He shook his head, his thick canines making him look terribly fierce as he frowned. “I promised Pierce I wouldn’t jump without him. He says I’m not good enough.”

I smiled, thoroughly understanding how it rankled to be told you weren’t good enough. In this case, though, I was all for a little adult supervision. How Pierce knew the coven would put me here sort of bothered me. True, he’d been a member of the coven of moral and ethical standards himself—before they bricked him into the ground, alive—but Alcatraz hadn’t been a prison when he’d been living.

“Bis,” I said, wincing when my knees bent. “Can you show me what Pierce showed you? Maybe we can get home together.”

The pair of glowing eyes slowly shifted. “Not really. I don’t have the words, Ms. Rachel. Pierce said people have to learn from an experienced gargoyle, not a, uh, novice. He can’t jump you either. But it’s okay,” he rushed on when my brow furrowed. “Ivy has someone to bring you home right before the lines close to summoning in Cincinnati.”

My knees throbbed, and his eyes shifted from orange to their usual dull red. Even the hard metal floor didn’t feel so cold. I was going home. Before they lobotomized me.

Mistaking my relief for despair, Bis edged closer, almost putting a claw on my leg. “Pierce would come rescue you himself, Ms. Rachel, but the water is too cold. No one saw me swim over. It used to be an old fort, and I only needed a little crack to get in.”

He was trying to cheer me up, and I nodded, not knowing what to do with my hands and aware of the cuffs for the first time in hours. Bis could slip through the smallest opening, like an octopus. It had driven Jenks crazy until one night the fun-loving teen showed him how he did it.

“I didn’t know you could swim,” I said softly, running a finger between me and the steel around my wrist. “The ward around the island didn’t stop you?”

“It’s just a modified ley line,” the young gargoyle said loftily. “It can’t keep me out.”

“Is Ivy okay? And Jenks?” I hung on his words, starved for the memory of comfort and companionship, and I watched his eyes shift when he nodded.

“Jenks’s wing is bent, but he’s okay. He can still fly and stuff. They want to wait to summon you home until the sun almost rises in Cincy so the council can’t summon you back again. That’s what I came to tell you. Pierce is worried. He says not to eat the food.”

He knew about the food? I mused, disturbed. “Nick summoned me here,” I said bitterly.

“Nick?” The young gargoyle rocked back. “You’re sure?”

“Yes,” I answered sourly. “He walked right after, but if they throw enough money at him, he’ll probably do it again.” Bis had heard of Nick by way of Jenks bad-mouthing him, but obviously had never met him. “I have to talk to Al when I get home,” I said, probing my knees to see how bad they were, and the dull throb turned into a stabbing pain. “I don’t need Pierce babysitting me. That’s what Jenks and Ivy are for.”