Dancing Up a Demon
- The dancer in red, Sin Davies, kisses Nick, and we find out that she's the favorite to succeed Merris as matron of the market someday.
- Nick feels lust for Sin at first, but it quickly turns to disdain when he doesn't like the way she looks at Alan—as though Alan's lame leg is something grotesque.
- Nick glares at her (his general response to most people) then turns to Mae, who is clearly very excited by the whole Goblin Market experience.
- Mae asks Merris for more detail about how the dances work as Nick begins to set up his dancer's circle.
- Merris and Alan explain that the demons are drawn to the dance because they crave human feelings and the dance allows them to share energy with the dancers. Of course, one false move or wrong word from the dancer though, and the demon might take over altogether.
- When Mae realizes that Nick is going to dance to help Alan get rid of his mark, she declares that she wants to dance to help her brother. Merris offers to tests Mae's speed and reflexes to see if she can.
- While Nick's prepping and Merris is testing Mae, Alan explains a few things about demons to Jamie. Sure they're takers and if they possess a human body they'll kill it in a matter of days, but Alan believes demons aren't all bad. He thinks they're capable of love.
- Nick overhears this and thinks his brother's a sap.
- Meanwhile, Merris returns and declares Mae will be a fine dancer; then she partners Mae up with Nick.
- Both Nick and Mae eat fever fruit, which helps the dancers to lower their inhibitions and give themselves over to the dance, and—whew—fever is right. Their dance is pretty steamy, and Anzu, a demon Nick has called before, responds to them right away.
- Since Nick isn't great with words, Alan speaks for him. But when the demon Anzu mentions that both Alan and Jamie were marked by magicians from The Obsidian Circle, which means that Alan could choose to have one of Jamie's marks transferred to him if he wanted, Mae says, "Please," and Alan agrees to have it done. Now, instead of Alan having a first tier mark and Jamie having a third tier one, they both have second tier marks.