I sneezed three more times while I fumbled to get the stupid thing open, trying to read that I was to take two pills every four hours. Why in hell had I tried to use ley line magic? I should have known better than to self-administer a medicinal charm. The aides in Emergency were going to laugh their asses off if I had to go in for a counterspell.

I stared at Jenks. My eyes widened; another sneeze was coming, and it felt like a big one. Not using water, I took two pills, looking at the ceiling and trying to swallow them.

“Water, Rache!” Jenks said, hovering over the tap. “You gotta take them with water!”

Waving him out of my way, I swallowed them down dry, grimacing. And, like magic, the urge to sneeze vanished.

Not believing it, I took a breath, then another. Jenks was having a fit over the wax cups, so I filled one, dutifully swallowing the lukewarm water to feel the pills slide down. “Damn!” I swore in admiration. “Those are great. Caught it midsneeze.” I set the cup down to pick up the vial, turning it over to read the label. “How much are these anyway?”

Jenks’s wings clattered, he and his reflection slowly falling. “They don’t work that fast.”

I glanced at him. “Really?”

He looked worried, his feet gently touching the counter and his wings stilled. He took a breath to say something, but a soft pop jerked both our heads up. My pulse went into overdrive, and I felt someone tap the line out back. It startled me, and, gasping, I fell into Ivy’s black porcelain toilet, slipping. I went down with a little shriek, and my butt met the tile. “Ow,” I said, holding my elbow where it hit something.

“Witch!” a resonant voice echoed, and I tossed my hair aside, taking in the robed figure in the threshold. “Why, by Cormel’s gonads, does my coffee taste like dandelions!”

Ah, crap, it was Minias.

TWELVE

“Get out, Jenks!” I shrieked, scrambling up.

Minias swooped into Ivy’s bathroom, his smooth face creased in irritation. Panicking, I pressed into a fluffy black towel hanging between the commode and the tub. “Don’t touch me!” I shouted, then flung the contents of Ivy’s pill vial at him.

With a twang, I felt him set a circle. Jenks was at the ceiling shouting something, and the little white pills bounced harmlessly against Minias’s black sheet of ever-after.

I had to get out! There were too many pipes and wires in here to set a demonproof circle.

“What the hell?” Minias said, his goat-slitted eyes confused as he picked up a pill and looked at it. He had broken his circle to do it, and, scrambling, I grabbed Ivy’s hair spray.

“Get out of my church!” I shouted, spraying him.