never enslaved to a decrepit, psychotic elven priest who enjoyed pitting wolves against larger prey,” Hodin said bitterly, and Jenks’s dust dulled, his wings tickling my neck as he landed on my shoulder. “Excuse me a moment. Your goyle and I were sporting in the wind. He’s worried about you. The Goddess knows why.”
“Bis?” I said, startled. “It’s daylight. What were you doing with my gargoyle?”
“I told you. Sporting in the wind.” Hodin seemed to hesitate, and I recognized that vacant look as him talking silently to someone. Then Bis popped into the room, startling me.
“Rachel,” the kid said breathlessly as he oriented himself and flew to me, his red eyes wide and that no-doze amulet around his neck. “Hodin took me flying.” He landed, bird light, on my shoulder, his tail lying across my back and wrapping around my opposite arm. “I didn’t know the updrafts were so amazing during the day. Where are we? Trent’s?” He grinned at Trent, wide and toothy. “We’re behind the waterfall, aren’t we?”
“Yea-a-ah.” I frowned, not liking Hodin’s scrutiny—as if I were a bad gargoyle mom for not taking him flying during the day. “I’m sorry, Bis. I didn’t know that you wanted to fly in the sun.”
“It’s okay,” Bis said, but his tail didn’t ease its grip. “Neither did I until I did it.”
“You really don’t deserve him,” Hodin said, and I wondered if he was jealous. He sniffed, tugging his elegant robes as he gazed at the books. “Where are we?”
“My mother’s spelling lab,” Trent said. “My father bricked up her rooms after she died.”
Hodin leaned to look at the rug. “It smells of Brimstone.”
“You noticed that, too?” I said as I sat against the edge of the desk.
“You’re Hodin, yes?” Trent said, his usual upright pose beginning to reassert itself. “I’ve held to our agreement and not told anyone about you.”
“Hence, you still breathe.” Hodin stared at the bricks behind the sliding-glass door, curious.
“Are you two done yet?” I said as I righted the desk lamp, and Jenks snickered.
Hodin’s red, goat-slitted eyes found me, narrowing as if smelling something rank. “Your goyle is right to be worried about you,” he said as he looked me up and down to leave my skin crawling. “You were stupid. I can see it in your aura. You tried to talk to it,” he accused.
“Uh . . .” I moved from the desk, taking a step sideways as Hodin reached for me. Bis’s tail tightened, and Jenks was suddenly between me and the demon.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Home Slice,” Jenks said, wings clattering. “No touchy.”
Hodin dropped back, his hands politely clasped before him, but that prickly feeling was tripping over my skin again as he examined my aura. “You’ve damage in your outermost shells,” he accused, and Bis’s wings shifted nervously against me.
“I’m fine,” I said, then exhaled in relief when Hodin turned his scrutiny to Trent.
“You’re not fine, unless the meaning of fine has changed in the last two thousand years.” Hodin squinted at Trent. “Your aura looks as thin as your elven consort’s has been eaten to.”
My lips parted as I remembered what the baku had said. “You’ve been fielding attacks?” I accused, and Trent’s expression became irate. “And didn’t tell me?”
“What good would it have done?” Trent’s voice was tight in his throat. “You would have told me to stay out of it. That I’m a businessman and to let the professionals do their job.”
“Damn straight,” Jenks said as he hovered before us, and I softened.
Trent had been told to be “the businessman” all his life, but it wasn’t what he wanted and I knew how that felt. Grimacing, I waved my hands in defeat, forgiving him even as I decided we were going to have to come to some understanding about not keeping things from each other.
“Touching,” Hodin mocked, but his attention was on the books. “And typical. Your elf is bad for you, Rachel. But most of them are. Bad, I mean.”
Bis’s grip tightened, and I put a hand on his feet. I didn’t like Hodin talking trash about Trent, either. “It was my idea,” I said, tracking Hodin as he went to the bookshelf. “And the intent was that Trent talk to it, not me.”
“You can’t talk to a baku without risking enormous damage,” Hodin said, and the pitch of Jenks’s wings increased until my teeth hurt.
“Which would have been nice to know before I did it,” I said, tired of feeling stupid.
“Why do you think I procured the