When Asa woke, it was because the demon had bitten him again.

  “What?” Asa said groggily.

  “Your notification sounds are annoying,” the demon complained. “I’ll bite your ear next.”

  Asa took in a deep breath, grimacing, before touching his earring to activate the holo visor.

  Rose: fine

  It took Asa longer than it should to remember the message he had sent about Sol the night before. Relief rushed through Asa that at least Sol was okay. He would just have to ask his mother what to do about what Rose had taken from Namah—and what Namah was doing now.

  Asa scanned through his next message and sat bolt upright.

  Mother: Let’s do breakfast at The Scarlet Pearl.

  The Scarlet Pearl was a restaurant that was only loosely affiliated with the House. This meant that both sides could have plausible deniability that Galatea was meeting with her son, who was no longer allowed in the House. Asa couldn’t remember the last time he was able to see his mother in the same month, let alone the same week. His body relaxed for the first time since the demon alarm went off, and he found himself in the wrong time-line.

  The last ten—ten!—notifications were from an unknown number. Asa frowned.

  Unknown: “Asa, I got your contact information from your mom! She’s so cool and not like that other lady at all who is probably evil.”

  Unknown: “It’s me, Mouse.”

  Unknown: “Why are lemons called lemons when oranges are called oranges? Why don’t we call lemons yellows?”

  Unknown: “The people here are boring and annoying, I want to leave.”

  Unknown: “I tried a lemon, and I didn’t like it! I bet the evil lady likes lemons.”

  And so on and so forth, for five more messages, in which Mouse reviewed three more items of food and then asked Asa to come get her: twice. Asa sighed, the corners of his mouth curling upward against his will. Mouse was fine. He shouldn’t have even worried about her. It had been a waste of energy.

  Asa rolled out of the sofa bed, started to dress, and then retrieved his shower caddy before heading to the communal floor bathroom.

  “Where are we going?” the demon said, watching him brush his teeth.

  “We are not going anywhere,” Asa informed him. “You are either going into the pocket dimension or you’re staying in the apartment.”

  “Excuse me?” the demon said, rocking back on his tiny fuzzy heels. “I seem to remember that you owe me a cheeseburger and fries.”

  Asa blinked, once. The demon was right, he had made a promise. But then—his mother would know about the demon contract. Had he really planned on keeping that secret from her? Asa finished brushing his teeth and started to wash his face. He was troubled by the underlying impulse to lie to her when he couldn’t remember the last time he had lied to his mother.

  The demon chattered to PQ-9 while PQ-9 made long-suffering beeps, as Asa checked his notifications again. Nothing. No one had messaged him.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Asa called to the demon, as PQ-9 fluttered onto Asa’s shoulder.

  “Cheeseburger time?” the demon said excitedly, bounding after Asa and into the hall.

  “I made a promise, didn’t I,” Asa said dryly.

  “Humans break promises all the time,” the demon said. “That’s what I’ve heard.”

  “Not me,” Asa said grimly. “Or at least, I try not to.”

  Few people were up and about as they walked to the Scarlet Pearl, which was located on the border of the The Ruby District and The Pearl District. Asa had last been the Scarlet Pearl shortly after leaving the House, when he and his mother had celebrated his birthday. It had been a difficult birthday—his first birthday ever where he hadn’t been at the House.

  As he approached the Scarlet Pearl now, he looked up at the signage and remembered what it had been like to enter a restaurant by himself for the first time. Before, he had always come with the other apprentices or Rose or his Mother on the rare occasion they went to a restaurant. The House always hosted elaborate parties for the birthdays of those who lived there because birthdays were good for business.

  “Why aren’t we going in?” the demon said impatiently, nudging Asa’s calf with his head.

  Asa laughed. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  Asa strode to the hosting podium and said, “Reservation for Galatea Rex.”

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  “Come right this way,” the hostess said smoothly, leading him to the back to a private table on the second floor. The restaurant was dim and lined with little amber lights, which looked like little electric candles. The neon purple lights that lined the Station had been an accident in distribution, but now there was no funding to change the lighting. No one really seemed to care anyway. It was strange to have such different lighting inside the restaurant. It made everything softer, a little more blurred.

  As they approached the table where his mother sat, a small shape darted from the table and launched themselves into Asa’s arms.

  “Whoah, hey!” Asa said, almost over-balancing from the momentum of…Mouse. “What are you doing here?” he said, flabbergasted. “Are you allowed to be here?”

  “She’s with me,” his mother said, sounding amused. He looked up at her, where she had her cheek resting in one hand. She was smiling the way she always had. There was nothing different about it. But Asa felt different after what he had seen in the collar’s memories. “She really wanted to see you—wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  Asa doubted that his mother wouldn’t have said no if she had wanted to say no. She had wanted to bring Mouse with her, for whatever reason.

  “Yeah!” Mouse said, smacking him on the shoulder. “You just left me!”

  “I can’t stay at the House,” Asa said, starting to feel amused against his will.

  “Why not?” Mouse said and then before he could answer, she said, “Let me down, I want to say hi to Dandelion.”

