Anyway, Penelope and I still don’t tell Baz everything. We never talk about the Mage, for example—it turns immediately into a fight if we do. Plus Penny doesn’t want Baz to know that her family might be on the outs with the Mage. (Even though Baz’d probably sympathize.)
Penny keeps reminding me that Baz is still my enemy. That when the truce ends, he could use everything he’s learned against me.
But I’m not sure I’m the one who needs reminding. Half the time we’re together, I’m just sitting on my bed reading while Penelope and Baz are comparing their Top 10 favourite spells of the 1800s or debating the magickal worth of Hamlet versus Macbeth.
The other day, he walked her over to the Cloisters on his way to the Catacombs. When he came back, he reported that there weren’t any clues about how she gets into Mummers House. The next day, she told me he didn’t acknowledge at all that he was on his way to suck blood out of rodents.
“You going my way?” she says to him now, from the doorway.
“No, I’m in for the night,” he says.
So fucking weird.
“See you guys at breakfast,” Penny says, closing the door behind her.
If Baz isn’t going hunting tonight, I may as well take a shower and go to sleep. We tend to fight more viciously when it’s just the two of us.
I’m getting my pyjamas together when he speaks up:
“So what’s your plan next week? For the holidays?”
I feel my jaw tighten. “Probably go home with Penny for a few days, then spend the rest of it here.”
“Not celebrating round the Wellbelove family hearth?”
I slam my wardrobe shut. We haven’t talked about this yet. Me and Baz. About Agatha.
I don’t know if the pair of them’re talking. Or meeting. Agatha doesn’t even come to dinner anymore. I think she eats in her room.
“Nope,” I say, walking past his bed.
“Snow,” he says.
“What.”
“You should come to Hampshire.”
I stop and look at him. “What? Why?”
Baz clears his throat and folds his arms, lifting his chin to emphasize how much he looks down on me.
“Because you’ve sworn to help me find my mother’s killer.”
“I am helping you.”
“Well, you’ll be more help to me there than you are here. The library at home is far too big for me to cover myself. And I have a car there—we could actually investigate. You don’t even have the Internet here.”
“You’re suggesting I go home with you.”
“Yes.”
“For Christmas.”
“Yes.”
“With your family.”
Baz rolls his eyes. “Well, it’s not like you have any family of your own.”
“You’re mad.” I move again towards the bathroom.
“How is it mad?” he demands. “I could use your help, and there’s nothing here for you—you’d think you’d appreciate the company.”
I stop at the door and turn back again. “Your family hates me.”
“Yes, and? So do I.”
“They want to kill me,” I say.
“They won’t kill you—you’ll be a guest. I’ll even cast the spell if you want. Be our guest.”
“I can’t stay in your house. Are you kidding me?”
“Snow, we’ve lived in the same room for seven years. How can you have a problem with this?”
“You’re mad!” I say, closing the door.
Completely off his nut.
* * *
“Your mum doesn’t trust me?” I say.
We’re walking down the hall, and Penelope immediately starts shushing me with her hand. “She does trust you,” she says. “She trusts you completely. She knows that you’re honest and forthright, and that if you hear something you shouldn’t, you’ll go right to the Mage with it.”
“I wouldn’t!”
“You might, Simon.”
“Penny!”
“Shhhhh.”
“Penny,” I try again, more quietly, “I’d never do anything to get your mother in trouble with the Mage. And I can’t imagine she’s done anything that would get her in trouble with the Mage.”
“She’s sent his Men away again,” Penny says. “Premal says the Mage himself is coming to the house next time.”
“Then I should be there,” I say. “He’d never hurt her in front of me.”
Penny stops in her tracks. “Simon. Do you really think the Mage would hurt my mother at all?”
I stop, too. “No. Of course he wouldn’t.”
She leans in. “Mum’s filing an appeal with the Coven; she thinks this will work itself out. But you know I need to research the Watford Tragedy while I’m home, and there’s no way Mum will let you into our library with everything that’s happening. She calls you Mini-Mage.”
“Why doesn’t she like me?”
“She likes you,” Penny says, rolling her eyes. “It’s him she doesn’t like.”