I heard the muffled rumble of Ivy’s sedan start, borrowed from her mother for the winter. In an instant she was gone. I went into the hall, the soft thump of Kisten shutting the door and his steps on the hardwood floor clear in the silence.

“Where’s she going?” I asked him as he came even with me at the top of the hallway.

He put a hand on my shoulder in a silent suggestion that I go back into the living room. In my stocking feet I felt the difference in our height keenly. “To talk to Piscary.”

“Piscary!” Alarm brought me to a standstill. I pulled out of his light grip and stopped in the hall. “She can’t talk to him alone!”

But Kisten gave me a mirthless smile. “She’ll be fine. It’s high time she talk to him. As soon as she does, he’ll back off. That’s why he’s been bothering her. This is a good thing.”

Not convinced, I returned to the living room. I was very conscious of him behind me, silent, close enough to touch. We were alone, if you didn’t count the fifty-six pixies in my desk. “She’ll be all right,” he said under his breath as he followed me, shoes silent on the gray carpet.

I wanted him to leave. I was emotionally whipped, and I wanted him to leave. Feeling his eyes on me, I blew out the candles. In the new darkness, I gathered the coffee cups onto the tray in the hopes that he would take the hint. But as my gaze rose to the hallway, a thought stopped me cold. “Do you think Piscary can make her bite me? He almost made her bite Quen.”

Kisten shifted into motion, his fingers brushing mine as he took the tray from me in the smoke-scented air. “No,” he said, clearly waiting for me to go into the kitchen before him.

“Why not?” I padded into the brightly lit room.

Squinting at the new glare, Kisten slid the tray beside the sink and dumped the coffee to make brown puddles in the white porcelain sink. “Piscary was able to exert such an influence on her this afternoon because he caught her off guard. That, and she didn’t have any set behavior to fight it. She’s been battling her instincts to bite you since you were partners in the I.S. Saying no has gotten easy. Piscary can’t make her bite you unless she gives in first, and she won’t give in. She respects you too much.”

I opened the dishwasher, and Kisten stacked the cups in the top rack. “Are you sure?” I asked softly, wanting to believe.