She tested the temperature of the alcohol in the pot and began adding herbs. “Does he come when you call?”

“Well, yeah, but . . .”

“That’s more than you can say about cats and most people would tell you that these two are mine.”

“Most people?”

“Some people know better. Pass me the bay leaves.”

As he handed them over, Tony wondered just how disturbed he should be about finding the smell of warm vodka and catnip comforting. A sharp pain in his right calf drew his attention down to an imperious black and white face. “What!”

Arra snickered and, stirring with her right hand, tossed him the paper bag of catnip with her left. “Try this. Why so jumpy when I showed up at your place this morning?” she continued as he tossed a handful of the dried leaves on the kitchen floor.

“Why was I so jumpy?” He stared at her in disbelief. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m in the middle of breakfast and this wizard who might have been taken over by shadow—based on the whole ditching and disappearing thing—suddenly appears in my apartment! Not to mention being caught with my dick waving around.”

“Ah, I see.”

At first he thought she was laughing at him, but what he could see of her expression looked serious.

“Still have my thermoses?”

“In my backpack.”

“Get them.”

If anyone had reason to be jumpy . . . He set the pair of thermoses on the counter by the stove. “You know, I’ve got to say, this morning, even after I knew you weren’t shadow-held, I was concerned about you.”

“Why?”

“You looked bummed.”

“Bummed?” The first soup ladle of potion splashed into the first thermos with a hollow sound. “I suppose that’s as good a word as any.” The sound grew higher pitched and less hollow as the thermos filled. “The shadow from Alan Wu touched me before I destroyed it. Only for an instant, but in that instant I knew what the shadow knew.” She set the first thermos to one side and began filling the second. “It is one thing to extrapolate the probable fate of your home; it’s another entirely to see it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“About what?”

He shrugged, made uncomfortable by the question. “I’m not sure. It’s a Canadian thing.”

Her snort sounded more like the Arra he’d started to know. Setting down the ladle, she wrapped her hand around each thermos in turn, singing out the vowels she’d used to make the first potion sparkle. After the whole beam-me-up-Scotty, now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t it seemed unnecessarily . . . twee. She snorted again when he mentioned it.

“All magic involves the manipulation of energy. Lesser magics like this are, as you say, unnecessarily twee because lesser wizards need their cue cards to get the desired result. Doing it their way is, therefore, easier.”

Tony didn’t see the “therefore.” “So what’s the cost?”