“Take … care of?” I said.
Devon’s voice was low, tense. “He says the only way to get rid of him is to finish the contract. Is that true?” I nodded and he groaned. “Then how do I get through this contract before he eats me?” His blond hair flopped as he shook his head. “I never thought I’d be forced to choose between killing things and, uh, me. Myself.”
I touched his shoulder. “I tried to stop the witch before we got to this point, but I haven’t done very well so far. I didn’t mess up her spell in any useful way. It’s partly my fault we’re here on the roof.”
It would’ve been nice had Devon disagreed with me at this point, but he didn’t. “You should’ve warned me,” he said.
I had told him to stay in the driveway, but I let that slide. He had a lot on his mind. “I should’ve told you we kept an ax murderer named Clyde in the basement,” I said. “That would’ve kept you upstairs.”
He didn’t laugh. He just stared into the blue-gray of the city. I guess he was savoring a moment of demon-free soul. He probably wasn’t thinking about me at all. I mean, between worrying about your soul and thinking about the girl right next to you, I suppose your soul takes precedence.
“It makes me wish I could run away,” he said finally. “Except he’d still be there.”
“I ran away once when I was ten,” I said. “Made it as far as the train station. They wouldn’t sell me a ticket without an adult present. While I was scoping out the likely-looking bums, the witch materialized in the middle of the station. Literally, I mean. Her hair was all wild and frantic. I saw the look on her face and for one beautiful moment I thought it would be all, ‘Oh Cam, forgive me.’ But no. It was, ‘Go clean the leprechaun castings out of the gutter.’”
“Cam?” Devon said.
“Yes?”
“Do you think the witch is going to kill the pixies?” he said.
I frowned, thinking of pig’s ears, and a silent suppressed memory. “Probably,” I said. “I mean, she said dead or alive, so that implies they’ll be dead when she’s done with them.”
He nodded and breathed. “Okay, so part of the day when the demon took over I took a break from fighting him saying stupid things and sat and thought about this. The witch said the pixies have to be at the school on Friday. So we just have to keep them contained until Friday, and then we can let them go. I thought up here on the roof is about the safest place. So I asked your friend Jenah if there was access—”
“When did you see Jenah?”
“We have American history together,” he explained. “The demon insisted on being awake all through it because some girl named Reese had a white shirt on and you could see her”—his ears went pink again, which was the surest sign I was talking to Devon—“well, her blue … her blue bra. And she’s really, you know … Um. But. I got control long enough to talk to Jenah. She seems like one of those girls who knows everything that’s going on.”
“She is,” I said.
“So if we keep the pixies up here, they’ll be on-site but not dead. And your mom—”
“Not my mom.”
“—didn’t give a time for the pixies on Friday. And didn’t say ‘into my possession,’ like she did with the phoenix. So Friday morning we’ll simply set them free.”
“Very clever,” I said. “As good as a demon in wriggling around contract loopholes.”
He smiled. “Do you want to see them?”
“Totally. I haven’t been pixie-catching since I was a kid.”
He pulled the box from his backpack and gently set it on the ground. The bowl of water had sloshed all over and the bottom of the box was wet, but he didn’t seem to mind. He reached in and withdrew one tiny pixie, which he put in my palms. He didn’t bother to say, “Don’t let it escape,” but I kept my hands cupped over the tiny thing.
“The dark green ones are from the rocky stream just before the lake,” he said.
“That’s a good spot.” I petted the pixie’s tiny curved back. It was cool and damp. He hopped a little on my palm and flicked his wings, testing them out.
“There’s a footbridge there. It was just light enough to see a pair of hares. And then bats came swooping in to eat the mosquitoes, and then the pixies were swooping after the mosquitoes, too. Once the demon rubbed my eyes, I could see the pixies. See that they weren’t really frogs even though they could pass for frogs. They blinked on and off like turn signals.” He touched the top of my pixie’s head. “We should go back there sometime.”