Frowning, he gently grasped my wrist and took the knife. “Ley-line magic in good silver will leave a whisper of the spell after it is spent,” he said, eyes on the dagger, not me. “If one is powerful delicate, applying a breath of ley-line potency into the charm can sometimes fill the channels again and bring it back to full stamina. Too much will destroy it, but if enough fills the spell before it overflows, one can make a fist of it. I’ve a fine enough touch, but I’m not eager to try lest I leave Nick with such an ugly thing.”

Curious, I took the knife back, holding it with the right amount of respect. “You just direct a trickle of energy into it? You don’t even need to know how to do the original charm?”

“That’s the whole pie of it, yes.” Pierce took the knife from me again and set it where Nick had left it, out of my easy reach. “It’s enough to worry a man that Nick, a mere wizard, has it.”

I frowned. If I wanted to look at the knife, I would. “Yeah, well, Nick has a lot of stuff he shouldn’t, doesn’t he?” I said, and Pierce glanced at the broken trunk. “My dad never told me that,” I said to distract him. “About the imprint left on an object.”

Pierce nodded. “It’s not known to many, and your father was human.”

I started, not having told him about that chunk of drama in my life,but then I remembered he’d been there in spirit. There probably wasn’t much that had happened in the church in the past year that he didn’t know about. And yet … he was here, standing in front of me, his shirt open to show pale skin, stubble on his face, and hair all over and tousled.

Damn it.

“Are you hungry?” Pierce asked, and I turned to the dimly lit kitchen. “Nick won’t be back until long after candle lighting.”

Candle lighting. I remembered that one. He meant dusk. “Famished.” I flicked on the kitchen light and looked for the bathroom. “Can you hold that thought?”

Leaving Pierce to figure out what I meant, I shut the bathroom door behind me and hoped he couldn’t hear as I took care of business. God, why did I even care if he might know I’d flushed the toilet, but I slumped when I caught sight of myself in the age-spotted mirror above the tiny white sink.