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"Audrey said Mia's net of people is probably so intricate that she can't risk leaving Cincy. If she does, the deaths to support the baby will be fast and easy to find, rather than the carefully chosen, hidden ones." He hesitated, and a flash of worry for his son crossed his face. "Is that true? They already killed an FIB officer. That wasting disease was probably Mia, right?"
He was too far away for me to reach out and touch his hand in support, but I wanted to. I really needed to visit Gle
The older man's jaw clenched, then relaxed. "I know. I just wanted to hear from you that we have a chance and that they didn't hop a plane and are in Mexico, sucking the children there dry."
From under my scarf came a high-pitched sigh, and Jenks mumbled, "On the eleventh day of Christmas, my lover gave to me…"
I nudged the stack of files. "Hush, Jenks," I said, then pulled my eyes to Edden, softening my gaze. "We will get them, Edden. Promise."
Jenks's mumbling grew loud, and I felt uneasy when I realized he was apologizing to Matalina. That was a hindsight better than what the drummers had been doing with the piper's pipes, but his heartfelt whining was almost worse.
"Then you'll help us?" Edden asked, rather u
It was a banshee, but with Ivy's help—and a lot of pla
Edden, too, was glancing at my scarf as he rummaged around in a top drawer. He found what he was looking for, and extended his fist, palm down. "Then you might need this," he said, and I reached for whatever it was.
The smooth feel of crystal fell into my palm, and I jerked back. Heart pounding, I stared at the opaque drop of nothing, warming fast against my skin. I waited for my hand to cramp up or the stone to feel fuzzy or move or something, but it just sat there, looking like a cheap, foggy crystal that earth witches sell ignorant humans down at Finley Market.
"Where did you get this?" I asked, feeling squeamish even as the tear did nothing. "Is it one of Mia's?" It seemed to wiggle in my hand, and it was all I could do not to drop it, but then I'd have to tell him why, and then he might take it back. So I blinked at him, my fingers going stiff in an open cradle.
"We found a stash of them in a glass flower vase, disguised as decorative stones," Edden said. "I thought you might be able to make one into a locator amulet."
It was a great idea, and I dropped the crystal into my coat pocket, deeming I'd held the squirmy thing long enough. My held breath slipped from me, and the hesitant, almost belligerent embarrassment he was hiding gave me pause until I realized he had taken the tear from evidence.
"I'll give it a try," I said, and he grimaced, eyes lowered. I had to pick up my brother at the airport, but I might be able to squeeze in a stop at the university library as well as a charm shop for Jenks before that. A locator charm was devilishly hard. I honestly didn't know if I could pull it off. The library would be the only place I could find the recipe. Well, besides the Internet, but that was asking for trouble.
My scarf was now spouting poetry, waxing lovingly about Matalina's charms in beautifully poetic to downright lustful terms. Giving the stack of papers a push, I flicked off the light. Jenks let out a long complaint, and I stood.
"Come on, Mr. Honeypot," I said to Jenks. "We gotta go."
I flicked my scarf off him, and the pixy didn't move apart from huddling into a ball. Edden stood up, and together we eyed him. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this. Usually when Jenks got honey drunk, he was a happy drunk. This looked depressed, and I felt my face lose its expression when I realized Jenks was saying Matalina's name over and over.
"Oh crap," I whispered as he started making promises he couldn't keep, asking her to make one she couldn't. My own heart breaking, I carefully scooped him up, holding the unaware pixy in my hands, cupping him in a soothing darkness and warmth. Damn it, this wasn't fair. No wonder Jenks took the opportunity to get drunk. His wife was dying, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"Is he going to be all right?" Edden whispered as I stood in front of the desk, not knowing how I was going to get home with him like this. I couldn't just shove him in my bag and hope for the best.
"Yes," I said absently, deep in thought.
Edden shifted from foot to foot. "Is his wife okay?"
I brought my eyes up, unshed tears for Jenks warming them as I found a deep understanding in Edden's gaze, the understanding of a man who had lost his wife. "No," I said. "Pixies live only twenty years."
I could feel Jenks light and warm in my hands, and I wished he was bigger so I could just help him into the car, take him home, and cry with him on the couch. But all I could do was carefully slide him into the masculine glove Edden was holding out to me. The lined leather would keep him warm, whereas my scarf wouldn't.
Jenks hardly noticed the move, and I could get him to the car safely and in a dignified ma
Edden opened the door, and the noise of the open offices hit me like a slap, jerking me back to reality. I wiped my eyes and tugged my bag higher up on my shoulder. I held Edden's glove carefully. Ivy and I would map out Mia's network, starting with the day cares. Then move on to see if she worked at elderly day care centers or volunteered at the hospital. This could get really ugly.
There was a soft pull on my elbow as I rocked into motion, and I paused. Edden had his eyes on the tile, and I waited until he brought them to mine.
"Tell me when Jenks needs someone to talk to," he said, and my throat closed. Recalling what Ford had told me about Edden's wife dying in a stab-and-grab, I mustered a smile and nodded. My boots clicked fast on the tile as I made for the door, head high and eyes unseeing.
I wondered if Edden would talk to me next year when we went through the same ordeal with Jenks.
Seven
The airport was noisy, and I leaned against a support beam and tried not to fidget as I waited. Jenks and I had been here for nearly an hour, but I was glad I'd gotten here early when security stopped me at the spell-checker gate. It had either been my truth amulet or my lethal-spell detector interfering with theirs, because they were about the only invoked charms I had on me. Dumping out my bag for three uniformed stiffs to paw through was not my idea of how to meet guys. Jenks had thought it was hilarious. No one else was getting searched.
The pixy was currently down the hall at the flower cart, not a single indication that he had been honey drunk earlier. He was working a deal with the owner for some fern seed if he could entice a few people to buy roses for their departing loved ones. He had still been out cold when we passed the charm shop, and I hadn't stopped either there or the library. But if he could get the fern seed, he'd be a happy pixy.
It was cool in the drafty terminal, but vastly warmer than the blue, white, and gray world outside the huge plate-glass windows. Plows kept the runways clear, and the mounds of snow at the outskirts just begged to be played on. The people around me were a mix of hurried harassment, bored irritation, and anxious expectation. I fell into the last, and as I waited for Robbie's plane to clear checks and disembark, I felt a shiver of anticipation—though some of that might have been lingering anxiety from having been stopped at the heavy-magic detector.