It wasn’t the piss she had to worry about; he was a poop machine, but I didn’t want to remind her about this or she might change her mind. “There’s plenty of dry food in that clear container, and he can go without crickets for a week, so you don’t have to feed him those.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t.”

“But give him a little fruit once a day. I already cut it up into cubes for you.”

“Yes, yes. Quit being a worrywart. He’s a hedgehog, not a baby. I’ll manage.”

I sat cross-legged on the couch but unfolded my legs when she gave me a disapproving look. “My shoes aren’t dirty, you know.”

She clearly disagreed. “So you need a week off from work. Go ahead and tell me what to expect.”

“Huh?”

“The trouble you’re in. Is it boy trouble or family? Or did you steal something?”

I laughed. “No stealing. I guess it’s … family trouble.”

“How can a woman whose parents are dead have so much family trouble?”

When I first met Kar Yee, I told her my parents had died in a plane crash, a hard lie to maintain when you’re continually worried about two people whom you should have buried and mourned years before; but as the years went by, it became second nature.

“It’s trouble with my godfather,” I said. Not completely a lie. “And trouble involving magick.”

Lon had gotten us a meeting with an evidence tech who worked for the Portland police department. When Lon had called earlier that morning to tell me this, he’d carefully avoided discussing the sex magick we’d done in his library yesterday afternoon, just asked me if everything was “okay” on my end. I took that to mean that he was curious if the spell had awakened any buried memories (which it hadn’t). After telling him this, he bluntly informed me what time he’d pick me up to drive to the airport, then hung up.

It was a quick flight to Portland—just a couple of hours—so we were going up and back today. But there were now only five days left before the Luxe deadline, and I didn’t feel I could spare anything for work. I wanted to use every bit of my time to help Lon research the albino demon. Even if we were somehow able to persuade the evidence technician to let us borrow the glass talon, we still couldn’t do anything without the demon’s summoning name.

Kar Yee drew up her mouth as she stroked Mr. Piggy. “You are the most guarded person I’ve ever met, Cady. I think you have some black luck following you around.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered.

“You might be unlucky, but I don’t think you’re a bad seed, or I wouldn’t be in business with you, no matter how long we’ve known each other.”

That was true. Money was a very serious matter to her.

“But I think you need to get rid of what’s dragging you down,” she said. “Tear it out by the roots and be done with it. You should be happy, enjoying life.” She held up her hand and began holding up fingers. “One, you have a good job—”

“I don’t know if I’d call it good, exactly.”

“It’s good, trust me. And two, you are a smart and fair sorcerer—”

“Sometimes.”

“—and three, you are very pretty, for a white American.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Your life should be better than it is.”

Kar Yee always had a way of cutting something down to its simplest form. She was right: my life should be better. And I was unlucky. It wasn’t my fault, but it wouldn’t get cleared up by itself.

“Kar Yee,” I argued.

“Don’t ‘Kar Yee’ me. Just listen and make the right changes. When you come back to get Mr. Piggy and return to work, I expect to see you smiling.”

I sighed and watched her run her nails through Mr. Piggy’s spiny coat. “I hope I come back smiling too.” I mainly just hoped I came back.

“Only one week away from the bar, yes?”

“Give or take a couple of days.”

“One week,” she said firmly.

Reaching for Mr. Piggy, I made a short clucking noise near the side of his face while trying to dampen the small but insistent worry that it might be the last time I would see him.

20

When the light turned green, Lon sped through the intersection and put some quick distance between our rental and the car behind us.

“Nobody’s trailing us,” I grumbled.

“Hmph.”

It was overcast and dreary in Portland, which I normally found rather pleasant. People complain about the lack of sun in the Pacific Northwest, but I never really minded it when I lived in Seattle with Kar Yee during college. Today, however, it put a damper on an already grim situation.

I was worried about meeting the evidence guy and trying to persuade him to give us the talon. On top of that, I was nervous around Lon. Because the flight was overbooked, he ended up sitting in coach while I was in first class. I wasn’t used to sitting up front; he was, so I offered to trade with him, but he refused. So we weren’t able to talk on the flight.

We were, however, able to talk on the ride to the airport, and we were certainly able to now, but he was back to his tight-lipped communication style. Eyes on the road, short answers, nothing unnecessary. We still hadn’t breathed a word about what happened between us the day before; I was left wondering if he regretted it, and now it was awkward. It made me more miserable than it should have, but I was too proud to do anything about it. So we sat in silence. No small talk about Jupe, no generic comments about the weather, nothing.