I didn’t care if Nick could read the emotions on my face. None of what I was feeling was particularly nice: satisfaction, maybe, that we—well, someone, anyway—had caught him; anger that he had slapped me; hatred that he had betrayed Ceri and Pierce to their deaths. That Ivy and I had downed him in the museum was only a minor consolation.

He was here to steal the rings, and I felt my pocket to reassure myself they were still there. Thank God the garden was full of bright eyes tonight. Jenks’s wings were turning blue from cold, but he hovered before Nick, looking as ticked as I felt. “Nick, Nick, Nick,” I said, hands on my hips. “I wish I could say it was a surprise.”

Sullen, Nick grimaced from the pain in his shoulders. His face had a swollen bruise, and I wondered if Ku’Sox had beaten him because he hadn’t gotten the rings from us. He said, “Are you going to let me explain, or just assume you know what’s going on?”

The corner of my eye twitched. “Hold him,” I said curtly. “Keep him on holy ground. Jenks, get a strap, will you?”

“Holy crap!” the pixy said as he realized the danger Nick could turn into, then darted to the church, leaving an unsettlingly thin band of dust to show his path. Hearing his wing hum fade, Jax went scarlet. His wings were tattered beyond belief, but the main lines were undamaged. He’d recover. For all his anger, Jenks had been careful.

The surrounding gargoyles moved their wings, whispering in elephant tones as they chuckled at my precaution. “He won’t evade us,” Etude said, his voice holding a mocking assurance, and I tapped the line to make every single gargoyle’s ears prick.

“That demon I told you about?” I said, pulling in the clean energy and filling my chi. “The one that has Bis? He can drop into this piece of crap like he’s an old slipper.”

Etude’s tail curved up into a question mark, and Nick grunted as the sharp claws holding his shoulder pinched.

“So you don’t mind if I strap him, do you?” I added, walking a sodden heel-toe, heel-toe toward Nick over the grass. “Simply being on holy ground won’t stop Ku’Sox from taking over Nick. A strap, though, will at least prevent Ku’Sox from using a line if he should feel the need to drop in and see how his favorite human is doing. Our agreement to leave me alone aside.”

“Ku’Sox isn’t possessing me,” Nick said, and I shrugged.