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An electric zap shot down my arm, shocking me free. “Gah!” I shook out my hand. “There are wards?”

“I did say it was warded. You okay? I⁠—”

A tiny blur the size of a cat screamed over my shoulder and flew like a tiny wrecking ball with wings at Zee’s face. Zee screamed, and ducked. The whirring ball of claws and teeth, hooked up on Zee’s left horn and slingshotted itself back at me. I ducked, and it zipped over my head.

“Sweet baby Gareth!” Zee yelled.

“It’s Jesus,” I corrected, standing and searching for the flying, hissing thing.

“That’s not Jesus, it’s a fucking pixie!”

A pixie? Wait, the one from the market?! Oh dear . . .

“How in the fuck did a pixie get in—it’s coming back!”

The pixie bounced off the wall and shot like a raging ball of claws and fury toward me again.

“Hit it in the dick!” Zee yelled.

“The dick?!” It had a dick?

The pixie screamed. I ducked again. It snagged my hair, yanked, and in the next blink, I was on my back, staring at the ceiling with torn strands of hair raining down.

Zee swung a fist. The pixie dodged, and shot down the front of his flower-print shirt.

Zee whirled, wings flapping up an icy storm, tail whipping out. “Get it off!” He whipped his shirt over his head and tried to shake the pixie free, but it had sunk its teeth and claws into the fabric. “Eat my shirt and I will put you in a blender you rat with wings!”

Zee’s tail whacked a stack of boxes, and the entire tower toppled toward me.

I saw it coming in slow motion, and brought my arm up, tensing for the worst. Zee braced over me, and the boxes toppled left and right, tumbling in an avalanche around us, until finally the chaos calmed into thick, icy silence.

Zee—now shirtless—remained arched over me, eyes darting, breathing hard.

“Do you think it’s gone?” he whispered.

“Where’s it going to go?” I whispered back.

Zee froze, and his eyes got really big. “It’s. On. My. Back.”

“Don’t move, I’ll get it.” I scooted out from under him. The pixie had fixed itself to Zee’s naked back, its tiny claws digging in.

It saw me, and hissed.

“Hey there, little guy.” I showed the pixie my empty hands. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

It hissed again, its big eyes aglow with murderous intent.

“So, uh, hi. I’m Adam, and the demon you’re stuck to is my friend, Zodiac. And we’d really like it if you let him go. We can work this out. You’re stuck in here just the same as us, so maybe we can all sit down and discuss how we all get out?”

Zee’s tail had snaked up behind the pixie. “Kitten, it doesn’t wanna chat.”

“Maybe not, but it’s not getting any worse.”

“Imma whack it with my tail. Stand back.”

The pixie’s little lips rippled, as though it did maybe understand some of Zee’s threat—his tone at least.

“No, nope, don’t do that.” I inched closer. “Hey there, buddy. We’re all friends here.”