Jenks hovered between us, a bright shimmer of red-tinted dust spilling from him. “I don’t like this,” he said. “It sounds risky.”

“It’s perfect,” I said as Trent’s spoon clinked, stirring them both. “Once it’s moved, anyone can see the curse he used to break it.”

“In which case he’ll just say you were backing out of a deal?” Jenks prompted.

My shoulders slumped, and I chewed on my lower lip. “Maybe I could borrow Al’s wedding rings and we could bind our strength together,” I said hesitantly, and Jenks scoffed.

“They don’t work between demon and elf,” Jenks reminded me, but Trent had set the spoon on the napkin beside his half-eaten doughnut and had gone to his coat.

“We have options,” he said as he triumphantly slapped a museum brochure before me. “That is, if you can reinvoke them.”

Eyebrows high, I pulled the colorful brochure to me with ELVEN ARTIFACT SHOW emblazoned on it in a metallic mythological script. I knew there was no such collection at the Cincy museum. There was none anywhere. The elves had just come out of hiding. It was then that it clicked and I looked for the date. Quen had mentioned a museum outing at the end of the week. Sure enough, it started this weekend and ran for three months before going on the road.

“Jenks, would you get this for me?” Trent asked, standing before the microwave with his two mugs, and the pixy darted away, hitting the door button with a two-footed punch. Apparently the afternoon they spent together stealing Lucy had changed both their attitudes toward each other. They almost looked like friends. Finally the incongruity of a pixy helping a multibillionaire figure out my microwave was over, and Trent came to the table, the microwave a humming background to Jenks’s wings.

I smacked the brochure down before Trent. “A museum show of elven artifacts? You arranged this?”

Jenks buzzed into the hall to settle another argument, and Trent ducked his head to look charmingly embarrassed. “Six months ago. As a show of solidarity and pride in our heritage. I’ve been slowly convincing the people I know that we need a public expression of our history, and it’s gratifying what they have kept. Most of the magic artifacts are defunct, but it is an amazing collection nevertheless. Cincinnati will have the show for three months, and then it will be touring for the next three years while I build a new wing.”

Standing at the counter, I opened the brochure. Colorful pictures and descriptions of ancient artifacts met me. Suddenly it looked like a shopping catalog.

Trent leaned closer, close enough that I could smell cinnamon and wine under his aftershave. “Tell me what you think will work the best, and I can have it loaned to you for a few days.”