“So we got blood and wine,” Jenks said, his tone apologetic. “And words of power. What’s an accelerator?”

Peri’s head snapped up. “Classified.”

The tiny man spun in a circle, a burst of dust lighting the car. “There it is!” he crowed. “I bet you ten jars of honey that’s what did it. Whatever an accelerator is.”

“I’m sure Peri will tell us,” Rachel said, a new tone of warning in her voice. “I am not staying here.”

Jenks landed on the top of the wheel, strutting back and forth as if they were halfway home already. “Yeah, you don’t want to see Rache homesick. Last time she got homesick, she blew up the St. Louis arch and burned down Margaritaville. Not to mention trashing San Francisco. Blamed it on an earthquake. We’re still not allowed in California. Or on a plane.”

“I was not homesick. I was doing my job,” Rachel said sullenly, it clearly being a sore point.

All the same place names, Peri thought, wondering if she was strapped to a chair in a rival company’s basement, hallucinating it all. But then she looked at Jenks’s wings, and marveled. She couldn’t invent anything that beautiful. Or snarky.

“Peri,” Rachel said, pulling her attention from Jenks. “What is an accelerator? Some kind of ley line tool?”

Peri started the car, the need to go home and see Jack almost an ache. “It’s new technology,” she said guardedly as she pulled out. “Really new. One-of-a-kind. It breaks down a communication wavelength into individual particles so it can carry more information.”

“A lot more?” Rachel asked, and Jenks went to sit again on her earring.

Peri shrugged, unable to bring herself to look at them. As weird as it was seeing a tiny man on Rachel’s earring, it somehow looked right. “Enough to code the universe, Bill says.”

Rachel’s sigh was long and full of relief. “That’s probably how I was able to use the defunct line, then. Jenks, I think we can get home.” She hesitated, then asked, “You don’t think your partner would have drunk it all, do you? A lot of curses are wine-specific.”

Peri nodded. Curses are wine-specific? Good to know. “If not, we can get more. Cincinnati isn’t that far from here. If we can’t get you home tonight, we have tomorrow.” Though she didn’t know how she was going to explain this to Jack.

“No, we don’t,” Jenks said, suddenly sober. “The only reason we were able to get here at all was because it’s the equinox. Come sunup, we’re both stuck here.”

Chapter 3

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