“Congratulations, Jih,” I said as I jerked to a halt at the bottom of the steps. “I’d like to meet your new husband properly, but I don’t think I’m welcome here anymore.” I turned to Keasley. “If you need me, you know where I am.” Saying nothing more, I left.

My pulse was fast and my breath was short. I felt my expression turn ugly when Jenks joined me, flying at eye height.

“Uh, Rache? What’s up? Is Ceri okay?”

“Ceri is ju-u-u-ust fine,” I muttered, slamming the latch to the chain-link fence down and chipping a nail. “She’s always fine. She’s working for Al.”

“She’s summoning him out of confinement!” Jenks squeaked.

“No, she’s making appearance curses for him to get the smut off her soul.”

I paced across the street, and at his continued silence, I looked up. His tiny face was pinched and he seemed torn. “You don’t see a problem in that?” I said in disbelief.

“Well…,” he hedged.

I did not believe this. “That’s how it starts, Jenks,” I said, recalling my days as an I.S. runner bringing in witches who had gone wrong. “Then it’s one black curse that he promises to use for a good reason, and he offers so much in return that you can’t resist, then another, then another, and then you’re his familiar for real. Well, if she wants to throw her life away again, that’s not my problem.”

Jenks flew beside me silently, then spoke. “Ceri knows what she’s doing.”

My feet found the wide, worn steps of the church, and I stopped. Storming in like this with me out of control was asking for trouble. Ivy’s blood lust was triggered by high emotions, and I knew better. Turning, I looked across the street at Keasley’s house. A red film enveloped the oak tree, making it look like it was on fire. People were coming out of their houses to gape at the phantom flames as Ceri raged, but I knew she wouldn’t hurt the tree.

“I hope so, Jenks. I really hope so.”

Nine

“Hush. Quiet,” one of Jenks’s kids said in a loud whisper. “You’re scaring her.”

A chorus of denials rose, and I smiled at the eager little pixy girl standing on my knee, her wings blurring for balance and her pale green silk dress drifting about her ankles. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the couch in the sanctuary, covered in pixy kids. Colorful fabric billowed in the breeze kicked up by their dragonfly-like wings, and their dust was making me glow in the late-hour dusk. Rex was under Ivy’s piano, and she didn’t look scared. She looked predatory.