with Nina in the picture. For all the trials we’d been through in the last three years, the church had been a spot of safety—even when it was being blown up. Now it felt as if we were trying to fit back into a too-small skin.
Seeing my understanding, Ivy let go of the stick. Heart heavy, I turned to the table. “How’s the new job going?” I asked to change the subject.
“Pretty much how I remember it,” she said, but she was smiling when I rose from missing my shot. Jenks was hovering over that plate the teenage elf had left behind, his hands on his hips as he tried to figure it out. “You knew Nina hired in as a temp?” Ivy continued, her voice becoming animated. “Since I’m a consultant instead of a contracted employee, I can mimic her dusk-to-dawn schedule. Everyone leaves me alone since I’m her scion, and no one knows how to deal with her. She’s undead, but the soul covering her is hers, and it’s confusing the hell out of them.”
And somehow, though everything felt wrong, I found a way to be at peace with it. Seeing Ivy love herself and someone else . . . it had been worth every burned synapse, every busted arm, every bruised heart and dream.
“I’m, ah, glad you’re both here,” Ivy said, and I froze when she took the offered stick and set it on the table, effectively ending the game. “Jenks? Nina and I have been giving this a lot of thought, and I don’t want you digging out day quarters under the church.”
Jenks rose from the plate of food, his dust a scared blue. “The Tink-blasted hell I’m not.”
But Ivy smiled, the pain showing only at the corners of her eyes. “Nina and I are doing fine at Piscary’s old digs,” she said, and I knew the truth of that. “Cormel has his own place, and it feels like home. Especially now that Nina’s redecorating.”
“Rache,” Jenks pleaded, begging me to say something, but I shook my head, having known this was coming. Jenks and I had moved into Kisten’s big power yacht after the church had been declared unfit for habitation. Parking it at Piscary’s quay had helped ease the coming heartache, but moving into Piscary’s, even the upstairs apartments, had been out of the question. Not with Nina as twitchy as she was. Trying to move all of us back to the church was an even worse idea. We had too many frightened people knocking on our door. Besides, a witch living with two vampires in love wasn’t smart, even if I wasn’t a witch, but a demon.
Jenks slowed his wings until their hum vanished when he saw me side with Ivy. “Son of a fairy-farting whore,” he muttered, adding a bitter, “Excuse me. David is here.”
My shoulders slumped as he flew a blue-dusted path to the front door and worked the pulley system we’d put in place so he could open it.
David’s warm greeting was muffled, and Ivy turned her back to the door, her eyes pinched with heartache. “This is harder than I thought it was going to be,” she whispered. “Even if David comes through, there’s no way the church will be livable before the snow flies. It’s airtight and the ductwork has been fixed so we’re not heating the outside, but the city won’t give an occupation permit without a kitchen. Is the boat warm enough for him?”
I shook my head as I remembered how slow he’d been this morning, sitting on my steaming coffeemaker, trying to warm up. A sustained temperature below forty-three degrees would drop him into hibernation, and without having properly prepared for it, his life would be at risk. “He’s managing so far, but it’s going to get colder.”
Ivy leaned closer. “He should move in with me and Nina.”
“Yeah, but he won’t,” I said, and she nodded in understanding. “If it helps, I’m meeting Trent after this,” I added. “Ray and Lucy have a playdate with Ellasbeth.”
“Sorry?” Ivy said with a closed-lipped smile, clearly not knowing how a structured lunch with Lucy’s admittedly prickly mother related to Jenks.
“It’s Friday,” I said, relishing the thought that I’d made it through another week without pissing off any world power. “I’m going to spend the weekend with Trent. As usual. I’m hoping if I can get Jenks to come with me, he might move in with Jumoke and Izzy for the winter. Which will be both unusual and a miracle