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Instead, I looked at her. I hated every second of it. “Your call.”

Maisie stared at me, and for once, the joke did not come first.

“You remembered,” she said quietly.

“I’m learning.”

Something moved behind her eyes. Not panic. Not even fear, though fear was there. It was choice.

“I’ll do it,” she said.

Bernie’s expression tightened. “We cannot trigger the next test ourselves. If we deliberately poke the mark, we risk telling whoever is holding the other end that we understand the system.”

“So we wait for Hell to knock,” Maisie said.

Nobody liked that.

Hank looked around the room. “Anybody want coffee?”

Guy stared at him. “We’re waiting for a Demonic surveillance tether to attack my Wards.”

Hank nodded. “So that’s a yes?”

“Yeah,” Guy sighed as he scrubbed the palm of his hand down his face. “Coffee would be good.”

“See? That’s what I was thinkin’,” Hank confirmed, then turned towards the kitchen area.

Nobody sat. I stood perfectly still, my eyes trained on Maisie. Guy stood opposite me with the same straight-backed posture.

The coffee pot rattled. The water came on. Hank cursed under his breath about Bernie’s choice of coffee roast but continued with his self-appointed job as barista.

Guy’s eyes bounced between Bernie and the Ward projection as she flexed her fingers, causing lavender and silver Magic to flicker and then die. Maisie moved close enough that I could feel her heat.

The Hellmark pulsed.

Once.

I looked down.

Maisie went still beside me.

Guy turned toward the monitoring projection.

Bernie raised both hands, lavender and silver Magic already gathering.

“Can you really trace it?” I asked.

Bernie looked at the black and red tether. “If it asks the question again, I may be able to follow the answer back.”

My heart kicked. “Back to Hell?”

Bernie shook her head. “Back to whoever is holding your leash.”

13

Leash.

The word hit the room like a blade dropped point-first into wood. I heard it. Everyone heard it. But Knox absorbed it.