Right now, they were somewhere behind us, me going about eighty and the pixies hitting a steady forty miles an hour. It was their top speed—which meant Trent was wrong and that this was a planned snag-and-drag; pixies couldn’t go that fast for that long. They were switching off and carrying Jenks. Carrying Jenks who knew where.

It was about two in the afternoon and hot. I was frazzled and ready to snap. Ivy wasn’t much better, leaning over the seat to shake Vivian awake every half hour in case she had a concussion—which was totally pissing off the coven woman. Trent had been up for only a few minutes, but he already looked bored, staring out the window and clearly irate that the time he’d made was being wasted. It was all I could do not to reach over the seat and slap him.

As I fidgeted, Ivy rolled her window down to let in a warm blast of air, overpowering the hefty air-conditioning my mom’s car had. Her eyes had gotten dark and her posture was tense. She wasn’t hot, she was randy, and I rolled my window down a bit as well.

“I think they stopped,” she said, eying the amulet. “Somewhere by 180. See?”

She held out the map with her notations and calculations. I didn’t look, teeth clenched as I blew past a van with a wizard painted on the side.

“Rachel?”

“Just tell me what road to take,” I muttered.

She pulled a strand of her blowing hair out of her mouth. “The next exit,” she said, putting on a pair of dark glasses to hide her eyes. “You’re going to have to go north for a few miles before it loops around and goes under the interstate.”

“More backtracking?” Trent said, hardly audible.

“Shut up! Just shut up!” I yelled, then exhaled, trying to relax. “I mean, I understand your concern,” I said softly. “I’ll get you to the West Coast in time if I have to buy a trip for you from Newt.” If only Al would’ve jumped me there, but he wanted me to fail. “But if you don’t shut up, I’m going to pull this car over and shove you in the trunk!”

Trent sighed and shifted his knees, and Ivy looked up from the map, eyebrows raised.

“I’m trying,” I said softly to her. “He’s got about as much empathy as a demon. It’s always me, me, me. What if it had been Quen who was kidnapped? I bet he’d be all over that like pixies on elf trash.”

Trent cleared his throat, and I huffed. Point made.

“You want me to drive for a while?” Ivy said. “You need a break.”

“No, I’ve got this,” I said quickly, then added, “If I don’t do something, I’ll snap.”

I waited for Jenks’s comment that I had already snapped, but of course it never came. Checking the speedometer, I pressed the accelerator. We had to stay in front of them, and there was a whole lot of distance left.