Ivy sat before her computer. She was scowling, making me feel even more uneasy. Shaking the towel over the sink, I draped it over the spigot and turned. I knew Nick. Pierce might believe Nick was doing this to get back in my good graces, but once we were in Trent’s compound, Nick was going to add a little to his own personal agenda and steal something that was going to move this stunt from teenage double-dog dare you to grand larceny. I knew it. Jenks knew it. Ivy knew it. And if we knew it, we could plan accordingly. Stupid ass of an ex-boyfriend.

I had to get Trent and the coven together and threaten them both with going public with their dirty laundry unless they backed off. Trent wouldn’t agree to a meeting unless I had a door prize, one sensational enough to get his attention, and innocent enough that he wouldn’t try to kill me.

“I can get you your canvas,” Nick said, his voice even. “All you have to do is get me into the main compound. The rest is easy.”

That’s all, eh? I found a finger stick in the silverware drawer and broke the safety seal with a sharp snap, slamming the drawer shut. “I can get you in,” I said, poking my finger and massaging blood to the tip to invoke the demon doppelgänger curses. “I have. I can do it again.”

Nick sighed. “I’m not talking sneaking into the public areas with a landscaping truck. I’m talking high-tech security in the basement labs.”

Ivy snorted, and I made a moot face at him. “I’m not playing tiddledywinks in the ever-after, Nick. I can get us in.” And out.

“It’s getting out that I’m worried about,” Pierce muttered.

I shrugged, counting three red drops as they plunked into the first vial. Like a wash, the scent of burnt amber oozed over the top. Crap! I thought, capping the vial before anyone other than Pierce noticed. Ivy would freak. But at least I knew I’d done it right.

“When have I ever not gotten out?” I said, perhaps a little too pride-fully. Sure, I always got out, and it cost me every single time.

Nick wouldn’t look up from his blueprints. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“You got that right,” Jenks said, his hum by my ear prompting me to move my hair out of his way. “I never thought I’d see your ass in our kitchen again. Least not outside ajar.”

I couldn’t help my smile as he landed, smelling of green things. “You doing okay?” I asked when Ivy went to argue with Nick about how fast a pixy had to fly to evade detection.

“I’m fine,” he said, the draft he was making dying. “My stomach hurts, is all.”