Nester rose and lifted his hand in a salute. I suspected I knew why he didn’t go for a handshake. My magic wasn’t the only one that came with a reputation. No one liked being robbed.

His smile didn’t reach those calculating eyes. “Hello, Miss Price. Nancy spoke highly of you. I’m excited to be working with you.”

He lied well, at any rate.

“Hi.” I copied his hand gesture. “Thanks for helping me out. A few nudges in the right direction and hopefully I’ll be off to the races.”

“Hmm, yes.” He put his palms together, his fingers spread out. “I feel it is my duty to be upfront regarding the help you might receive from one with my magic. The only similarity between our magics is the commonality of spirit. I have, essentially, one function as it pertains to spirit—to hide things. Things, not humans. Not souls. But I can, of course, walk you through how I store the items, and maybe you can garner some understanding about the nature of spirit that way. But I must be clear: I cannot show you how to wander through the spirit realm. It is a dangerous practice and I simply do not have the skill set. I’d as easily kill you as help you if I even tried.”

Kieran nodded as though he knew all that. I twisted my lips to the side. My “teacher” would be even less help than I’d originally thought.

I’d definitely need to wrangle that Spirit Walker, and I would not feel bashful about having Kieran help me.

13

Alexis

“Okay, no. Out.” I sternly pointed at the door.

Jack froze, the white cat, a dwarf in his big tan arms, hugged to his chest. “What?”

I pointed out of the kitchen, having just grabbed some water on my way to the backyard. It was dusk and much of the crew was waiting for me to summon the past Spirit Walker. They all worried something would go horribly wrong. It probably had something to do with the way he’d yanked me into spirit limbo last time…

Word had spread that the Spirit Thief, as I’d started calling my would-be teacher, was mostly useless. After waiting around the office for half the day, Kieran had just excused him, letting him know that he’d be contacted when needed. I didn’t blame him. Regardless of Kieran’s wish to get further into Nancy’s good graces, the guy was a waste of time.

“Get that animal out of the kitchen,” I demanded. “You have no idea where it came from. It can’t be in here.”

A wounded look crossed Jack’s face. “He’s hungry. I’m not going to keep him. I’m just giving him a little food and love until we find his owner. I had the staff put up a few signs.”

“It had no collar and was on the outskirts of the dual-society zone. Frank said it came through the hole in the wall in the backyard. That animal was left behind. And if it wasn’t, the owner will be looking at the pound—if there is one over there—not a gated community.”

“Well…” Jack ran a big hand over the perfectly content animal. “I can always leave a sign at the non-magical shelters. The last magical one has been closed. A Bray Road Beast escaped from its handler and ate its way through the mundane animals. Now we ship all our strays to the non-magical zone. If they aren’t found and killed for sport on the streets. Which will probably happen to this little guy if we don’t at least help him.”

I sighed. Why was the magical zone so messed up in so many ways?

“Fine, whatever. Give all the shelters its picture.”

“His picture. He’s a boy. He still has his balls and everything.”

I leveled Jack with a look. “He better not spray, or you will find a new place to hang out.”

Jack lifted his free hand. “He’s a good boy. He won’t spray.”

“But in the meantime, out! He could have fleas or ticks or who knows. I want it—him—out of the kitchen and away from couches, chairs, beds—”

“I know, I know. I was just heading outside.” Jack hurried up in front of me. “You’ll see, Lexi. Cats and kids—they just bring everything together.”

“Someone is bound to agree with me about this,” I muttered, heading through the back door to find everyone sitting in a semicircle around an enormous circle of two-by-fours, the ends just touching, in the grass. On top of them burned all manner and size of candles, interspersed with stinky incense and the occasional bell.

Bria knelt on the grass beside a large, flat piece of wood holding the rest of her Necromancer tools. She’d decided part of the problem with our last attempt had been a lack of firepower. She clearly intended to fix that issue this time.

Kieran sat in the middle of his Six, though a little rug sat empty in front of him, between his chair and the nearest two-by-four.

“Really? I get the rug?” I asked, drawing everyone’s attention. “I don’t even get a chair?”

“Oh.” Jack hesitated at the end of the semicircle of chairs around the wooden circle. “I thought you’d want to be mobile?”

The cat, perfectly content up until now, hissed. It bit Jack’s arm, raked suddenly clawed paws across his skin, twisted, jumped, and darted away into the trees, all in a flurry of movement.

I lifted my eyebrows and pointed at it. “It’s possessed. The witchcraft portion of this summoning scared it. See? It probably ate its last owners. It probably turns into some sort of…hell cat in the nighttime or something. It doesn’t need to be in the house when we’re all sleeping. Or anytime, actually. Cat dander can’t be good for the sinuses.”