“One of Jilly’s best friends. Remember Jilly? The woman some little freaks of yours have probably stolen away?”

“I never said—”

“You see how complicated this is getting?” Joe goes on, talking over her. “Jilly’s real close to Lucius Portsmouth, too, which isn’t that bad for you, I guess, seeing how you can usually count on him to be reasonable. But the crow girls . . . now that’s a whole different story. They might act all goofy and sweet, but I’ve seen them take on a couple of dozen gangbangers and not even work up a sweat. Did I already mention that they’re Jilly’s friends, too?”

“Look—”

“And then there’s Nokomis. Funny thing. The old woman’s taken a liking to Jilly, did you know that? You ever wonder why you weren’t kicked off Turtle Island the day you arrived? Right or wrong, that was her decision. Now what do you think she’ll do to you when she finds out you’re messing around with somebody under her protection?”

Joe’s lining up all the big guns, and I can see Mother Crone’s heart sinking as she begins to realize just how bad a situation she’s in. Sure, she’s got her little treekin with her, and I don’t doubt there are guards right outside the door, but the treekin can’t do much of anything and Joe’s the one right in her face, not the guards.

“And then you’ve got me,” Joe tells her. “Now I’ll be the first to admit no one’s going to count me in among the ranks of Jilly’s more powerful friends, but all the same, you really don’t want me going all Jack Daw on you and your little fairy courts. But believe you me, I will if you don’t start telling me what you know right now. We clear?”

Mother Crone actually takes a step back from him and I don’t blame her. Jack Daw was a corbae who, back in the eighties, single-handedly took out the whole local cuckoo clan, and they weren’t exactly pushovers. Joe’s got a look in his eyes right now that’s twice as fierce.

“You need to deal with Tatiana on this,” is all she’s got to fall back on.

Joe shakes his head and steps right up to her, backing her against a wall.

“Time’s wasting,” he says. “Whatever you know, you’re telling me now.”

None of us see the tall fairy come gliding into the room until he’s already grabbing Joe’s arm and trying to pull him back. Fairy are strong, everybody knows that, but this guy can’t even budge Joe.

Joe turns to look at him.

“You want to lose that hand,” he says, “just leave it right there where it is.”

Jack turns to me. “We’re not here to play cowboy, remember?”