hit the icon for Trent. The call rang twice before it was answered, and my shoulders slumped when Trent’s voice eased out.
“Rachel, how did the lesson go?” he said, his preoccupied tone and the slight clatter telling me he was in the kitchen. “Can you line jump?”
My thoughts jerked back to Hodin, and I flushed in excitement. “It went great, and yes,” I said, answering him, “Bis and I haven’t tried it yet, but I don’t see why it won’t work. Hey, that young elf I told you about—”
“Landon’s protégé,” he said, surprising me. “Zack, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” I turned to the front of the church, frowning as Bis demonstrated to Zack how big a gargoyle could get with enough water and proper motivation. He was already the size of a large dog, and as I watched, he puffed out again. But my impulse to tell him no spitting in the sanctuary faded when I saw him hit the five-gallon bucket in the corner with uncanny precision. “Ah, I’m looking at him right now. He wants to meet you. He’s noticed some discrepancies in Landon’s version of the truth.”
“No kidding.”
“And he wants to know how big a bastard you really are,” I added softly.
“Bastard?” Trent echoed, and I smiled, hearing him begin to pay attention.
“Seeing as you save demon babies and generally disobey the dewar.” I couldn’t bring up Ellasbeth and the girls and how I was preventing Trent from reaching his potential. Not to mention the general bastardly behavior of Trent before I’d smacked him around enough.
He was silent, probably remembering stuff I didn’t even know about. “It’s like bringing a pit viper into your living room,” he finally said, and I heard water running in the background.
“I know, but he can help with the baku. Zack says Landon is hosting it, which makes complete sense, seeing as, ah . . . Al isn’t his target. I am.” I took a breath. “To kill you,” I whispered, sure he’d heard me when he said nothing. My nightmare swirled up from the folds of my brain, chilling me. I’d woken when I tapped a line, but what if I hadn’t? What if it happened again?
“I’ll meet with him,” Trent said, voice cold.
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Is now a good time?”
“Sure,” he said immediately. “I’ll see you in half an hour. I’ll tell the gate to expect you.”
I took a breath to tell him I’d see him in thirty seconds if Hodin would spot me, but he was gone and I closed down my phone, tucking it away in a pocket before gathering my candle and heading back to them. Bis saw me coming and spit out all his excess water, shrinking down to the size of a cat in three seconds flat and shaking as if warding off a chill.
Even worried as I was, I couldn’t help a tingle of anticipation. I was going to jump the lines. “Okay,” I said as Zack eyed me in mistrust, Bis next to him on the table saw. They’d bonded over Bis spitting thirty feet into a bucket, and I’d become the outsider. “Zack, you have ten minutes to convince Trent that you’re not a lying bag of dewar hot air, and if I think for one second you want to hurt Trent, I’ll dump you in Landon’s office.”
“I’m not going back to Landon,” Zack said, but his relieved expression quickly shifted to a nervous fidget. “Ah, mind if I use your bathroom to clean up first?” He plucked at his shirt, brushing at the tomato paste stain.
“I do not have time for this,” Hodin complained, and then Zack yelped, startled when Hodin jerked him closer and smacked his chest. “Stand up straight. Comb your hair. Must look nice for your lynching.”
My lips parted. I’d heard those same words from Al at least a handful of times before.
“Back off!” Zack shouted, flushing as he pushed away from Hodin, but his anger vanished when he realized that somewhere between the smacking and the tirade, Hodin had used a brush-and-wash curse on him, and though he still looked hungry, Zack was clean, all signs of having been in the crawl space erased, down to the cobwebs in his light hair and the wrinkles in his cotton shirt.
“Softy,” I muttered, and Hodin grimaced. “Relax,” I said louder to Zack. “It means the demon likes you.” Heart pounding, I extended a hand to Bis, and the gargoyle sidestepped from the table saw to my