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"I don’t like the feel of it either," I said in a quiet voice, coic"

Jo-Jo passed her hand over Bria’s face, forcing oxygen into all the cuts that ash above her eye knit itself together, and the ugly bruising faded froritted her teeth "It’s not the most pleasant sensation, but I’ll live"

"So," I said, stretching out my hand "It helps distract yourin aze flicked up to my face I knohat she sahen she looked at me A woman dressed in black A woman covered in blood A killer A murderer A monster No et who and what I was-and how conflicted she felt about it

Finally, she sighed and grabbed ainst ht not likethe Spider now, but she also knew that part ofsister she’d loved so much as a child

"You squeeze as hard as you need to"

Bria just nodded, her hand tightening around mine

Besides the cuts on her face and a few cracked ribs,with the bounty hunter, so it took Jo-Jo only a fewcare of the injuries that Don had inflicted on me Afterward, the three of us trooped into the kitchen

Most people preferred the salon, but the kitchen was my favorite roo, skinny table sliced the kitchen into two pieces, while appliances done in a variety of pastel colors hugged the walls Fat, fluffy clouds dotted the fresco-painted ceiling like marshmallows More clouds could be found everywhere you looked, from the pot holders stacked next to the stove to the dishcloths piled beside the sink Like other elementals, Jo-Jo also used her personal rune-a puffy cloud that sy sche his thirteenth cup of coffee of the day As always, the chicory fumes warmed me from the inside out and made me think of his father I wished that the old ht Fletcher would have known exactly what to do about the ed us all into by declaring war on Mab in the first place

Finn stared atsweet to go with my coffee?" he asked in a hopeful voice

I arched an eyebrow at him "You mean all those pieces of strawberry pie that you ate for lunch weren’t enough?"

"I’ boy," Finn said in a sincere tone "I need rowing on you, Lane, is your ego"

Finn sidled up to s of mine also tend to swell up in your presence, detective"

I rolled my eyes at Finn’s attempt at witty banter Jo-Jo just chuckled, amused by his antics

Bria returned Finn’s smile with a syrupy sweet one of her own "Oh, really? So it’s gone froe by now?"

Finn sputtered and allared at Bria He opened hisretort, but I cut his to worry about right now than what you two think of each other and your various appendages Like e’re going to do about the bounty on your head, Bria"

She shrugged "I don’t see e have to do anything about it Now that I know about the bounty, I can protect erator to see what kind of ingredients Jo-Jo had on hand "Not from every bounty hunter in the city"

"Bounty hunter?" Jo-Jo asked "What bounty hunter?"

Bria and Finn filled the dwarf in on what had happened at Northern Aggression Theattempt, what I’d learned froot out the ingredients for brownies Flour, eggs, water, baking cocoa, oil All that andbowl Ten ot started on the thick layer of crea that would turn the brownies fro truly spectacular Powdered sugar, butter, almond extract, and a block of crea, the redients, soothed me I couldn’t control what Mab did, how she came after me, or whom she hired to do her dirty work, but I could make my family a treat to sweeten the bitter times

Twentydoith their story, I took the brownies out of the oven While I aiting for therabbed the s out of the cabinets One by one, I wrapped ic Crystals spread out fro then another until all the glasses were cold and frosty

When everything was ready, I cut the frosted brownies, stacked thes over to the table, and started ht snack with the others

"So what do you want to do, Gin?" Finn asked "Now that we know exactly who all these crazy people are in Ashland"

I chewed a bite of brownie Rich and chocolatey, with an extra sugary sweet kick fro Perfect "See if you can find out rounds, skills, habits I especially want to know about Ruth Gentry and Sydney, the girl that she has with her Gentry seems to be the serous"

Finn nodded He’d started digging into Gentry earlier today, but Bria’swith Jenkins had taken precedence and sidetracked his search

"What about me?" Bria asked "What do you wantto call your boss in the ency and are going out of town"

Bria’s eyes narrowed "You want me to leave Ashland? Because of a few bounty hunters?"