“Ivy!” Jenks said suddenly. “I gotta tell Ivy you’re back. Damn, I’m glad you’re here.”

My breath caught as he darted to my shoulder and I felt the cool touch of pixy wings on my face. “I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered. And then he was gone.

Bewildered, I stared at the sifting dust he had left in his wake. Behind me was the thump of a closing door, and I turned to see Glenn coming around to the walk.

“A-Ah,” I stammered, “thanks for the ride, Glenn. And everything else.”

The streetlight lit his face as he pressed his lips together, making his small mustache stick out. “Mind if I walk you in?” he asked, and I felt a moment of quickly dampened alarm. Jenks might not have been listening, but Glenn had been. His investigative flags were raised, and if I didn’t invite him in, he’d have to choose between our friendship and a warrant. He wanted to know how I had ended up in Tom’s basement. And seeing as I needed all my friends right now, I nodded in surrender.

Arms held to myself, I looked back into the car for my nonexistent bag. Glenn had put my splat gun in a brown paper bag to get it past the evidence guys and out of the basement, and I felt stupid holding it when Glenn handed it to me. I looked up at the softly lit sign with our names on it, and I wondered if this entire partnership had been such a good idea. Bis blinked at me from his high perch, and I pushed myself into moving. A part of me was waiting for him to try to keep me out, and when he didn’t, I felt better.

“You want some coffee?” I said to Glenn as my feet moved silently on the cracked sidewalk. Heaven knew I did.

My head jerked up as the church door was flung open and Ivy took two hurried steps onto the stoop before seeing me. Her pace slowed, but she continued on, her arms wrapped around herself as if she was cold. Shadows disguised her face, but her posture held worry and fear. Jenks was with her.

“See?” he said, as proud as if he had pulled me back from the ever-after himself. “I told you! She figured it out, and here she is. Safe and back where she belongs.”

Ivy hit the sidewalk and kept coming. Her attention flicked briefly to Glenn, then fixed on me. “You’re here,” she said softly, her gray-silk voice carrying an entire twenty-four hours of fear and worry.