hour, get them home,” Trent said, talking to Quen presumably. “I don’t care if you have to throw her into the moat at monkey island.”
A smile quirked my lips. Apparently Ellasbeth was focused on the girls instead of her plotting, but it wasn’t going well. From the conversation, it seemed Ray had perfected how to egg Lucy on, only to sit back and enjoy the show when she lost it.
A sudden clatter of wings at the window pulled me forward, and I jumped to crack the window for Jenks. “Gotta go,” Trent said, ending his conversation as I cranked the car’s heater. The pixy looked oddly heavy in his cold-weather gear, but his wings pinked right up when he angled them so the hot air passed over them smoothly.
“We’re set,” Jenks said, still clearly cold. “The side door is where Zack said it would be. Even saw someone use it with the code he gave us. I’ll take the cameras out as we go.”
Excitement tingled to my toes. “You want to warm up first?”
“Nah, I’m good.” Jenks took a yellow biscuit from the folds of his clothes and began gnawing on it. “Two hours later, I might have an issue, but as long as the sun is high, I’m fine.”
Worried, I looked across the car at Trent. “In, bottle it, out in twenty?” he offered. They were my own words, but I wasn’t entirely happy. Thanks to Landon’s public schedule and Zack’s more personal knowledge of the man’s habits, we were fairly sure Landon would be in the largest of the three on-site apartments where he now lived, napping until his late-afternoon appointments.
“When have my plans ever worked?” I whispered, then reached for the door. “Okay, I’ve got a spot for you on my shoulder, Jenks, and a heat pack in my purse if you want it.”
“I’m fine, Rache,” he muttered, but I felt better when he settled himself on my shoulder.
Together Trent and I got out, and I reached for the low hood, surprised when the nearest ley line poured into me, the warm sensation echoing through me from my front to my back.
“Rache?” Jenks questioned as my hair snarled, and I looked across the low hood to Trent. He’d tapped a line, and through him, I had, too.
“It’s Hodin’s curse,” I said as I shut the car door with a thump and came around the front to join Trent. Ill-fitting suit or not, he looked good with the sun in his hair and his green eyes eager as he scanned the busy street we had to cross. People and cars were everywhere in the background noise of movement and sound that was noon in Cincinnati. The dewar’s building stood before us on a slight rise, and anticipation quickened my feet as Trent and I headed for the crosswalk despite my misgivings. This was what I lived for, but today was different.
Trent flashed me a smile as he rocked forward to push the button, the light breeze playing in the silken strands of his hair. His eyes were eager as two more people joined us, bringing the scent of tacos and burgers with them. Trent hadn’t been hurt enough to know the risk he was putting his girls in. But I had, and I vowed that he would walk away from this untouched.
His smile faltered as he saw my grim look. “What is it?” he said, his hand going to the small of my back as the light changed and we stepped from the curb. “Do we need to walk away?”
“No,” I said firmly. “We’re good. Jenks, any cameras?” I prompted, and Jenks rose up into the frost-emptied trees ringing the dewar’s parking lot, their branches denuded by the cold.
Trent pulled me to a heel-clattering stop at the curb, and everyone pushed past us, intent on reaching their offices. We lingered in the dappled shade as we waited for Jenks, playing the part of two workers reluctant to part ways.
The monstrous building sprawled before us. The dewar had been filling it with people the last few months as they made Cincinnati their American headquarters. There’d never been a gathering of the religious order of the elves of this size in recorded history. Maybe it was because the elves had just come out of the paranormal closet, but maybe it was me, a demon wiggling into their oldest, most powerful family, that was bringing them together.
Guilt for having robbed Trent of his voice rose up, and I fidgeted. We were