I’m still sitting next to Agatha on the couch. Baz is sitting in a stuffed chair, across from us; I think Agatha and I are both watching him, but he rarely looks our way.
Penelope slumps down onto the arm of Baz’s chair. I see his nostrils twitch, but he doesn’t pull away. I guess he’s gone this long without eating anyone, so I’m not going to be bothered about it.
“We have to go back to Nicodemus,” Penny says. “It’s what Headmistress Grimm-Pitch told us to do.”
“We can’t compel him,” I say, “and he’s not gonna tell us anything.”
“Maybe you guys didn’t asknicelyenough,” she says, waggling her eyebrows.
“Corking idea, Penelope,” Baz says. “We’ll have youseducehim.”
“No,”I say.
“I was thinking Agatha…” Penny says.
“I’m not even here,” Agatha says. “When you’re all put on trial before the Coven, I wasn’t here.”
“We haven’t broken any laws,” I object.
“Oh, like that matters,” she says.
“Hear, hear,” Baz agrees. “You know, I’ve always expected to be tried unfairly before the Coven someday, but I never thought I’d be in such good company.”
“Nobody’sseducinga vampire,” I say.
Baz frowns at me.
“Unless,” I say, “we could convince your aunt—”
“No.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to get this vampire to confess to murder,” Agatha says flatly, “when you can’t even get Baz to tell you where he was for two months.”
“He was ill,” Penny says. She turns to Baz. “Weren’t you? You said you were ill. You certainlylookedill.”
“He wasn’t ill,” Agatha says. “Dev said he was missing.”
Baz’s lip curls. “Dev told you that?”
“I told you your relatives are betrayers,” Penny says.
Baz sneers some more. “He only told Agatha because he has a dirty crush on her.”
“See,” Penny says, “Itoldyou we could use Agatha to seduce people.”
“You said you were ill,” I say to Baz.
He looks at me, narrows his eyes into a glare, then looks away. “Iwasill,” he says, crossing one leg over the other and smoothing out his dark trousers. “But I was also missing.”
“Where were you?” I demand.
He meets my eyes again, still glaring, “I really don’t think this is relevant—”
“Everything is relevant,” Penny says.
“I—” He clears his throat and looks down at his knees. “—was kidnapped.”
I sit up. “Kidnapped?”
