hands on my knees. Jenks’s influence was showing, but maybe that’s how Bis thought young people talked.
“It’s not too late to shut him in,” Hodin said at my shoulder, and I gave him a wry look.
“He’s just a kid.”
Hodin pulled himself straight, sniffing. “He’s an elf. And he’s from the dewar. His thoughts stink of old men.”
I sighed, not sure what to do when Bis hauled himself over the burned edges of the hole, claws scraping. “He said he won’t throw any more spells if you don’t,” the gargoyle said.
I licked my lips, stomach knotting when Hodin shook his head at my unspoken question. But I’d learned never to confuse a potential friend with a potential enemy. “Truce?” I directed into the crawl space.
“Truce.” Blinking, Zack stood to put his head nearly even with the floor. He was a mess, lasagna on his shirt, dirt on his pants, and cobwebs in his hair. His mix of lost boy and angry pride struck a chord, and after hiking my spelling robe up, I extended my hand.
“Foot on the edge,” I said, crouching to take Zack’s hand, and using that as a fulcrum, I hauled the dirt- cobweb- and lasagna-coated kid up and out in a quick yank.
“Thanks,” Zack said, somewhat sullen as he reclaimed his hand and edged from the hole. He looked behind him at the open door, and Bis frowned, a finger to his nose as if to tell him to think it over.
“Why do you want to talk to Trent?” I said, feeling overdressed and unusually magical. The sensation strengthened when Bis jumped to my shoulder, his nails carefully spread to avoid digging into me or marring the beautiful fabric.
Hodin cleared his throat, and Zack shied. “Perhaps the more important question is,” the demon drawled, “who are you?”
“I’m Zack,” he said, his tone holding a little too much affront, as if we should know already and he was insulted. “Deual Sa’han, Zack Oborna.”
“Deual Sa’han?” I questioned, never having heard the term.
Bis leaned closer to my ear, whispering, “I think he’s the dewar’s leader-in-waiting.”
“Oh,” I said flatly, and Zack flushed, his pride showing a hit.
“That is your name,” Hodin said condescendingly. “Who are you?”
Zack’s chin lifted. “I was Landon’s student,” he said, his anger sounding almost beautiful. “But not anymore. I left the dewar eight days ago. I’m no one now.”
“And why, little elf, would you do that?” Hodin asked. He was standing unnervingly close to me, and I edged away.
A flash of fear furrowed Zack’s smooth brow. “Because he’s lying to me,” he said, and my worry deepened when I saw the hurt of that betrayal. It went deep, deep enough to make him both trustworthy and unreliable. “He says he isn’t, but some of the things he says happened can’t logically have occurred.” Green eyes afraid, he looked at me. “But everything makes sense with what I’ve heard whispered in the halls about you. I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to find the truth, first in the dewar, and then in the streets, but everyone has a different story. And I can’t get my magic to work right,” he said, his voice rising as he blinked fast and turned away.
No elf can, I thought in pity, but seeing it in my eyes, he hid his fear and pulled himself upright. “I need to talk to Kalamack to see if he’s lying, too.”
“He’s hungry,” Bis whispered, and I shoved my pity down.
“You’re the next leader of the dewar,” Hodin said. “Go back. Believe what they say. It’s easier than the truth that you won’t like.”
“Not anymore.” Zack’s jaw clenched, that same look of betrayal flashing. “I quit.”
Yeah. Like Landon would have let him quit. But I wanted to believe him, and I edged closer. “You left the dewar? For good?” I asked, guessing he thought he was telling the truth by the amount of panic he tried to quash. “Why should I believe you? Landon has done everything but declare war on Kalamack’s house.” Yes, it sounded formal when I said it like that, but I felt formal, standing in this robe decorated in stars and tiny bells.
“Landon doesn’t need me to kill Trent.” Zack brushed at his shirt, making it worse. “He has his baku for that. Why would he send me? I can’t even get my circle to hold,” he said bitterly.
Landon is hosting the baku? I thought, excited. And then I dropped back a step, actually hearing what Zack had said. “But the baku