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Chapter Three

Hollows International wasn’t a huge airport, but it was busy with early-odly hour of seven in theIt ay too early for me to be up, and I felt nurip Our flight was boarding in half an hour; we had lots of time The air smelled like floor polish and plastic, and I sat in the fake leather chairs across froht a ticket and checked our luggage After the incident with Trent, she had gotten leave from her master vampire to come with Jenks and me

Trent’s prediction that I wouldn’t be allowed on the plane had convinced oddesses of air travel in their polyester blazers and winged lapel pins the better So I sat waiting, our carry-ons strewn around me Nervous, I pushed h, wasn’t fooled by my show of nonchalance

"Trent’s an ass, but he’s right We’re not getting through security," he predicted, s hu, and all the warlass s and the endless opening of the doors

I didn’t look at hi line "Trent’s just trying to scareer, I stopped I didn’t need it to hide my freckles anymore, but if I didn’t wear it, one What if we couldn’t get on the plane? I had to be there in three days or ?" Jenks landed on arden best, convinced that he wasn’t even going to have to use the potion into handle the air-pressure shifts He hadn’t even arranged for anyone to watch his kids, thinking we’d be back in an hour His confidence in

I cocked my eyebrows, and he put his hands on his hips, finally starting to dust a little as he war the truth and the Withons are gunning for hi dead wouldthrough security," he said, glancing nervously at a little girl in pink who had noticed hiet you two thousandat the airport"

"I already havethat Ivy had reached the front of the line "How are they going to stop me?"

"Rache," he coaxed, and I shiftedthat he had a point

"Look," I said, slouching even lower "If they don’t let me on the plane, we’ll take the train Be there in no tih was tiny, but I heard it despite the loudspeaker paging soreeen us, and I took in his pulled-back hair and his sharp black-and-green outfit with bluebells on the hem It was the last outfit that Matalina had made for him, and I kneore it to feel close to her It had been a very hard two ical clock had been reset and he had another twenty years ahead of hiured this hy de, Jenks would be the world’s oldest pixy I didn’t care that it had taken a curse to do it-as long as he was happy He was happy, wasn’t he?

Worry filled me as I watched him watch everyone else, his attention , Jenks?" I asked, the tone ofabout the te a neutral nothing until I added, "Don’t lie to me"

Jenks looked away as the sun started to stain the sky "Fine," he said flatly

Fine I knehat fine was I had been "fine" for the better part of a year after Kisten died Since then I’d dated Marshal, had gotten shunned, and had sex with a nineteenth-century ghost naround alive in 1852 by the saive me a lobotomy and steal my ovaries

Much as I hated to ade that h the crap my life dished out He was Al’s fa my stint as a demon student in the ever-after We’d not had a et a te, even if I didn’t quite knohat to think of Pierce any moments of my life, and we had opened up to each other in ways that left ood s that had once attracted ic history, and a sexy body-now lefts, I feltwhat ti , I tucked the phone away Jenks didn’t like Pierce, agreeing with Al that the charismatic witch would be the death of me, but Pierce wouldn’t hurt ht love him, too, so ure it out It worried ic, even if it had been to help ic didn’t o I’d have been head over heels and da in the way

"Here she coh, Ivy was s left behind on the conveyor belt and a blue-and-gold envelope in her hand She earing an unfamiliar black business suit to make her look both sexy and capable, adone in the boardroom I’d never be able to carry off that look, but for Ivy, it was easy

"See?" I said as I sat up "She got her ticket okay"

Jenks whistled softly as shethe stares behind her "The woman needs her own theme music," he said dryly

I stood and he took to the air "Cake ’Short Skirt, Long Jacket’"

"That’d do it," he said as Ivy picked up her briefcase with her laptop in it

"So far, so good," she said, glancing at the nearby security line

Jenks wasn’t ie, Rache Good job"

"Jenks," I coate? All ht number"

"Doesn’t h security"

"A5," Ivy said, not looking at her ticket

Ignoring Jenks hu with my bridesht possible to coordinate Cindy’s bridal shop with the one I’d worked with in don Cincinnati, th would match everyone else’s And for once, I liked this dress, steel blue-gray with no lace I’d give Robbie’s fiancee one thing-she had great taste

"Next stop, Portland," I said as I threay , we crossed the white tile

Jenks was an irritating hum at my ear "Woo-hoo! I haven’t seen anyone strip searched all week!"

We got closer to the short line where the spell andback "What?" I said, irate, and she shrugged

"You first"

Exasperated, I got in line behind an old couple crabbing about the wait "Why are youto do so, they would have done it by now They probably don’t even know I’ was slipping betweenate Ahead of h both the lowed a bright red, but the security people waved them on In the distance, a plane roared into the air I started to sweat

Jenks’s wings hu deal Let’s just get through this as fast as possible, okay?"

His doubtful expression saying it all, Jenks darted through the detector and swung back around to land on it, waiting With a feeling of foreboding, I dropped the gar on the belt and smiled at the severely emotionally deficient woman across from me She was about twenty pounds too heavy for her uniforic to proclaim?" she asked dully

My heart started to pound Cool it, Rachel, I thought, knowing they had charms to detect stress "No fruit but for the pixy there," I quipped, pointing at Jenks only to have hiic detection earth-ic detection ley-line charet nailed for sure They weren’t illegal, just unusual The curse indeic and all

The wos for her attention "Hey, hi," he said, trying to look innocent "I’ on the plane I’ve got a ticket"

The wo by hand" was all she said, and I gave Ivy a sarcastic suessed asit over I couldn’t ave uard asked her to step through Behind her, a young couple with a kid in a stroller were gru bunny-eared kiss-kisses at the baby when the attendant cleared her throat, not sounding nice at all

"Can I see your ticket,blank Crap, she calledit in front of her "I’"

She reached foras she leaned to look at the screen "Nice dress Brides to stay calm Her attitude had shifted from boredom to a sharp interest On the other side of security, Ivy waited with her hip cocked

"Can I reach into your bag for your ticket?" the wo "There’s a proble at the paper

Fro h school cheerleading teaave it tocloser, only to have her point at the floor and a yellow line I’d never even noticed before "I checked it online," I babbled as I backed up "It’s still good Look, "

"Yes,with all rip Oh God, what if they slipped Bri? "Could you step over there, please?" she asked tightly "Just through here" She flipped the conveyor belt up and pointed to a lauys and a wo for uns and wands showed It was the wands I orried about

"Sure," I said, slu a deep breath, I crossed the yellow line into ene from dirty and threadbare to only dirty

"Rachel?" Ivy called out with Jenks on her shoulder "What do you want me to do?"

I hesitated "Wait for me on the other side?"

She s that anyway"