Grimacing, Pierce set his fork down. “I know how to jump, Rachel,” he said, a touch of irritation in his voice. “Bis was safe with me. A very old gargoyle taught me before she made a die of it. I think she only taught me because she knew she wouldn’t last the winter. And before you go climbing any steeples, demons killed every last free gargoyle who retained the knowledge of line jumping when the elves migrated to reality.”

“That’s convenient,” I said, and his brow furrowed.

“No, that’s a fact. The only reason the gargoyle who taught me survived was because they thought she was too young to know.”

He was starting to look angry, and I wedged a triangle of pancake free. They were too good to boycott. “You could try to teach me,” I said, pitching my voice high.

Pierce glanced up and down, making a little huff of amusement. “I’ll allow you’re smart as a steel trap, but it’s not book learning, it’s learning on one’s own hook that gets you there and back. And for that, you need a gargoyle. An experienced one.”

Peeved, I stared at him, waiting. Pierce ate three forkfuls, each one getting a harder stab than the one before. My foot began to bob.

Making a rude noise, Pierce pushed his plate aside. “It takes a body a year of line theory to even hope—”

“So give me the basics,” I interrupted. “Something to chew on. Al won’t object to that. I mean, you’re not teaching me anything. Just talking shop.”

Taking a slow breath, Pierce brought his coffee into his hands, holding it to warm his fingers as he gathered his thoughts. “I’ve heard it said that a body would do well to think of time much like a stream, and we are flotsam, buoyed along,” he finally said, and a surge of anticipation brought me straight up in my chair.

“Got it,” I said as I stuffed another triangle in my mouth. “Next big idea,” I mumbled.

Pierce’s eyebrows rose. “Now you’re being evil,” he accused, and when I smiled and shrugged, he took a last bite from his plate. “The ever-after is said to have found its beginning when a considerable calamity struck across time, splashing a chance amount over the banks, as it were.” He hesitated; then as if I wouldn’t believe him, he added, “It’s not really a bank, more like a straw, the insides held within it by the same fixative that holds the stars to the heavens.”

I scrunched my face up, trying to put that into modern terms. “Uh, gravity?” I guessed, then added, “What makes things fall down but keeps the moon up?”

His eyes going wide, Pierce blinked at me. “To put it in a pie, yes. It’s gravity, and a potency I’m constrained to call … sound?”