I didn’t think my spine could stiffen any more, but apparently, I was wrong. “I would never have shortchanged you.” A thought struck me then, a guess. “Seeing as Jinx directed me here, to you, in essence saving you, I suppose she is working for you? Is she like your guard spider? Damn it, never mind,” I waved a hand between us before he could say anything. “Eammon, we have to go. Eric isn’t here.”

I didn’t wait for them. I hugged Feish again and whispered, “Tea, later this week.”

She squeezed me back. “Tea it is.”

“You are not having tea with Feish!” Crash snapped.

I raised a brow at him. Knowing it wasn’t smart to challenge him, I did it anyway. “You think you can control her?”

Eammon cleared his throat. “He owns her. That’s how it works.”

My jaw dropped and a spew of profanities flowed from my mouth like a lava spray, burning every ear in its path. Eammon and Tom stepped back from me at the words, and even Crash’s eyebrows shot up. “Basically,” I said once I’d run out of some steam, “if you didn’t catch it, that’s a no from me. Feish, we need new people at the Hollows. Come with us.”

“She isn’t free to go,” Crash said, and I would have sworn there was a bit of sadness in the way he said it.

I wanted to argue, I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that slavery was nothing short of barbaric, no matter how you looked it. Only it wasn’t the human world, it was the world of shadows, and I was now as much a part of this world as he was. Slavery? Really? Some of my gran’s teachings bubbled up, reminding me that slavery was still pretty active here, especially for those with underrated powers.

Feish blew me a kiss.

Or I think it was a kiss, hard to say really with those big lips of hers. Maybe she was blowing me a bubble, the equivalent of a fish kiss. “Go, save the bigfoot.”

I wanted to do more for her, but it would have to wait. I walked as fast as I could back to Tom’s parked sedan, Eammon and Tom beside me. I slid into the backseat and closed my eyes. I was going to sleep for a week once this was over, waking only to down an Advil and maybe get a hot water bottle for my lower back. “What the hell now? How do I find Eric?”