Her words finally seemed to filter through, and Hunter hesitated. That gave Claw the opportunity to knock him off his feet.

“I just want to talk,” Claw repeated, backing quickly away from Hunter, who had jumped up in an instant and positioned himself protectively in front of Layla.

“Like hell you do,” Hunter snarled.

“Hunter,” Layla whispered, tugging his arm. “Why would he want to hurt me?”

“If he wanted to talk, he’d have shown himself when we turned and indicated ourselves available.” Hunter didn’t take his eyes off Claw while he talked, and his body was tense, waiting to spring back into action at any moment.

“I want to talk to my daughter alone. I was hoping you’d separate at some point. I’ve been following you for days; I just got impatient and got too close today. Do you never leave her side?”

“She’s my mate,” Hunter said, still not moving from his defensive posture.

Claw sighed and took a few steps back. “Then I guess talking to her alone is out of the question. Come, I know a safe place to talk.”

Hunter hesitated and glanced at Layla. She nodded slightly. If this really was her father, she wanted to know. What were the chances of it being another Claw? Hunter had told her that the demon world was very small, and hardly any demons had the same first name. This was important, because demons didn’t have surnames.

Hunter still looked on the alert for an attack, but he followed Claw. Claw led them off the road, through the trees and to a small shed. This looked exactly like one of Hunter’s safe houses, except when they were inside, Claw didn’t reveal a hidden basement.

It wasn’t exactly comfortable. Layla perched herself on an upturned bucket while Claw crouched. Hunter stayed standing, towering over them all, ready to leap to Layla’s defense at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate it, but he was making her edgy.

“How did you find us?” Hunter demanded. Layla could tell he was worried about other demons recognizing Layla.

“I was having a drink at the Portal Pub when I first caught a brief, light scent. At first, I thought I was going mad, because it was the scent of my human wife. I finally traced it to you.” He nodded at Layla. “I was curious, so I followed you. Eventually, I got enough of your scent to realize the truth, that you are my daughter. What’s your name?”

“Layla,” Layla said nervously. This wasn’t how she’d imagined meeting her father.

“Any chance we could talk alone, Layla?”

“None,” said Hunter flatly. For once, Layla wasn’t annoyed at his protectiveness. She had mixed feelings about Claw. Of course, she’d wanted to meet her father all her life, but now that the moment was here, all she could think of was how her mother had fallen apart after he’d left. He’d never come looking for her, not once.

Besides, he was intimidating. She didn’t want to talk to him without Hunter as a buffer nearby, at least not yet.

“Fine, both of you, then. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but what were you thinking? Hunter, is it? How could you let your mate into the underworld? She’s half human! Do you know what Swift would do to her?”

“How I protect my mate is my business,” Hunter said coldly. Layla appreciated him trying to take the blame for her being down here, but it wasn’t necessary.

“Hunter forbade me from coming down here. I came anyway.”

Claw rolled his eyes. “You’re just like your mother, won’t hear the word ‘no’. She must be quite the quick thinker to get around you,” he added, looking at Hunter with approval.

“You have no idea,” Hunter muttered.

“I can take her back to the portal,” Claw offered. “You can finish your business down here. I’ll wait with her on Earth.”

“I’m not going back to Earth. We’ll be finishing our business together.”

Claw gave her a look of exasperation that was all too familiar, because it was the same look Hunter had been giving her ever since she came through that portal. “You can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

Layla knew that Claw couldn’t know how sick she was of hearing this, but she couldn’t help her surge of annoyance. “Can we skip past that lecture? I’ve heard it so many times by now I could recite it backward. It’s not going to make any difference. There’s something we need to do, and I’m not leaving until it’s done.”

Claw considered her, and whatever he saw in her face apparently convinced him that she wouldn’t reconsider. “Whatever you’re trying to do down here, you’ll need my help.”

“Why would you help us?” Hunter sounded suspicious, and Layla didn’t blame him. Claw hadn’t cared about helping her for the first eighteen years of her life, why should he care now?

