Nick grunted, shifting his shoulders in relief as the band tightened over his wrists with a sound that made me shiver. “I understand why you don’t trust me.”

“Oh, I doubt that.” I backed up to where Ivy waited, not trusting him when there was no one ready to rip his arms out of their sockets if he did so much as sneeze. “If you did, you wouldn’t be here.”

Free of his guards, I looked him over, seeing the wear and tear of living with a demon. His eyes darted. Stubble was thick on his cheeks. The suit was gone, and he was wearing a pair of black jeans, black shirt, dark sneakers, shivering in the cold. Scars covered his neck and wrists and had turned his ear into a soft mess of scar tissue. If I didn’t know he’d gotten his scars as a rat in Cincinnati’s illegal rat fights, I’d say he was a vampire junkie. Either that, or a brimstone addict. “Where’s your suit?” I asked, and his eyes met mine, blue and haunted.

He didn’t answer me, and Ivy sidled close, whispering, “Did you get them fixed?”

Nodding, I touched my pocket. “Is that what you came for, Nick-k?” I said, and Ivy’s eyes went black. “Trying to buy your way back into Ku’Sox’s good graces? Might be expensive. More than a thief like you is willing to pay.”

“Ku’Sox will kill me if he sees me again,” Nick said, and Ivy sashayed closer, the tip of her sword making a soft hush in the spring-long grass.

“So will we,” she murmured.

I couldn’t help my smile. She was always so honest with her emotions. It was truly refreshing. Even better, Nick was falling for it. It didn’t matter if he was lying to us and Ku’Sox has sent him to sabotage. It didn’t even matter if he was telling us the truth and he really wanted to help—which I didn’t entertain for a second. What mattered was Nick believed us, that we thought we had the strength to stand up to Ku’Sox. If he believed, Ku’Sox would, too. My ifs were disappearing, and Bis was a freaking world breaker. How could we lose?

I glanced at the church, wondering why none of them had perched on it, clearly a more comfortable place for them than a cold stone a foot off the ground. “Let’s go in,” I said, shivering in the damp. “Everyone who fits, that is. It’s cold out here.”

“You want to take Nick inside?” Ivy asked, and Jenks’s dust turned an ugly red.

“He’s lying,” the pixy said, looking severely at Nick and Jax.