I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell them it was the second demon I’d dealt with. Nope, I was going to hold that close and let them underestimate me.

“Joe was trained by Corb,” Tom said. “Easy to believe he’d been working with them. Helping them keep track of Eric. Damn it, I can’t believe we didn’t see it coming!”

Eammon rubbed a hand over his face. “All of this—the fight at the Hollows, tying us up after, chasing you off, it was done to keep us busy, and not looking at what was happening,” Eammon growled. I looked down at him.

I shook my head. “I don’t understand why Sarge and Corb would want me out of the way, or at the worst, try to make it look like it was my fault that the others got hurt by Crash?”

“Corb liked you,” Tom said. “He was worried you’d be hurt. If you were kicked out . . . then you would be safe, wouldn’t you? Maybe this was how he figured he’d make you leave and keep the rest of us busy all in one fell swoop.”

I didn’t like the way my guts twisted with that statement. It meant I couldn’t just call Corb the bad guy and let it go at that. He’d been trying to protect me in his own twisted way. Was that possible?

“What about Crash then?” I said. “He made the knife they are going to need to kill Eric with. Which they can’t do because,” I fished the knife out of my bag and held it up carefully by the unfinished tang.

Eammon let out a low whistle. “Good that you have it, but they could use another knife. It just won’t be as effective. If Crash got caught up in something even he isn’t strong enough to deal with, then they’ll be too strong for us to deal with on our own.” He looked at me. “You’re sure it’s Bonaventure and not somewhere else? There are a lot of places that can work for grave magic. That seems almost . . . brassy to head out there.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said.

Only I didn’t know for sure because I hadn’t checked the place out. I was going on what Jinx had told me. A trickster who’d given me the information in exchange for a signed book that she’d promptly eaten. Shoot, I hoped I was right.

I hoped that Jinx wasn’t playing with me, because it could cost Eric his life.

23

Tom drove the three of us to Bonaventure in his low-slung sedan that had a skeleton etched into the side. “Not real subtle,” I said as I ran a hand over the stitched leather interior. The stitches themselves were all bones and swirls that my brain tried to tell me were magical symbols.