“I’d be helping Layla. You think I want my daughter dead? Humans in the underworld don’t fare well.”

“Witches,” Layla corrected. It made sense that Claw didn’t know. Her mother hadn’t been a witch, despite passing on the gene to Layla, and Claw had obviously not bothered to check up on her.

Claw went pale. “Witch?” he whispered. “You stupid, stupid girl! You’ve signed your own death warrant, coming down here. A human would be bad enough, but a witch…”

“You see?” Hunter hissed to her. “You thought I was overreacting! I told you, you can’t be down here.”

“Well I’m here, you just need to deal with it.” Layla thought she’d go mad if she heard the spiel about her safety one more time.

“How do you think I’d feel if something happened to you?” Hunter demanded angrily. “Do you think I want to live without you? Not that I’d have to, because I’d die defending you before I let anyone harm you, which is far from an unlikely outcome down here.”

“Not with me,” Claw broke in. “I can help.”

“We don’t need your help,” Layla snapped. No way was she accepting his help now. If he wanted to help her, he should have made an effort to meet her, at the very least.

“Actually, we might,” Hunter admitted. He didn’t sound very happy about it either. Layla stared at him in disbelief. He knew that her father had abandoned her. How could he think this was his decision to make?

“I heard rumors in the pub,” he explained. “You would have heard only the demon we were talking to, but I could hear everyone there. Swift is apparently particularly ruthless when it comes to keeping the underworld free of anyone except pure blooded demons. You’d be executed in an instant if you were caught, no questions asked.”

“We’ve managed fine so far. Besides, who says we can trust him? He may be my father, but we don’t know anything about him. He could be getting ready to turn us in.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“We don’t know you,” Layla repeated coldly.

Hunter took her arm and pulled her away into a corner. He spoke softly to her. “Layla, listen to me. I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Anything. You understand? I understand why you might be angry at Claw—you have every right to be—but remember our goal here? Get the antidote for Sophie. If he can help us do that faster…”

He trailed off, looking meaningfully at her. He’d found the chink in her armor. If accepting Claw’s help meant they could get back to Sophie more quickly, how could she refuse?

“Who says he really wants to help us?” she repeated in a whisper. She was sure Claw could hear her and leaned closer to Hunter.

“We don’t know that yet, but if he truly can help, I think we need to take it. We should at least hear what he has to say. If he can convince me that he really has a way to help us, we need to consider that seriously.”

“Did it occur to you that he could lie?” Layla hissed. “He lied to my mother, not telling her what he was. Then he left me, never telling me the truth about who he was or why he went.”

“I’ll be able to tell if he’s lying. Remember, I’ve done this kind of work before. Sometimes, your life or death hangs on knowing whether or not someone is telling the truth. Trust me. If I sense anything off about him, we’ll walk away right now. Fight our way out if we have to.”

Layla shivered. Despite her none too warm feelings for her father, she didn’t want to see him hurt or killed.

“Don’t worry,” Hunter said, reading her mind. “I’m a better fighter, and he knows it. If we decide to leave, he can’t stop us. I don’t think it’ll come to a fight.”

Layla wasn’t happy, but she could see the sense in Hunter’s argument. “We’ll listen,” she agreed warily. She wasn’t promising anything more than that.

The two of them returned to Claw, who was watching them. Despite her attempts to keep her voice down, Layla was sure he’d heard the whole conversation.

“Tell us why we should trust you and how you think you can help us.” Hunter crossed his arms and waited, his eyes fixed on Claw’s face.

“As for why, Layla is my daughter. You may not think much of me, Layla, and I can’t hold that against you, but whatever else, we’re family. Of course I don’t want you hurt, and I’m prepared to do anything I can to prevent that from happening.

“As for how… Where do your loyalties lie with regards to Swift?”

“Why?” Hunter asked, immediately suspicious.

“Because what I have to say could be extremely harmful to other people I care about. I need to know if you are loyal to him or not.”

