Jenks rose up on a column of muddy gold. “Everyone out!” he shouted, and the handful of pixies in the rack whined their disappointment. “Go play in the belfry or something!” he added, and the complaints turned to delight. “We’re spending tonight inside!” he added when half of them darted out. “You hear me? I don’t want any of you out there pestering the gargoyles! They might squish you before they know you’re there. Jrixibell! You hear me?”

“Yes, Papa!” the little pixy moaned, then darted out, her dust a bright red of mischief.

“Thanks, Jenks,” I said with a long exhalation, then glanced out the window at the dark garden, the gargoyles’ eyes winking eerily. The older ones looked huge this close to the ground, wings as big as sails stretching in the shadows. No wonder Jenks had corralled his kids back inside for the night. Creeped out, I rinsed the ceramic spoons and set them aside to soak in my saltwater vat.

Rex, who had hid under the chair with wide eyes and flattened ears at the noise from the departing pixies, came out, meowing up at me for an early dinner. Jenks’s wings began to glow as he took to the air. “I don’t like leaving the lines this vulnerable, but Nick isn’t going to show with those gargoyles out there. They probably hate Ku’Sox more than you do.”

I made a sour face. The fact that my line was the only one on the US continent that wasn’t screaming probably had something to do with them being here, too.

“I don’t trust my kids,” Jenks said as he rose up, wings clattering and limbs stretching. “I’ll be on the steeple.”

“I’ll join you,” Belle said, resettling her bow. “I don’t trus-s-st your kids, either.”

Jenks hovered where he was, dust pooling under him. “You want a ride up there?”

Shocked, I stared. Belle, too, seemed taken aback at his offer. “Do you think you can handle my weight, little man?”

“Tink’s panties, yes.”

I watched, amazed as Jenks darted over, picked her up from behind by the waist, and rose, Belle hissing in delight. Wings humming, they flew into the hall, a line of descending silver stars marking their path.

“By the Goddess, you’re more maneuverable than I ever was,” I heard faintly, then even the sound of Jenks’s wings was gone.

“Huh,” I said softly, feeling good. “How about that?”

Smiling, I turned back to the sink. Past the blue curtains and Al’s chrysalis, the hunched shadows of gargoyles were thick among the tombstones, but I could imagine it a month from now with the early flowers blooming and pixies out there instead of in here. I hoped I was here to see it. I had gotten rid of most of the ifs, but it would only take one to bring it all crashing down. Please be okay, Bis.