“Because my guild has a charming pub and the world’s best bartender,” Tori joked easily. “What’ve you got?”

“Hey, we’ve got our own perks.”

I looked between them, gawking in disbelief. Okay … not a repeat of my first Grand Grimoire visit, but how did she know this guy? And how could she be so relaxed and casual and charismatic?

I told myself I wasn’t jealous.

“You here to see Izzah?” Mario asked Tori. “Their meeting already started, but I can take you back there.”

“Uh, no, I’m actually here to see …” Trailing off, she shot me a pointed look.

I straightened, pulling myself together. “Is Naim Ashraf in?”

“Naim? Yeah, he’s here.” As simple as that, Mario gestured at us to join him. “Come on.”

“You know people here?” I whispered to Tori as she followed Mario through the door and into a hallway.

“Yeah, they’ve been at the guild half a dozen times in the last few weeks.”

I remembered the big, scary group that’d been leaving as I’d arrived the other night. Had they been Odin’s Eye mythics?

Tori prodded me with her elbow. “Hang out with us more and you’ll get to meet people too.”

Yeah, like that would happen. No one would want to be my friend while their popularity ringleaders were ostracizing me.

Mario took us to the second level, which was similar to the Grand Grimoire’s but ten times nicer, with clusters of furniture, work areas, a fireplace at one end, and a bar and mini kitchen at the other. I resisted the lure of their floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

“Oooh, nice,” Tori complimented Mario.

Grinning, he passed five guild members and headed toward an old man in a recliner. Deeply engrossed in a thick leather-bound tome, he scarcely looked up as Mario introduced us as “visitors” before heading off to join his comrades at a worktable.

Naim scrutinized us with dark eyes beneath snowy white eyebrows, stark against his chestnut skin. “Who’re you two?”

I gulped at the sharp demand in his unpleasant voice.

“Can we ask you a few Demonica questions?” Tori inquired, her tone as formal as I’d ever heard it. “We’ll keep it quick.”

“Dunno what Mario told you, but I don’t consult outside my guild.”

“It won’t take long.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He took a sip of his drink, then returned it to the table beside him. “Go ask the Grand Grimoire if you need help.”

Amalia had guessed correctly that Naim wouldn’t be cooperative. Maybe he just needed persuading?

“The Grand Grimoire has contractors,” I told him. “But MagiPol arrested their guild master and they don’t have any other summoners—especially not ones with your experience and reputation for rare knowledge.”

“I’m not wasting my time explaining the basics of Demonica to little girls. My scotch is older than you two, now leave me to drink it in peace.”

Well, so much for the polite approach. Slipping past Tori, I unzipped my jacket halfway.

“I don’t need help with the basics.” I pulled out my infernus and held it up. “And if you’re half the summoner I think you are, I shouldn’t need to explain more than this.”

Naim practically threw his book onto the side table to free his hands, his disbelieving stare locked on the pendant. His greedy fingers reached for it, and I quickly stepped back.

His mouth twitched behind his thick, frizzy white beard. “It’s a fake. No way a girl like you—”

I tapped one fingertip against the center rune, silently asking Zylas for a light show. A swirl of his power roiled across the silver disc, the cool magic teasing my fingers.

“Real?” he gasped. “Then you must be Robin Page!”

I concealed a flinch. Had my reputation spread this far already? Why couldn’t everyone just forget I existed?

“I heard rumors that a new House had finally appeared after all these years,” he went on, “but I couldn’t believe it. Your demon can only be the lost First House. Unless—unless it’s the fabled Twelfth House?”

As the greed in his face deepened, I sank onto the coffee table in front of him. “We can discuss my demon after Tori and I ask a few questions, if that’s okay.”

“What would you like to know?” he offered eagerly.

I glanced at Tori as she sat beside me, and she nodded for me to go ahead.

“I’m researching an artifact,” I began, wiggling a folded paper out of my pocket. “I believe it’s an ancient infernus, and since you’re an infernus maker …”

Hoping the slight tremble in my hands wasn’t noticeable, I opened the paper to reveal my hand-drawn copy of the amulet illustration. Reproducing a page from the ancient grimoire had been risky enough. Showing it to someone, especially an untrustworthy ex-summoner, was nearly giving me a panic attack.

As Naim’s gaze skidded across the sketch, I peeked to my right.

Tori was staring at the drawing. Her face had no expression, only a slight parting of her lips as though mildly surprised—but she was normally so expressive that her muted reaction was as good as a flashing sign. She’d seen the amulet before, I was sure of it.

“These sigils are House emblems,” Naim observed, gesturing to the illustration of the amulet’s front face. “I recognize most of them. Eleven sigils … with a twelfth in the center. This represents all twelve demon Houses.”

He took a swipe for the paper and I snatched it away, my heart lurching. He couldn’t summon a demon with only the House sigil, but I wasn’t letting anyone touch this drawing.

“Have you ever seen or heard of an infernus like this?” I asked him.

“Is it an infernus? Where did you learn about this? Where did you get your demon? Your demon must be the First House.” His attention swung between my infernus and the drawing. “The same sigil is in the center of the design.”

I didn’t like the heightening greed in his dark eyes. “You haven’t answered my question.”

“I’ve never seen an artifact like that before. But if you give me the drawing, I can certainly look into—”

I folded the paper with snappy motions. If he’d never seen it before—or wanted to pretend he hadn’t—I wasn’t giving him the chance to memorize any more of the drawing.