“Oh my God!” Jenks exclaimed. “Take me with you, Trent. I’ve never been on an elf quest before! Ple-e-e-e-ase?”

“Quiet, Jenks,” I murmured, not wanting Trent to stop talking, then turned to Trent. “So you’ve got a way to take care of what you, um, started, right? When it’s over?”

“I won’t know until I finish it,” Trent said. Looking at me in snatches, he shrugged. “I never intended all this to happen.”

I turned away, having a hard time getting mad at him. I was too tired. “Welcome to my world,” I said, thinking I’d done some pretty stupid things in my day, too.

“I’ve got a way to take care of things,” Trent insisted, but I doubted it. And his usual tells weren’t telling me anything. My gaze dropped to Jenks, and he shrugged, at a loss as well. Jenks’s going with him was looking better to me. I wanted to know what Trent was doing that was so risky he needed a demon to help him. God, what was wrong with us?

Still…

I looked inquiringly at Jenks, twitching my fingers in the pixy signal that meant scout, and he nodded. Maybe that had been Jenks’s intention all along. Sitting up, I looked over the seat at Ivy, lurking under a blanket. She was awake, her eyes black in the dim light. She grimaced, rolling her eyes at Trent and nodding as well. It was unanimous, then.

“I think you should take Jenks with you,” I said as I turned back around.

His grip tightened on the wheel. “No.”

“No-o-o-o?” Jenks whined. “Hey, if it’s about the altitude sickness, Seattle is lower than Cincy. I’ll be fine.”

I exhaled loudly, gathering my strength. “Jenks is right. If you’re allowed a pixy on an elf quest, you should take one.”

“I’m not having this conversation,” Trent said, and Jenks’s wings hummed.

My eyes narrowed, and I turned the heat up even more. “Trent, you are a stiff-necked, overbearing, cold—”

“I’m not cold.”

“—impersonal son of a bitch. Try making a decision by looking at something other than logic. You might have more friends that way.”

Jenks’s mouth shut, and he looked surprised. Trent, too, seemed taken aback. “Just because I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve—”

“You don’t even wear your heart in your chest,” I interrupted. “But one thing you aren’t is stupid.” I flung a hand in the air, exasperated with him and not even knowing why I was trying to help. He’d given me nothing but grief. And a chance to save myself.

“I don’t know what you’re doing,” I said. “Frankly, I don’t care as long as you don’t land your butt in jail when I need you standing up for me at the coven meeting. So just consider this me being selfish, asking you to let Jenks help you. Do me a favor, huh?”

Jenks’s wings shifted, and Trent stared out at nothing as we drove into the dark.

“Or are you so proud that you can’t accept a sidekick?”