and both Trent and I stiffened. “It was my idea,” Zack insisted. “With Landon compromised, I’m the dewar leader. It’s my decision.”
“You’re going to kill me!” Landon said, desperate now, and I almost felt sorry for him. Eyebrows high, I studied Trent. He’d be the one doing the magic. Though with Hodin’s curse linking us, I’d probably walk away with a good knowledge of how to do it.
“I’ll sketch the spiral,” Trent said, the glint in his eye making him look dangerous. “If Landon is at the end of it, he’ll get his soul back, sans baku. If it fails, Zack will not take the blame. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” Pulse fast, I took the chalk from my pocket, snapped it in two and gave him the larger piece. Damn it, we were doing it again. “There’s enough room where he is. Three turns, widdershins,” I said, but Trent knew how to do this as well as I. It was just nerves, and as Zack grabbed a broom, I found my phone and texted Ivy that she might need to bail Trent, Zack, and me out of the I.S. lockup tonight if she didn’t hear from me by three.
“This is murder!” Landon exclaimed, and Jenks hovered beside Trent, advising him on how to keep his lines even. “You are murdering me! I can’t survive without my soul!”
“It’s only a few minutes,” I said to Landon. “Suck it up. Next time don’t make deals with energy beings.”
Landon moaned, terrified as the reality of the next five minutes hit him.
Nervous, I tucked my phone away. Zack moved the sawhorse out of Trent’s way, and Bis, still standing on it, unfolded his wings and shivered at the rumble echoing through him.
“Can you catch it by yourself, Rachel?” Trent asked as he worked, bent double as he drew his unhurried even lines. “It’s going to take all my concentration to do the curse.”
I nodded, pulse quickening. Catch it, bottle it, and then try to explain to the world why Landon was dead in my church if it didn’t work.
But when I saw Trent with chalk on his fingers and magic in his hair, something tightened in me. Hodin stood by the pool table, eager to get his baku but clearly not going to do anything to help. His interest was a little too keen for my liking. Great, I’m teaching him something new. For free.
“Jenks?” I called, and the pixy zipped over, his expression cheerful at the prospect of killing Landon, even if only for a short time. “Take Zack and get out of here,” I said in a whisper, and Hodin snickered. “I mean it,” I added when Jenks’s dust shifted to an angry red. “Get him on a bus. Take him to the movies, or our boat, or something.”
“My wing is fine,” Jenks said bitingly.
His wing was not fine, but it was his pride that was going to get him killed, and I needed him. “Please,” I added, glancing at Hodin. “I don’t want Zack seeing this. The ability to pull a soul from a living being should end with the people in this room. And if he’s somewhere else, he won’t get blamed for any of it. Besides, you want him here if the I.S. or the FIB shows up?” God help us if the Order crashed the party.
Jenks spun in the air to see Zack doggedly pushing that broom, looking like the younger brother Trent had never had. “Fine,” he muttered. “Troll turds, first I’m guarding the church, and now I’m the fairy-ass babysitter.”
Dusting a depressed blue, he flew to Zack. “Zack. Let’s go. Rachel wants you out of here.”
“What?” Zack spun, the broom going still in his hands. “Why? It’s the dewar’s curse.”
“You want this to end? End it,” I said as I turned to Hodin. “I’d like you to leave, too. You aren’t getting the baku until I can fly with Bis.”
“A snowflake’s chance in the ever-after,” the demon said, laughing. He was in too good a mood for my liking. But why not? He was about to get the baku and my promise that I’d stand up for him against the demon collective both. I was getting . . . a lot of trouble. Maybe this wasn’t such a good deal after all.
Trent stood from finishing the spiral, silent at Zack’s betrayed look. Finally the kid threw down the broom and schlumped out the front door, slamming it hard behind him.
Jenks went with him, and I sighed, praying that he