  Asa let her down to the floor and walked to the table to sit across from his mother. “How come you didn’t answer any of my messages?” Asa said quietly.

  “You know how the digital streams are,” Galatea said, waving her hand. “They’re always being watched.”

  “But this is our private channel,” Asa said, trying to keep his voice level. Galatea had protected this channel against hacking herself.

  “It’s never foolproof with the military,” Galatea said obliquely.

  “Oh,” Asa said, looking down at the table setting. He and his mother never really talked about it, but she was the main liaison from the House with the military contacts.

  “Hey!” Mouse said, scrambling into the chair next to Asa. “You didn’t answer me, how come you can’t stay at the House?”

  Asa decided not to point out that, actually, Mouse hadn’t waited to listen to an answer. Asa simply said, “I wasn’t willing to sign a contract with the House.”

  “But you signed a contract for me,” Mouse said, sounding intrigued.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask about your demon,” his mother said, also sounding intrigued. Except her tone was more like a cat that had caught the canary.

  Asa sighed. He didn’t know what he had been thinking. He wouldn’t have been able to keep this information from his mother in a million years. “Can I at least have a drink first,” he said wearily.

  “Absolutely not,” his mother said sternly. “You may have tea or water.”

  Mouse looked back and forth between them. “She’s still nicer than the other one though,” she observed.

  “Oh?” his mother said curiously, leaning to look at Mouse. “Did you meet my doppelganger?”

  “Yeah!” Mouse said. “She looked just like you and sounded just like you, but she was—different.” She said this last word with distaste.

  “That’s very interesting,” his mother said, sipping her water. “I’d like to meet her.”

  “No!” Asa said immediately, overly loud. “I mean. No.”

  “What a pity,” his mother said easily, not looking too disappointed. Both she and Asa knew that there was no way she would be able to cross to another time-line, not with her binding contract to the House.

  Asa licked dry lips. “She did show me something interesting though,” he said.

  “What was that?” his mother said, looking unconcerned.

  Asa glanced at Mouse, who was hanging on his every word. He didn’t want to bring this up in front of her. But this was his only forseeable chance to tell his mother what he had seen in the collar’s memories.

  “I can keep a secret,” Mouse said, her face expectant. Asa should probably be worried that she picked up on his cues so well. She mimed zipping her lips shut and then throwing away the key. She must have seen that in an old holo because there weren’t metal keys anymore and hadn’t been for a long time. “Do you want me to make a contract?”

  “No,” Asa said, incredulous. “Do you realize how serious contracts are? You can’t just make one whenever you want to look trustworthy.”

  “Why not?” Mouse said, her face young and guileless.

  “Because when contracts are violated, it can have serious consequences,” Asa said, sipping his own water. He really wished he had alcohol. “It binds you forever. You can’t get out of it.” He searched around for something that would actually make an impression on Mouse. “The person you make a contract with will always make the contract to their advantage. They usually don’t have your best interests at heart.”

  “But you wouldn’t do that,” Mouse said promptly.

  “That’s not the point,” Asa said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Trust is different than a contract. It’s more important.”

  “Asa has never made a contract before the one he made for you,” his mother said smoothly. “You must be very important to him.”

  “Am I?” Mouse said, looking delighted.

  “Mother!” Asa barked. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Then what was it like?” his mother said, neatly cornering Asa into telling her what she wanted to know. She had let him deflect from her question earlier, but now she was bringing it back around.

  “She wasn’t going to let us leave without a contract being made,” Asa said, shrugging jerkily.

  “Did she make a contract with Mouse?” his mother asked.

  “No,” Asa mumbled. “That’s why I made one.”

  “Ah,” his mother said pointedly.

  Asa winced. “She’s just a little kid,” he said. “She shouldn’t have to spend the rest of her life paying off debt.” He swallowed. “She should get to have a life.”

  “Like Gemma?” his mother said.

  Asa was immediately winded by this, as if she had punched him in the stomach. His mother almost never mentioned her because she knew how it gutted him from the inside out. “I don’t want to talk about Gemma,” Asa said tightly.

  His mother sighed. “You can’t take on everyone’s problems,” she said.

  Asa shook his head, his heart still hammering in his chest. “It’s not everyone,” he said.

  His mother turned to Mouse. “You asked why Asa can’t stay at the House,” his mother said.

  “Mother, she doesn’t need to know,” Asa protested.

  His mother ignored him. “He had been protected under me for a long time,” she told Mouse. “Everyone who works for the House typically has to sign a contract with a permanent seal.”

  “But I don’t!” Mouse piped up.

  “That’s right,” his mother said indulgently. “And neither did Asa. While it put him at a disadvantage—he didn’t have access to House archives that he would have if he had signed the contract—he was still able to leave at anytime.” She took another sip of water. “But there always comes a point where the bill comes due—two years ago, a senior apprentice performed a forbidden ritual and died.”

  Mouse’s eyes widened. “Did she break her contract?”

  His mother looked serious. “Yes, she did,” she said. “And someone had to pay the price.”