“You’re okay?” Rachel gushed, an odd hunch to her as if she were afraid she might hurt him, but was trying to protect him all the same. “How’s the mystic population? Jenks, can you fly?”

Peri’s pulse was fast, as if she couldn’t seem to get enough air. Had someone hit her with a hallucinogenic dart? Maybe she’d finally snapped. This can’t be real.

Jenks put his hands on his hips, wings clattering even as he didn’t move. “The mystic population here is low, really low, and scattered. I don’t think they even know they’re a collective.”

“It’s a fairy!” Peri finally blurted, scrambling back as the winged man rose up into the air, trailing faint silver dust that pooled on Rachel’s hands.

“I’m a pixy!” he said, threatening to poke her. “Or Jenks, to you. Get it straight, lunker, or wake up dead.”

Peri stared, fascinated at the glimmer of silver that spilled from him like silk. But then he faltered, and Rachel reached out, giving him somewhere safe to fall to. “Whoa,” Jenks said as he picked himself up off Rachel’s palm. “It’s like there’s no oxygen. The mystic level is really low. These guys need to start talking to each other, or I’m never going to stay in the air.”

The click of a phone pulled Peri’s attention away. Rachel, too, noticed the growing crowd around them, drawn by a glimmer of dust and Jenks’s sarcastic, high-pitched voice. Hands curving around Jenks, Rachel smoothly got to her feet. “We have to go,” she said softly, and Peri rose as well.

“Where did you get it?” someone asked, and Peri grimaced at the video being taken. Opti would remove it, but she didn’t like it when they had to clean her image from the Web.

“Ah, Cincinnati,” Peri said, and Rachel seemed to start. “It works through your glass phone, but you need version eight. It’s a 3-D holo. You should see the one that looks like a unicorn.”

Rachel relaxed, but Peri could hear tiny complaints coming from her cupped and covered hands. Peri took Rachel’s shoulder, leading her out of the press of people and back into the foot traffic. Immediately Rachel opened her hands, and Jenks made a wobbly flight to the woman’s hoop earrings. He sat down on one of them as if on a swing, holding the band of gold for balance, and Peri’s lips parted. The earrings weren’t a retro fashion statement. They were there for the . . . pixy.

“Unicorn?” Jenks said, meticulously cleaning a wing, and Rachel shrugged, even as their pace quickened.

“Maybe they have them here,” Rachel said, pointing out the sim-mules. “Look at that. You ever see anything like that?”

“No. How about food?” Jenks said, swinging on the earring. “You got peanut butter here? I’m starved.”