when Trent cleared his throat. “Right?” I looked at Zack, worried, and he shrugged, not knowing.
Trent sipped his coffee, clearly thinking it over. “You do have an knack for turning adversaries into allies,” he said, and I grimaced when he looked at Ellasbeth at the table. As if.
“Sure.” Jenks went to snitch some icing. “Like Al, and Lee, and the coven, and you. All Rachel’s newest besties.”
“Or Piscary,” Glenn said sourly as Ivy waved Jenks’s dust off the pull-apart bread. “That turned out really well.” And from the kitchen, Quen stifled a cough.
“That might work if Landon had a moral compass,” Trent said. “Unlike Al, Lee, the witches’ coven, and myself, he doesn’t.”
Jenks snorted as he rose up with a wad of icing. “Don’t flatter yourself, Trent. You didn’t have a moral compass until Rachel pulled it out of your ass and spun you north.”
“Jenks!” I hissed, but Ray was focused on practicing that communication glyph with her fingers and hopefully hadn’t heard.
“Well, he didn’t,” the pixy protested, now a bright red.
“We’ve got until about three tonight,” I said to bring the conversation back. “Trent and I go in, do the curse, catch the baku, and get out.” But as I worked Ray’s fingers into the complicated glyph and earned a little-girl smile, I was less inclined to lean on luck, and my stomach knotted.
“We all go in,” Jenks said as he landed on Trent’s shoulder, and Trent nodded, his brow pinched in worry. Quen cleared his throat again, but it was to keep Ellasbeth quiet, and the woman’s face reddened.
“I didn’t want to speak for you, Jenks,” I said softly, my gut tightening even more. “It’s going to be cold until we get inside. Especially if we have to wait until dark.”
“Then we go in the afternoon,” Jenks said, but I was worried. This would have been easier without someone on my lap practicing calling glyphs.
“I know the access code to the dewar and his apartment there,” Zack offered. “Unless he changed it,” the kid muttered as he scraped the last from his bowl.
“There.” Jenks rose up, wings a bright silver in motion. “We got our way in.”
But I wasn’t ready to risk my life on Zack’s code, and by Quen’s frown, neither was he.
“Okay.” The word slipped from Ivy in a soft breath as she stood in one smooth motion. “I think we have enough to work with,” she said as she checked her phone for the time. “Glenn, your dad should be at his desk by now. I’d rather do a press release at the FIB if he’ll agree to it.”
Glenn stood as well, dark hand scrubbing faint stubble. “If anyone asks, you never saw me this morning. I don’t know anything about your plans.”
I got up and shifted Ray to my hip. “Trent, Jenks, and I will take the morning to plan a way in. Zack, can you give us a sketch of Cincy’s dewar’s offices?”
“The entire building?” the kid said, voice cracking.
Ivy crossed the room toward me, her mood placid. “They took over the Monastery on the Hill,” she said, and Zack bobbed his head, eyes wide. “They haven’t been in it long enough to do many changes. I’ll text you the latest layout from the city planner.” Her eyes on Ray, she leaned in for a quick sideways hug that included the little girl. “Be careful.”
“Aren’t we always?” Jenks said, his sparkles getting mixed up in it.
“Bye, Ivy,” Ray said, her high voice pure and clean.
“Bye, my little snickerdoodle,” Ivy said with a smile, and then she turned to me, her smile fading. “Are you sure you’re up for this? You look . . .” Her words trailed off and she shrugged. “You don’t look as if you slept at all,” she added, her eyes lingering on the curse.
“I did,” I said as I jiggled Ray on my hip. “Latest thing in demon body art. There’s a back to it, too. You like?” I said, trying to make light of it.
“Trent does.” Jenks hovered between us as Trent and Glenn said their good-byes. “He likes it a lot,” he added, hips gyrating. “Oh, yeah! Color my daisies, big boy!”
“Jenks, grow up,” Ivy said, waving him away. “Keep Rachel out of trouble, okay? Landon is desperate, and that makes him unpredictable and chancy.”
Chancy. That was the word, and I looked past Trent to Quen and Ellasbeth still at the table with Zack and Lucy. Zack seemed eager enough, but I was betting that Quen wouldn’t