Reaching for the furniture catalog, I slid it smoothly over the textbook. “Not much,” I said as I looked down. “You’re in a good mood.”

“I just got back from your mom’s. She’s cool, you know.” He flew to the center island counter, landing on it to put himself at nearly my eye level. “Jax is doing well. If your mom is cotton to the idea, I’m going to let him have a go at making a garden big enough to support him.”

“Cotton?” I questioned, turning a page to some beautiful phone tables. I blanched at the price. How could something that small cost so much?

“Yeah. You know… cool, A-okay, keen, kosher.”

“I know what it means,” I said, recognizing it as one of my mother’s favorite phrases and thinking it odd Jenks would have picked it up.

“Have you talked to Ivy yet?” he asked.

“No.”

My frustration was obvious in the short word. Jenks hesitated, then, with a clattering of wings, he flew a swooping path to land upon my shoulder. “Sorry.”

I forced a pleasant expression as I pulled my head up and tucked a curl behind my ear. “Yeah, me too.”

He made an irate noise with his wings. “So-o-o, whatcha hiding under the catalog? Looking through Ivy’s leather outlets?”

My jaw tightened. “It’s nothing,” I said softly.

“You looking to buy furniture?” he scoffed. “Give me a break.”

Peeved, I waved him away. “Yeah. I want furniture, something other than pressboard—excuse me—engineered wood. Ivy’s stuff makes mine look like trailer-park plastic.”

Jenks laughed, the wind from his wings shifting the hair about my face. “So get yourself something nice the next time you have some money.”

“Like that will ever happen,” I muttered.

Jenks zipped under the table. Not trusting him, I bent to see what he was doing. “Hey! Stop it!” I cried, moving my foot as I felt a tug on my shoe. He darted away, and when I came up from retying my lace, I found he had pulled the catalog off the textbook. His hands were on his hips as he stood on it, reading. “Jenks!” I complained.

“I thought you didn’t like ley lines,” he said, flitting up and then right back down where he had been. “Especially now that you can’t use them without endangering Nick.”

“I don’t,” I said, wishing I hadn’t told him about having accidentally made Nick my familiar. “But look. This stuff is easy.”

Jenks was silent, his wings drooping as he looked at the charm. “You gonna try it?”

“No,” I said quickly.

“Nick will be okay if you pull your energy right off the line. He’ll never know.” Jenks turned sideways so he could see me and the print both. “It says right here you don’t have to use stored energy but can pull it off the line. See? Right here in black and white.”