He pulls over a chair and sits down. "So here's the thing. This conversation is going to end with my little brother safe at home and my complete certainty that you are never going to fuck with him again. There is a very easy way for me to accomplish that. It seems like you might have an interest in offering me some other ones."

Richard moves to stand in front of Barnaby, shaking.

"Why are you doing this? Are there any things we could do to reassure you?"

"I f-fail to see how invisible home invaders are meant to be r-reassuring," says Richard, still largely-symbolically trying to shield his husband.

"Well, see, if you two turn up dead they're going to run forensics. When I'm invisible I'm pretty sure I'm also unconjurable, because demons can't make magic stuff. So I could have just killed you both and given the police nothing to go off. And yet I am so committed to finding a resolution that doesn't involve killing you both that I have now placed myself at the scene of the crime, so to speak. I also have mind-control powers and what I was initially tempted to do here is make Barnaby snap Minor's binding. I have yet to do that either. You should be exceptionally reassured. But you are torturing my little brother and my patience is decidedly finite. Send. Him. Home."

"How can you tell if I do," asks Barnaby from behind Richard.

"There's a fairy there giving him air to breathe, she'll come get me. I won't hurt you while you are claiming to have sent him home, or to be trying."

"Demons don't have to breathe," says Richard.

"It's the videos, they're encouraging people to think demon-summoning is - is harmless -" says Barnaby.

"Demons will not die of not breathing they will still fucking suffer. When Minor came by here he offered to talk about the videos, he said it might be a good idea to add disclaimers, why the fuck did you decide the right way to stop a fourteen-year-old from making videos was to imprison him gagged and alone in one square meter of space for the rest of your lives -"

"Not for the rest of our lives," says Barnaby.

"It didn't have to take the circle. It could stay in Hell where it belongs," says Richard.

"How long were you planning, then?" he asks Barnaby. 

"Till he was older, it might have - calmed him down, made him stop -"

"The last time you did this to him it made him organize a strike on gagging daeva! His viewership quadrupled! Has it occurred to you that you are maybe wrong about the consequences of your actions?"

"It wasn't Barnaby's idea," says Richard, "leave him alone."

"Well, see, he's my brother's summoner, so even if I am inclined to consider him redeemable as a human being if he's not willing to send Minor home then I either have to make him or kill him."

"Don't you fucking dare touch him," hisses Richard.

"Should I give you both a couple minutes to think about it? If it's relevant to your deliberations, there's an afterlife. You might be in different ones, though."

Richard hisses.

The cat comes out and bites the back of Timothy's ankle.

Barnaby murmurs, "Don't hurt the cat."

"I promise I won't hurt the cat." He will flick his wand at it and place it on the other side of the room, though.

Barnaby yelps softly at the display of magic; Richard flinches.

"I don't actually want to hurt you. Nothing would delight me more than to spend the evening hashing out an agreement so Minor can go about his life without being tortured whenever he grabs the wrong circle. If I kill you I will probably fucking bring you back. But he. Goes. Home."

"Why won't it stay home," says Richard.

"Open circles are super annoying, you do know that, right? People grab them by accident. People grab them by accident so often that the GCP has an impressive capture rate despite the fact the daeva all know perfectly well that they'll be spending decades in jail if they touch one."

"The GCP lays down hundreds."

"And most daeva are older than fourteen and have better impulse control! If you want him to stay home summoning him is a bad way to do that. Look, Barnaby, force you or kill you? The mindcontrol thing is pleasant to experience. Kinda floaty."