Nodding, I glanced into the garden following a flash of motion. I stood up and went to the window to see that it was just Jenks’s kids driving a hummingbird out of the yard. “You haven’t met her,” I said, marveling at their teamwork. Ceri came to stand beside me, the rich scent of cinnamon drifting off her to tickle my nose. “She’s a terrible woman,” I added softly.

Ceri’s gaze followed mine into the garden. “So am I,” she said, more softly still.

TWENTY-TWO

Slumped in the back of the cab, I watched the passing buildings and imagined Ellasbeth’s disdain for the clearly lower-class shops. Though the Hollows’ cathedral was world-renowned, it was in a somewhat depressed area of town. Unease trickled through me, and I straightened, pulling my bag with its charms and splat gun onto my lap. I should have worn something else. I was going to look like a slob in jeans.

Jenks was on my shoulder, rapping my hoop earring in time with the calypso beat on the cabbie’s radio. It was way past annoying, and though I knew it would likely only encourage him, I murmured, “Stop it.”

My neck went cold as he lifted off to land on my knee. “Relax, Rache,” he said, standing with his legs spread wide for balance and his wings a blur. “This is a cakewalk. How many people? Five, counting her parents? And Quen will be there, so it’s not like you’re alone. It’s the wedding you’re going to have to worry about.”

I took a deep breath, cracking the window to set my hair drifting. Looking down, I picked at the engineered hole in my knee. “Maybe I should have worn a dress suit.”

“It’s a wedding rehearsal, for Tink’s panties!” Jenks burst out. “Don’t you watch the soaps? The richer you are, the more you dress down. Trent will probably be in a swimsuit.”

My eyebrows rose, picturing his trim physique wrapped in spandex. Mmmm…

Wings stilling, Jenks adopted a bored expression. “You look great. Now, if you had worn that little thang you picked out…”

I shifted my knee, and he took to the air. We were only a block away, and early.

“Excuse me,” I said, leaning forward and into the cabbie’s enthusiastic rendition of Madonna’s “Material Girl.” I’d never heard it done calypso before. “Could you circle the block?”

He met my gaze through the rearview mirror, and, though clearly thinking I was crazy, lurched into the left-turn lane and waited for the light. I rolled the window down all the way, and Jenks landed on the sill. “Why don’t you check it out?” I said softly.

“Already ahead of you, babe,” he said, reaching to see that his red bandanna was in place. “By the time you get around the block, I’ll have met the locals and get the sitch.”