press. You’re nervous and upset, not thinking clearly.”
Trent’s face lost all expression. He dropped his head as if in irritation, and when he pulled it back up, there was a new tightness to his eyes. He glanced at Quen, and the older man shrugged.
“Is it Ceri?” I asked. Mocked almost.
His brow furrowed, and he looked out the window.
“You want to know what she really thinks of you.” Still he said nothing, and I felt a sloppy smile come over me. Hiding it, I took a sip of water and set it on the tiny railing. Slowly it started to move away as the restaurant turned. “You won’t like what I say.”
“I don’t like a lot of things.”
I sighed. I couldn’t do this to him. I really couldn’t. Much as I would like to see Trent hurt, betraying Ceri’s trust was not going to happen. I didn’t think he had a Pandora charm anyway. “Ask Ceri. She’ll tell you a pretty story that will save your pride.”
Okay, so I wasn’t above a little dig.
“Rachel.”
He was reaching out, and I pulled back a step. “Don’t touch me,” I said coldly.
Jenks flew up, the glow of his dust reflected in the black glass. He hovered uncertainly, and he tapped his wrist like he’d seen Ivy do when we were running late. He had his sword bared, and though it looked like a shiny olive pick, it could be deadly. My pulse jumped. It was almost time.
“If you will excuse me,” I said tightly. “I have to use the little girls’ room. Happy New Year, Trent.”
Without a backward glance, I walked away, my head high and my bag in my grip. Jenks landed on my shoulder almost immediately.
“Get on the elevator,” he said, and curiosity filled me. People were getting out of my way with whispers and stares, but I didn’t care.
“Elevator?” I echoed. “Why? What’s wrong?”
He took off, flying backward so I could see him grin. “Nothing. There’s a maintenance floor where they store the tables. I wouldn’t have been able to find it if they hadn’t left the key wedged atop the frame holding the inspection notice.” He grinned. “I sat on it when I took Ivy downstairs.”
Arms swinging, I smiled at the elevator man as I entered the lift, and with no regret, shoved him out with a well-planted foot. The poor guy hit the carpet face-first, his loud complaint cutting off as the doors shut. Excited, I held my hand out, and the key dropped into it.
“Thanks, Jenks,” I said as I keyed the panel and hit the button he indicated. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Probably die,” he said, grinning.
Maybe I could pull this off yet.
Twenty-seven
The elevator hardly moved, dropping a floor before the silver doors slid apart to show a dark, low-ceilinged entryway. “Jenks,” I said as I edged to the opening lit by the elevator itself. “Are you sure about this?”
The hum of his wings rose over the faint sound of machinery as he lifted off from my shoulder. “I’ll get the lights. Hit the button for the lobby before you come out so it looks like you left, okay?”
I did what he said, and his faint glow darted out and was lost. There was undoubtedly a camera in the elevator, but Jenks would’ve taken care of it. I followed the pixy’s sifting dust, holding my bag more tightly to me. It was cooler down here. Not like outside, but worrisome.
“Jenks?” I called, hearing my voice come back from hard walls and surfaces. “You okay with this temp?” There were chairs stacked up everywhere, with a wide path leading out. Low carpet. I didn’t think the floor was moving, but if it was like upstairs, there would be only a ring of mobile floor, moving with the steady pace of an hour hand.
Jenks’s faint voice came back, “Tink’s panties. You’re worse than my mother, Rache.”
“I’m just saying it’s cold.” The chairs gave way to tables stacked surface to surface. I moved to an open spot before the bare, black windows. It had the same view as the restaurant above, and I could see Fountain Square if I pressed my head to the glass. We weren’t moving, but the grinding of machinery was loud. Maybe it was too noisy to use this level.
“Found the lights!” Jenks shouted, and with that as warning, bright light flashed into existence from the recessed fixtures overhead.
I jerked, shrinking down below the level of the windows. “Uh, is there a dimmer? All of Cincinnati can see me!”
Immediately the lights went out, and before I could stand, Jenks’s wings were humming by my ear. “No. Sorry. You want me to keep looking?”
Squinting to see with my light-blinded vision, I fumbled for a chair stacked on an upside-down table. “No, there’s enough ambient light.” I said. “I’ll just do this by the window.”
He shook himself to light a small circle, and I set the chair in it, dropping my bag on top. A second chair went beside it, and a third about five feet to the side. “What’s our time look like?” I asked, tension knotting my stomach as I dug in my bag. Finally my eyes readjusted.
Jenks landed on the back of the chair. I recognized the pattern of brocade from having sat on it only yesterday. “Less than two minutes.”
“Why do I always cut these things so darn close?” I said, dropping a pair of jeans on the chair beside me. The eight-year-old memory of Pierce naked in the snow rose up in my thoughts, and I forced it away, setting the rest of his clothes there as well. The shoes had come from Ivy, and they smelled like vampire. I hadn’t asked, I’d just said thank you. My splat gun topped the pile, and Mom’s red-and-white crucible/stone went on the chair across from me. Pulse quickening, I set the three bottles on the window ledge. Almost ready.
I ran my hands down my dress to dry my palms. Despite it being chilly, I was starting to sweat, and in this dress, it was going to show. “Okay. I can’t make a protective circle, so you’re going to have to keep yourself intact,” I told Jenks.
The pixy’s wings blurred into invisibility. “Give me a freaking break.”
A sigh slipped from me. “When Al shows, get yourself out of sight until he agrees to leave people with me alone. Got it?”
Jenks looked at me. “Sure, whatever.”
Like I believed that. “Time?” I asked.
“Half a minute.”
The bottles clinked as I chose one, and Jenks flew to the window, looking down at Fountain Square as I twisted the ground-glass stopper out and poured the liquid into the crucible. The tinkling of the potion drew Jenks back, and hovering so that the draft from his wings shifted the surface, he said, “It doesn’t smell like it worked.”
He looked worried, and I remembered the failed locator charms. “I have to invoke it when they all start singing.”
“Gotcha.” Reassured, he lit on the back of the chair. “And he’s going to be naked.”
“Yup.” I rolled the finger stick between my thumb and forefinger, waiting. Man, I hoped I did this right. If I could get Al to agree to this, it would be the first time I’d gotten anything from him without leaving a bit of my soul behind.
From above, I could hear the faint whisper of a countdown, the concrete and machinery between us making the enthusiastic shouting hardly audible. Ten seconds. I snapped the top to the finger stick and pricked my finger. The sharp jab was a jolt, and I massaged the tip.
“Wait for it,” Jenks admonished. “Wa-a-a-ait for it…Now!”
Heart pounding, I let one, two, and then three drops of blood into the crucible. “Think happy thoughts,” I whispered as Jenks flew to me, and we both waited for the redwood scent that would tell me if I had done the spell right. Like a wave, the warm scent rolled out.
“There it is!” Jenks said brightly, then his expression, lit by his own dust, faded. I backed up from the chair.
