I shook it off, left the bathroom, and hurried toward Crash’s place. First there, then I’d go to the loft and get Gran’s book. We’d figure this out, one way or another.

Once I arrived at Crash’s, I took note that it was much later than I’d ever visited there before. Okay, I’d only been there two times.

I knocked on the boarded-up door. “Feish, it’s me.”

The door opened right away, and she peered out at me, her face lighting up. “Boss is working. You want tea? We have a good visit; you tell me about that one you protecting.”

I was about to say no, but the truth was, tea sounded amazing. Tea and something to go with it. We had time and I knew Eric was safe with Gran. “Yes, you get the tea. I’m going to get us something to eat.”

Feish gave me a shy smile and I hurried back the way I’d come, not at all suspecting that I might have a problem getting a snack. I had a twenty in my bag somewhere, one of my last twenties. I needed to talk to Eammon about this week’s training stipend. I realized then that he’d forgotten.

Looking down in my purse, I didn’t notice the scuttling sounds in the quiet of the alley—until a long, hairy leg blocked my path.

I stopped so fast I ended up balancing on my toes for half a beat before I rocked back to my heels. “Oh, Jinx. Hi.”

“Who told you my name?” The giant spider’s multiple eyes blinked in succession and her fangs did this stretching thing toward me that made me take a slow step back. Then another. “Look, I was reading Charlotte’s Web last night, and I was thinking—”

She lifted a leg and pointed it at me. “You like Charlotte’s Web?”

“It makes me cry,” I said. That was honest, even if I’d lied about actually reading it the night before.

“The spider dies at the end; you like that part?” She growled. Let me tell you, a spider growling is not a cool thing.

Oh . . . shoot. “No, that’s the part that makes me cry.”

“Liar!” She opened her mouth and I dodged to the side as she spat web at me. What the hell? I’d thought telling her that I liked the book would soften her toward me. I pinned myself to the side of the building as she took a swing for me, lunging forward. I ducked down and she hit her face on the brick wall. I scooted out, made myself grab a leg and yanked it hard.