Ivy was a shadow at the corner of the building. Jenks, Jax, and Nick were at the window beside me, more of a door, really, where they tossed the hay in. It was locked, of course, with sensor pads. The pixies were trying to find the right amount of electricity to keep the circuit closed even when it was open. They’d been at it long enough to make me nervous. It never took Jenks this long. The entire job was being run like it was a damn committee, and I hated it.

“Are we there yet?” I whispered, and Jax’s wings spilled a silver dust. Sighing, I leaned back and fingered my belt pack, holding a couple of pain amulets, the three potion vials—and Trent’s dad’s hoof pick. I was hoping that if I gave it back, Trent would realize that it was a game and not kill me outright. Even if Pierce hadn’t melted my splat gun, I wouldn’t have brought it. If I got caught, it wasn’t going to be with a potentially lethal weapon on my person. Using my splat gun without the backing of a warrant would put me in jail faster than Bis could hit Pierce’s tombstone with a wad of spit, game or no. Any charm I used would leave a trace that the I.S. could track right back to me. I was going in almost naked, and not happy about it.

It was almost three, right when pixies and elves were about to wake up and witches about ready to crash. Crashing sounded good. I was tired. Evading Vivian this afternoon had been harder than I’d thought it would be. We’d finally resorted to jumping stores in the mall until we all went out different delivery entrances to take the bus to one of Ivy’s friends. His car had gotten us to the interstate, and from there, we’d walked in across the pastures where they couldn’t use motion detectors because of the horses. Everyone had an Achilles’ heel, and apparently Trent’s was his horses.

“Got it,” Jenks said, making a quick circle around me before darting off to get Ivy. Nick gave me a toothy smile as he carefully opened the wooden door, hesitating to allow Jax to oil the hinges with pixy dust when they squeaked. A horse nickered at the new draft, and we froze, listening as the muted conversation from upstairs continued and the laugh track exploded. The pixies vanished inside, and Nick leapt easily to the sill, disappearing soundlessly.

Alone with Ivy, I exhaled in worry. I didn’t like how many people it was taking to do this, but I wasn’t going to miss out, and Ivy wouldn’t let Nick and me do this alone.