“I wasn’t trying—”
She whips around, with her hands on her hips. “Just assume I want as much information as is possible, in every situation!”
“I can do that.” I’m nodding too eagerly. “I want that, too.”
Penelope looks up into my eyes, and it feels like a warning. It feels like she’s giving me another chance. But only this once.
“Let me see me the translation again,” she says.
I hand her the papers. She sticks each page to the chalkboard with a spell—“Sticking point!”
“Now that we know the terms,” she says, “we can look for a way out.”
41
SIMON
My flat looks emptier now that I’ve asked Baz to stay here. All I’ve really got is the mattress. “I can get furniture,” I say, looking around. “I can get one of those poles.”
Baz has dropped his bags just inside the door. He’s texting someone. He glances up from his phone. “A pole?”
“For your clothes. For clothes. Mine are just . . .” Mine are just in a heap on the bedroom floor. “I was going to buy furniture anyway.”
“Did someone die and leave you their fortune?” Still texting.
“Well . . . actually . . .”
He looks up again. “Did someonedie,Snow?”
“Who are you texting?” I ask.
“My other boyfriend. The one who texts back.”
I grab for his phone. He holds it above me. If I weren’t wearing a hoodie, I could fly up and reach it.
“I’m textingBunce,” he says. “Like I have time for another boyfriend . . . Your dysfunction is a full-time job.”
I shove him back—then think better of it and pull on his shirt, reaching for the phone again. “You’re texting Penny? Is she texting you back?”
He puts the phone in his jacket pocket, slapping my hand away. “She texted me back to say that she’s trying to respect your needs. I told her you needed a kick in the arse; that I’ve already delivered it; and now we need her help.”
“Wedoneed her help,” I say.
“I know. I told her to call.”
I push my hand through the front of my hair. I hope she does.
Baz bumps me with his elbow. “Whodied,Snow?”
“Oh.” I smooth my hair down again. “The Mage.”
“Right,” he says. “I was there.”
“Right, but . . . Well, he left me his money. In his will.”
Baz looks surprised. “Your helping him off this mortal plane didn’t affect that?”
“Not according to Dr. Wellbelove.”