“I’m loyal to Layla. The underworld isn’t my home anymore. I’ve moved to Earth permanently. All of my closest friends came with me. I don’t have a loyalty to anyone here. The political issues of the underworld are no longer my concern.”

Apparently, his answer passed, because Claw smiled and leaned in. “Then you should know that there are those who do not agree with Swift’s rule. Outlaws, mostly, who have to stay in hiding for fear of execution. I’m one of the few who has managed to keep their loyalties secret. Having people who can move around freely is essential if we want the rebellion to succeed.”

Hunter looked like he was going to laugh. “You’re not telling me anything that I haven’t seen my entire life. When a new ruler takes over, there is always opposition, always a rebellion to overthrow them. Why does this mean you are in a position to help us.”

“Because the outlaws have a network of secret roads. If we travel my way, we can stay out of sight. No one needs to know that Layla is here.”

Layla could tell that this argument had impressed Hunter.

“Secret roads? How do you keep a road secret?”

“You build it from scratch far away from any known road. Mostly they go through the woods and don’t connect to the main roads. They lead to safehouses, places where you could stay for the night.”

“If the rebellion is as strong as you say, we’ll still be around people, just people who disapprove of Swift,” Hunter pointed out. “While he may be particularly harsh toward non-demons, most of the underworld hates witches and would kill one in an instant. What makes you think your outlaw friends wouldn’t execute her on the spot just like Swift would?”

“We’d still have to hide Layla’s identity, just in case, but if I vouch for her, no one will pay much attention to her. I’ve proven myself trustworthy. The royal guards, on the other hand, are always watching everyone, trustworthy or not.

“Besides, the rebellion needs me. They can’t afford to kill someone under my protection. I know all of their secrets, and they know that I wouldn’t hesitate to go straight to Swift if one of them betrayed me.”

This little speech didn’t do much to make Layla think more of her father. Hunter, however, looked impressed.

“He’s telling the truth,” Hunter murmured. “Having another demon on our side might be a valuable move. He knows much more than I do about the current climate of the underworld.”

The two of them looked at Layla. She knew she was overruled, but she was still reluctant to accept Claw’s help. She had managed to live her whole life without his help, and accepting now felt awfully like weakness. Plus, just because Hunter trusted him didn’t mean Hunter was right. Anyone could make a mistake, especially when it came to reading people.

“I’ll think about it,” she agreed grudgingly.

“Sleep on it and give us your answer tomorrow morning. Remember, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Layla winced at the reminder.

“If I’m to be traveling with you, I should know what you’re doing.”

Hunter hesitated, but answered honestly. “One of Layla’s friends is dying of Sanmortem. We’re looking for Fern, hoping she can provide an antidote.”

Claw nodded. “This friend, she is a witch?”

“Yes.”

His nose wrinkled in distaste, but he didn’t say anything else. Layla remembered that most demons and witches distrusted each other at best, hated each other at worst.

“How do we know he won’t sabotage our efforts?” Layla whispered to Hunter. “He obviously doesn’t like witches.”

“Just because I want to accept his help doesn’t mean I trust him one hundred percent. In the underworld, trust given easily is a recipe for a quick death. If it looks like he’s even thinking of taking action against us, we’ll leave.”

Layla wondered if Claw would go to Swift about her and Hunter should they decide to spurn his help. He’d already admitted that he’d sell out his rebellion. How much loyalty could he really have?

“We should get some sleep,” Claw said. “Come, there are some beds downstairs.”

The basement wasn’t hidden by a trapdoor but by a staircase, cleverly concealed behind a section of wall that slid open if you knew just where to push it. There were a couple of beds and a bathroom.

Layla and Hunter lay down next to each other. She tried to sleep, knowing she’d regret it tomorrow if she didn’t; walking for miles was hard enough when you were well rested.

“Layla?” Claw’s voice was soft in the darkness. “How’s your mother doing? I haven’t seen her in so long.”

Layla bit back an angry retort, trying to remember the last time she’d seen her mother sober. She turned over, putting her back to Claw, and focused on trying to sleep. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.