“Yeah,maybe later we can all sing a demon version of 'Kumbaya.”

“Maybe we can talk to them,' I said, tubbing my nose with the back of my hand. 'Have a little sit-down chat.''With tea.''Ooh, yeah, with the nice china, and those little sandwiches that don't have crusts.”

“Yeah, and we still have to deal with The Eye being…Eyeish, and me learning to be Head of the Council, which will probably involve lots of boring books and—” Archer pressed his mouth to mine, effectively shutting me up and kissing the hell out of me. When he pulled back, he was grinning. “And you have an arrogant, screwed-up former demon hunter who is stupidly in love with you.”

“I wish we weren't like this. You know, demon, demon-hunter. I wish I'd met you in a normal high school, and taken you on normal dates, and like, carried your books or something.”

“Archer, Jenna, and I weren’t exactly clutching each other and sobbing, but we were pretty shaken as we formed a little huddle. “Okay,” I finally said. “Can we all agree that this is maybe the most screwed-up situation we’ve ever found ourselves in?”“Agreed,” they said in unison.“Awesome.” I gave a little nod. “And do either of you have any idea what we should do about it?”“Well, we can’t use magic,” Archer said.“And if we try to leave, we get eaten by Monster Fog,” Jenna added.“Right. So no plans at all, then?”Jenna frowned. “Other than rocking in the fetal position for a while?”“Yeah, I was thinking about taking one of those showers where you huddle in the corner fully clothed and cry,” Archer offered.I couldn’t help but snort with laughter. “Great. So we’ll all go have our mental breakdowns, and then we’ll somehow get ourselves out of this mess.”

“By now, all three Brannick women—all four, if you counted Mom—were staring at me. Man, what had that piney-tasting stuff been? The Brannick version of Red Bull?”

“All right then, Daisy and I will have our usual."I wondered what that might be. Evil Juice? Some kind of demonic energy drink?”