Jenks shrugged, his dust shifting to a pretty gold. “Used to. They’re on their own now.”

“You don’t look old enough to have kids, much less any on their own.” Peri’s grip on the wheel tightened as the road shrank to one lane. It was heavily monitored, and if they couldn’t pull this off, the cameras would likely analyze her trip in, seeing her car was riding low.

His attention coming back from the brightening skies, Jenks smiled. “I’m over twenty. Oldest pixy in existence.” His flash of pride vanished, replaced with a lingering sadness.

He’s alone, even with his friendship with Rachel, Peri realized. “Well, I appreciate you convincing Rachel to get in the trunk. I know it wasn’t easy for her, but there’s no other way to get her past Opti’s gatehouse without alerting them. You they’ll overlook, but a tall redhead with attitude will be remembered, and once that breaks, I lose my job. Everything.”

Her pulse quickened at the sight of the brightly lit guardhouse, Opti’s buildings beyond. Getting Rachel past the front desk without her being seen was going to be difficult as well, even with Rachel’s plan of distract-and-evade. Peri could draft to fix a mistake, but if he were awake, Jack would feel it and know something was wrong.

Peri forced her grip on the wheel to relax. This was so stupid. Why was she helping them?

“Hey, ah, thanks for this,” Jenks said, clearly knowing where her thoughts were. “Trust comes slow for Rachel, but a lot of people have screwed her over, so I don’t blame her. She likes you, though.”

“Thanks,” Peri said softly.

“It’s been better since she’s hooked up with Trent,” the small man was saying, feet swinging in his silver dust. “He has a lot of weight to swing around, protect her from the worst her mouth gets her into. I pick up the rest.”

Peri eyed him, imagining what he could do if that plastic sword he’d taken from her kitchen were real. “We’re almost there. You might want to hide.”

“Sure.” Wings clattering, he flitted to the visor and crawled between it and the car’s roof.

She didn’t have to fake her worry as she pulled up to the guard shack, her skin prickling from the cameras and hidden defenses as she toggled her window down. “Hi, I’m Peri Reed,” she said as she handed the woman her ID. “I’m checking on my partner, Jack Twill. He came in earlier to Opti Health.”

“Good evening, Ms. Reed,” the woman said as she hit a button and the bar went up. “I hope your partner is okay.”