“I know. Just like cousins aren’t all good. But our word still means something.”

Jack looks like he has something he wants to add to that, but then Joe rejoins us.

“Anything?” Jack asks.

“Nada,” Joe says.

“So, what do you want us to do?” I ask. “If we split up, we can probably cover more ground, but you’ll have to tell us where you’ve already looked.”

Joe shakes his head. “I’ve already checked all the obvious places.”

“Sounds like us and our bogans.”

“So I figured to try something different,” Joe goes on, “and I could use some backup—just to put up a stronger front.”

I’m not sure where this is going, but Jack seems to have an inkling.

“Just what are you saying?” he asks.

“I want to petition the fairy courts for some help. They see places we don’t.”

“Why would they help?” I have to ask.

Joe turns to me. “Don’t know that they will. But Jilly’s got ties in their world, too. That might make the difference.”

“Jilly doesn’t see any difference between people,” Jack explains to me. “Fairy, cousin, human—she takes them all at face value. But the interesting thing is, they reciprocate. I don’t know any place she isn’t welcome, except for some of the Unseelie Courts.”

“I’ve got to meet this woman,” I say.

“I’m hoping you’ll get the chance,” Joe tells me.

“Who do you want to try?” Jack asks.

Joe shrugs. “Hell, why not start at the top and see what Tatiana McGree has to say?”

I just shake my head. I might not spend any time in the city, but even I know that name. Like the Queen of all the Newford fairy courts would even grant us an audience.

“You sure you don’t want to call in a few more bodies?” Jack asks. “Maybe grab us a flock of those blackbirds like you were talking to? You know, show her we’re really serious.”

“Nope. Then she’ll think we’re trying to force the issue.”

“And we’re not?”

“First we’re going to play nice,” Joe says.

“You know if fairies are involved,” Jack says, “she’s never going to give them up.”

I nod in agreement. Fairy are all about keeping their skeletons to themselves. They’ve got this big colonization mentality—the way they see it, only fairy can lay judgment on another fairy.

“We don’t know fairies are involved,” Joe says.

Jack shoots back a sudden fierce grin.

“But this is as good a way as any to find out,” he says. “I get it.”

I do, too, though of the three of us, I think I’m the least happy with the idea. Because if fairy are involved, what exactly does this pair of canids think we can do?

But all I say is, “Count me in.”