I took a deep breath to get rid of the adrenaline. Telling Pierce off had been something I’d been wanting to do all day, and now that it was done, I felt guilty. Glad I’d done it, regardless, I followed Jenks to the table to study the papers. I couldn’t make heads or tails out of what they had scribbled. “Why can’t we go downstairs from a low-security office, work through the underbelly in the lab where security will be light, then come up on the other side?” I asked, then tucked my hair behind my ear when it fell forward.

Both Ivy and Nick looked at me like I’d just said we should take a train to the moon. “You mean, like in the air ducts?” Nick finally offered.

“Yes,” I said, wondering why Jax was smirking. “We can all go mink or something.”

Ivy looked at Nick, and I swear … I saw them bond.

“No,” Nick said, white faced.

“I’m not going to turn into a rodent,” Ivy said, her voice low and throaty.

“A mink is not a rodent,” I snapped. “God! Everyone but Trent knows that.”

Taking the pencil from behind her ear, Ivy circled a camera and drew a cone around its scanned area. “I’m not turning into anything,” she said, glancing at the potions on the counter.

This might make our getaway more complicated. “You’re afraid!” I accused, putting a hand on my hip. “Both of you. I know how to do this! I’m not going to leave you that way! You just have to think the word to break the curse.”

Nick cleared his throat, and I got more ticked yet. It would be so easy if they weren’t afraid. Maybe I should just do this by myself, just Jenks and me.

Ivy looked up, her gaze distant. “There’s a delivery truck at the door,” she said, and the doorbell rang. “If you don’t hurry, they’ll take it back to the depot.”

Unfortunately she was right, and I spun away, almost running in my sock feet down the hall, shouting that I was coming. They wouldn’t leave packages since I’d been shunned.

Behind me, I could hear Jenks saying, “Tink’s panties, Ivy. She’s right. If you got small, it would be a snap. You’re both chicken shit. Rachel doesn’t mind. She looks good small.”

“I’m not going to turn into anything,” Ivy growled, followed shortly by Nick’s fervent agreement.

I ran through the church as the hefty revving of a diesel truck shook the windows—apart from the one Pierce broke that was covered with plywood. Flinging the door open, I shouted and waved, snatching up my lethal amulet from my bag by the door as I ran down the steps in my sock feet. Looking almost disappointed, the guy in brown got out, coming to meet me with a package.