wanted dessert.”
Grim started forward and Evan grabbed his arm.
“Easy, Big ’Un,” he said. “Piss her off, and she’s liable to fly out the window. Then who knows where the hell she’ll end up.”
“I am Dalvahni. She cannot hide from me.”
“Yeah, but what if the witch finds her first? Or let’s say she doesn’t. Every redneck in Behr County has a gun. You want some idiot to take a potshot at her?”
Grim hesitated, his driving need to help Sassy at war with caution. Damn Evan. He was right.
Fret not, Grimford. Dell’s calm voice sounded inside Grim’s head. Help is on the way.
A Dalvahni warrior does not fret.
As you say.
There was more than a hint of smugness in Dell’s tone. If the Provider were corporeal, there would be a reckoning.
The nibilanth appeared on a mossy gust of wind.
“What the eff?” Evan said. “Who ordered the garden gnome?”
“Har-de-har-har, you’re a stitch. How’d you like to be a grub?” The lessling spotted Sassy sitting on her nest of dessert, and threw his skullcap on the floor and stomped on it. “Sildhjort’s balls. How’d this happen?”
“I do not know,” Grim said. “I suspect some witchery.”
“Witchery, my twig. That girl’s way overdue for a meltdown, or didn’t you think of that?” He smacked his forehead. “What am I saying? Demon hunters don’t think.”
Grim flushed. “I have been much occupied.”
“I heard.” The nibilanth leered. “Dell told me what happened in the river this morning.”
“Dell?” Evan said. “Who the hell is Dell and what happened in the river?”
Heat spread up the back of Grim’s neck. “Dell is an associate. The rest is not your concern.”
“Dell says you went on a bender last night and ended up in a tree.” The lessling picked his cap up off the floor and slammed it back on his head. “Dell says you felt like three kinds of shite this morning and were grouchy as an ogre with a bad case of piles.”
“Dell talks too much,” Grim said through his teeth.
“And you don’t talk enough. He’s lonely.” The nibilanth peered at Sassy. “Where’s the necklace I gave her?”
“Necklace?”
“Stay with me—I’ll try to go slow. A necklace is a piece of jewelry worn around the neck.”
Grim held on to his raveling patience. “I know what a necklace is.”
“Congratulations. You’ve graduated from village idiot to clod. Find the necklace and make sure Sassy wears it. And don’t let her eat so many sweets. It’s not good for her. Fairy 101—they love sugar but too much makes them crazy.”
“No kidding, Rumpelstiltskin,” Evan said. “We can see that.”
“Tell me, funny guy, you ever hear of the maenads?”
“May what?”
The lessling rolled his eyes. “They’re party nymphs, groupies of Dionysus. They get drunk, hunt down animals, and tear them to shreds. Humans, too, if they get in the way.”
Evan shrugged. “So?”
“So, Fairy Puss is on overload. She could go on a toot that would make the maenads look like toddlers. Make sure she wears that necklace. At. All. Times.”
The nibilanth vanished.
Grim looked at Evan. “Do you know anything about this necklace?”
“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. What happened in the river?”
Grim swore under his breath and turned to the Kir. “Taryn?”
“She was wearing something around her neck this morning when she came out of the river. The outline was visible through her wet tunic. I am surprised you did not notice.”
Grim ignored the hint of amusement in the Kir’s cool gray eyes.
He growled in frustration. “How are we to find this necklace when we do not know what we are looking for?”
“Maybe I can help.”
The older man Pauline had described as mentally unstable slid out of a booth and picked his way through the wreckage.
Sassy hissed and rustled her wings in alarm.
“Easy.” The older gentleman lifted his hand in a soothing gesture. “I’ve had dessert.”
This seemed to satisfy Sassy. She folded her wings and returned her attention to the pie she was eating.
“How do?” the man said. “Name’s Amasa Collier.”
Evan looked him up and down. “You aren’t a demonoid.”
“Lord, no. Don’t have a drop of demon blood in me.”
“Then why didn’t Taryn’s freeze-dry work on you?”
“Not sure. Maybe ’cause I see demons.”
“Ah, you are not normal,” Taryn said with a nod. “That explains it.”
“Wouldn’t know. Never met normal.” Collier unclipped a long piece of wire from his belt. “My all-purpose demon tracker. Made it myself. See how it’s glowing orange? That means there’s a demon or a demonoid close by.”
“Big whoopee shit,” Evan said. “I’m demonoid. So is Sassy.”
“Well, there you go. It’s working.”
Sassy threw back her head