“Thief shoes,” Jenks said around a belch. “I wonder what he’s stealing.”

“Not our problem.” I hope. Taking another bite, I watched Vivian sit up, startled when Trent came up beside her, and then her quick glance at me. “Are you doing okay?” I asked Jenks, seeing his flushed face and slowly moving wings.

“I’ll be fine.” Jenks tugged his new red jacket straight and rinsed his cup out in my glass of water, leaving a thin ribbon of coffee trailing down. “I want to see if she put a bomb under our car. You going to be okay alone with them?” Thinking of Ivy in the shower, I nodded, and he rose up to leave a fading glow of yellow sunbeam on the table. “I’ll be in back in five.”

“Be careful,” I said as he flew off, and he gave me a flash of red dust, the pixy equivalent of rolling his eyes.

At the bar, Vivian was sliding off her stool, one hand holding a tall glass of milk shake and a dangling napkin. Behind her, Trent followed, smiling as if he were crossing a ballroom floor, not a bar/restaurant surrounded by nothing in the middle of New Mexico.

“Ah, I don’t know what to say,” the small woman said as she approached, and I pushed out a chair for her.

“Sit,” I said, smiling. “Trent won’t bite. It’s Ivy you have to worry about, and she’s in the shower.”

Her milk shake hit the table, and she sat. The heavy-magic detection amulet on my bag started to glow, but the lethal one remained dark. It didn’t go unnoticed by Vivian, and she took a sip of her drink while Trent resettled himself. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the last time I’d sat with her and had coffee. It had been in Mike’s, actually, and she’d been prepared to shoot me if I hadn’t gone with her. But that had been before she’d watched me stand next to a demon and try to save her mentor, Brooke.

“Ivy said you were at the airport,” I said, taking a sip of coffee and probably getting Jenks’s glitter on my lips. “You’re not going to kill me, are you?” I asked, and Trent choked on his tomato soup.

Eying Trent, she shook her head, her eyes red rimmed and tired looking. “They’re hoping you do something demonic on the way, and if so, I’m to report it,” she said, nervous until Trent stopped coughing. “Not that everyone isn’t pretty much set on how they are going to vote already. Except for whoever they elect to take Brooke’s spot. Oh, anything you say to me is going to be used against you in the vote.”

Vote? I thought, my gaze going to Trent as I realized he’d been right. They were going to try to put me away despite what Oliver had promised. “This was a done deal!” I said, then lowered my voice. “Oliver said if I dropped my claim that the council is corrupt, you’d pardon me!” I almost hissed.