"I'm not," Alastor said flatly. "Perhaps if I was, I wouldn't be down here in the first place. Besides, I told you I take good care of my toys and don't appreciate others breaking them. I'll have to think of some way to repay Valentino for this."

He dipped another strip of cloth into the poultice.

"Close your eyes. This will sting even more if it ends up in them, and you writhing around in the floor in pain might be fun to watch but it will probably undo a lot of my work."