“Yeah.” I gestured at him, suddenly impatient. “That’s why you’re here.”

His smile spread again. “So it is.”

“What’s he saying?” Bria asked, still moving around the circle. Another dribble of hot wax ran over her fingers.

“What we already know,” I answered. “Except he’s surprisingly horny for a spirit.”

“Slap him in a woman’s body and let some nasty-ass taboo hunter take a turn with him,” Bria replied. “That’ll calm him right down. They don’t like when they’re the ones who are put upon.”

“No one likes being put upon,” I muttered, shivering in disgust.

Amazingly, the spirit’s smile just kept spreading.

He turned as Bria walked around to another spot on the board circle.

“I take it back,” he said. “I’ll take her. She’s more my speed.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, is everyone ready?”

Bria straightened up, her expression surprisingly serious and intent. “You need to be absolutely sure about this, Alexis. This is on you. You are the only one here that can control him. The only one that can send him back. He’s above my pay grade. I can help, and I’ve got a few tricks I can use, but you are the muscle, and neither of us have experience. Think this through. We can find another way if we must—”

“No, you can’t,” the spirit said over her. “The buck stops with me. Well, me or the kid-killing Demigod with love issues. If any of the other Demigods land you, the kid killer will just steal you away again. He’s the strongest of them all.”

Bria’s mouth stopped at the same time as the spirit’s. I almost asked her what she’d said, but I already knew. She was saying she couldn’t get me out of this one. The pupil had finally surpassed the teacher, and unfortunately, the pupil still had no real clue.

“Take the spirit by the balls,” Daisy said, making a fist. “You can do it, Lexi.”

Mordecai nodded. Light flickered across his strong features. “This is the only way. If anyone can do it, it’s you, Lexi.”

Warmth and fear unfurled in my chest. Those kids usually forced me out of terrible ideas. That they were behind me, rooting for me, meant they believed in this. In me. Believed that the only way I could properly defend myself was by rising to the challenge of potentially controlling a strong spirit more experienced in my magic than I was. If I could see this challenge through to the end, I could face the next one.

I nodded, and Bria nodded with me.

“Just go ahead and blow out the…red candle. Yes, the red candle,” she said. “Blow out the red candle on that board in front of you. If something goes wrong, force him back into the circle, keep him there until I can relight the candle, and Fanny’s your aunt.”

“Fanny.” The spirit grinned. “That’s what the Europeans call a lady’s poontang.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Gives fanny pack a different meaning, doesn’t it? I’d like to pack her fanny.”

“Gross,” I said softly, bending quickly to blow out the candle. I didn’t want to give him any ideas while I was down there.

The spirit watched the smoke rise for a moment before stepping over the board. On the other side, he rolled his shoulders and then his neck. When his gaze came back to rest on me, he said, “Now what?”

I stared back at him. I had no idea.

“Why don’t you start with checking the repellent magic on the house?” Kieran said softly. “We’ll stay close, just in case.”

“But if we do that, I can’t wander in at inopportune times to stare at you.” The spirit winked.

“Good point, Kieran.” I wanted to clarify which idea had been the good one. I started walking toward the house.

“Lesson one, and a little payment toward mutual trust.” The humor dripped off the spirit’s face. “When you call someone from behind the veil, especially someone that was in there deep, or someone that was there for a long time, they will be attached to the item used to call them. In this case, my pocket watch. That is now my home base. Not you, not this place—unless I eventually grow more attached to you than the watch. Now, I can still roam, but it will drain me quickly when I’m away from the watch for any period of time.”

I nodded, since I already knew that about spirits wandering. I stopped at the back of the house.

“Show me the watch,” he said, standing beside me.

I hesitated, and he waited patiently. He probably had the power to move the watch. Take it from my hand and place it elsewhere. But he wouldn’t be able to hold it for long. He might be powerful, but he was still a spirit, governed by the same rules as other spirits. The watch would be safe.

However, it was essential for me to keep the pocket watch away from that living magical klepto I’d met earlier.

I held out the watch in a slightly shaking hand I was not proud of. The spirit met my eyes before his gaze dipped to the watch. Suddenly, spirit blanketed my hand in a way I’d never seen before. Sparkling and almost living, it roamed my palm like tiny mites.

“Wait, wait. Is he showing you something?” Bria darted toward us holding a stick of burning incense in her fingers. She pulled a candle still emitting smoke out of her open backpack. She was clearly not worried about her own safety. “Here, here. You need to see it with your eyes first. That’s how you learn.”