa, resetting her face into a smirk. “Hey, stranger, what can I do for you?” She peered at the demon on his shoulder, her eyebrows narrowing thoughtfully.

  “I’m good,” Asa said shortly. “I just need to talk to her.” He looked pointedly at the girl, who proceeded to not look guilty even a little bit, even though now that he was closer, he could see that she had actually put on his collar.

  Asa dug his nails into his arms, fighting the urge to yank her up by the jumpsuit and grab the collar back.

  “What do you want with her?” Nora said, the angle of her frown deepening, a protective edge in her voice. She always had a soft spot for the girls—apparently even the ones who had been trying to illegally buy alcohol from her bar.

  Asa huffed. “She stole my necklace,” he said, glaring at the girl, which meant he had to angle his head down a surprising amount. It wasn’t like he was abnormally tall. The girl was just so short.

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  Nora raised her eyebrows. “You’re one of the House?” she said. “I’ve never seen you around before.”

  “What are you talking about?” Asa said in surprise. “You know me. I worked for you behind the bar all last year.”

  Nora scoffed. “I think I’d remember you and this little pipsqueak demon,” she said.

  “Hey!” the demon said, leaning forward on Asa’s shoulder. “I can eat you, you know!”

  “No, you can’t,” Asa said, unyielding, and then he noticed that the girl was trying to slither away, unnoticed. “And you aren’t going anywhere until I get my necklace back,” he said, firmly gripping her bony little shoulder. “My mother works for the House,” he told Nora. “She gave the collar to me.”

  “Who’s your mom?” Nora said.

  “Galatea Rex,” he said, watching the girl’s face as he said his mother’s name. The girl didn’t have any reaction, but Nora immediately started laughing.

  “No way,” she said. “Galatea doesn’t have a kid.”

  “What do you mean?” Asa said, his voice going tight. “Of course she has a kid.”

  “A word of advice: don’t bullshit a bullshitter,” Nora said, smirking. “Now, are you going to buy a drink or are you going to leave?”

  “Well, maybe you’re not important enough to know then,” Asa said snidely. “I’ll leave as soon as I get my collar back.” He turned to the girl, who had been trying to wiggle out from under his hand. “That doesn’t belong to you, kid. Give it back.”

  “First of all, my name’s not kid,” the girl said stoutly. “It’s Mouse. Second of all: no. Finder’s keepers.” She stuck out her tongue at him and made a rude noise.

  Asa stared at her. “What kind of name is Mouse?” he said.

  “The kind I gave myself,” Mouse said, satisfied. “Anyway, if that’s all, I gotta go—”

  “Not so fast,” he said coolly. “I’ll ask nicely one more time. Give me my necklace now.”

  Mouse frowned, reaching her hand into her pocket—presumably for her gun.

  “Nope,” Nora said immediately. She made an X with her forearms. “If you’re going to fight, go outside. You’re not disturbing my business.”

  “Well,” Mouse said slowly. “Gotta catch me first!” She yanked her arm away, twisting her wrist in between his fingers to break his grip, and then she booked it out of the bar.

  “Fuck,” he cursed, running after her, but the demon was faster. When Asa exited the bar, the demon had already grown in mass and pinned the girl to the ground so she couldn’t reach for her gun.

  “Thanks,” Asa said to the demon but when he moved to unclasp the collar from her neck—it wasn’t there. She must have taken it off when he was talking to Nora. “Where did you put it?”

  Mouse just stuck out her tongue at him.

  “Fine,” he said grimly. “I guess we’ll do this the hard way.” Asa started rifling through the girl’s pockets. He found: various currencies, old pieces of candy, little bits and pieces of broken electronics, shiny rocks—

  “Where the hells is it,” Asa said, stymied.

  Mouse chuckled meanly. “You’ll never find it. You might as well let me go.”

  “She has an inter-dimensional space pocket,” the demon piped up. “Check it.”

  Asa closed his eyes, sighing in aggravation because the demon could have mentioned this earlier. “And where is this space pocket?”

  “Behind her back,” the demon said, sounding bored now.

  Asa reached behind Mouse’s back, his hand disappearing into space—when something large and icy cold exploded into existence and threw Asa’s demon off Mouse’s back.

  Asa was propelled backward by the force of the impact, instinctively placing his arms over his head to protect his face. He rolled to his feet to see Mouse standing behind a second demon that was even larger than Acanthus. This new demon was dark gray and wolf-shaped—if wolves had six legs like a spider and two tails and purple eyes.

  “Ugh,” Asa’s demon said, sighing. “This is so much trouble.”

  Asa had never witnessed an actual demon battle before—the Eternal Crystal Imperium didn’t film military campaigns, partially because demonic magic sometimes did weird things to tech. But Asa had certainly seen the damage that demons could cause at the House when contracts weren’t honored correctly.

  “Why do you even want the collar so bad?” Asa said, frustrated. “If it’s because you need currency, I can hook you up with the robots. They’re always looking for someone to run errands.”

  “I don’t want to run errands!” Mouse hollered, crossing her arms. Bystanders on the street were gathering closer, popping out their holo visors to start filming the two enormously mismatched demons who were staring each other down. Mouse’s demon was far larger and energetically powerful, leaking coldness and ice even as they stood still—the ground beneath their enormous paws was already frosting over.

  “You don’t have to fight,” Asa cautioned his demon, as he stepped closer.

  Asa’s demon didn’t move. “Your energy is so delicious,” the demon purred. “And you’re going to owe me so much of it if I get your dumb necklace back.”

  “You can’t drain me,” Asa warned.

  “Duh,” the demon said, even as he grew larger again, absorbing Asa’s energy through the bond. “You can’t kill the cow that feeds you.”

  Then Asa’s demon struck Mouse’s demon so quickly that Asa couldn’t even register it.

  But Mouse’s demon rolled with the attack, not even seeming to receive a single scratch.

  Bystanders scattered, running for cover as Asa’s demon shot golden light beams from his mouth, which blasted cauterized holes into Mouse’s demon’s flesh. The holes steamed and then almost immediately healed.

  Mouse’s demon roared, which rattled Asa’s eardrums, and shot three enormous ice spears from their open maw. One spear stabbed Asa’s demon through the chest, black blood trailing into the ground, and the other two ice spears buried themselves into the ground of the Station in front of The Moonlit Butterfly. Asa sucked in a breath, feeling the demon’s pain radiate through the bond. But Asa’s demon shook it off, even though the hole wasn’t closing up, and reached through their bond to collect Asa’s energy. Asa let his energy flow through the bond, and the hole made by the ice spear slowly closed up.

  “Is that all you got?” Asa’s demon cried, preparing to launch himself again into battle.

  Mouse’s demon was still larger and more powerful than Asa’s demon, even with the influx of Asa’s energy across the bond. But Mouse’s demon hadn’t spoken at all the entire time, which gave Asa an eerie feeling. Mouse stood behind her demon with a smug smile on her face. Asa frowned. This wasn’t a fucking game. The ice spears had done significant damage to Station infrastructure and could have really hurt someone. Asa should have never let this battle go so far. It was time to end this before anyone was seriously injured.

  Asa started to walk toward Mouse while the demons were distracted—but then Mouse’s demon suddenly turned and opened their mouth, revealing a silver glowing sphere. Asa immediately dropped to the ground as seven ice spears dug themselves into the Station floor behind him.

  Asa’s heart raced at how close those ice spears had been to his head.

  In the ringing silence, Asa heard a high-pitched whimper of pain. He whipped his gaze toward the street, where the demons had been fighting.

  Mouse’s demon had Asa’s demon’s neck in its mouth, their jaws locked around Asa’s demon’s throat.