“What’s the matter?” Evan asked as I got back in the car, his strong brow wrinkled in concern.

Apparently I was a little more thrown by the questionnaire than I thought. Schooling my face, I said, “Nothing. What’s up with Beni and Espy?”

“They’re still researching,” he said, those damnably green eyes searching me. “You were only in there for like twenty minutes, so we’ll go meet them at the library. Are you sure everything--”

“Everything’s fine,” I snapped, then instantly regretted it. “...I’m sorry.”

He sighed. “Look, I know I’m not Beni, but you can trust me.”

“I trust you,” I said.

A skeptical brow arched.

“I do.”

“Really,” he said. “We’ve only been partners for about twenty-eight hours, and it already feels like you’re not fully in this.”

I gaped at him before I remembered to snap my mouth shut. “Of course I’m in this. Fully, completely in this. I’ve been training for my first partnership my whole life, it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“Then why does it feel like you’re keeping something from me?” He turned in the driver’s seat to face me, and I was struck with the knowledge that he was trained in every way that I was. I’d always known that, of course, but watching him read my body language was a new experience for me. Only Dad had ever seen through me so easily before.

My mouth opened, but nothing came out. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t come up with a lie quickly enough.

He shook his head, starting up the car. We pulled away from the curb in silence, his eyes forward.

A tentative hand reached toward him. “Evan, I--”

“Unless whatever you’re about to say is the truth, I don’t want to hear it.”

His voice came out harsher than I’d ever heard it, and I actually shrank back a little. My hand flopped back into my lap.

All I wanted was to prove to Evan that I was a good companion, and I’d done the total opposite. Now he thought I didn’t trust him, but that wasn’t the reason at all. When Dad told me Evan was to be my partner, it had seemed like a dream come true. How had it become such a nightmare?

I couldn’t tell him the truth. I couldn’t. He had reacted reasonably well when I’d confessed about my orientation, but it was one thing to be theoretically okay with me liking men, and another thing entirely to be okay with me liking him. Besides, there was no real point in telling him. He’d never be able to like me back. This was just something I had to work through until it went away.

But I had to say something to smooth this over. He couldn’t think I didn’t trust him. We’d never function as a unit like this. I could tell him about the questionnaire, how small it had made me feel. It wasn’t a lie, just not the whole truth.

“Evan, please listen,” I began, only to end in a yelp as the car swerved to the right, shooting down an alley.

“What the hyle?” I pushed myself up.

“It’s not me,” Evan said, pulling on the steering wheel with all his might, but it didn’t budge. His foot pumped the brake to no avail. “Nothing’s working.”

“The key!”

He grabbed it, but it wouldn’t turn. “It’s stuck.”

I took a deep breath, released it. All the cares that had been so dire only moments ago melted away as I fell into my spark. The true sight flickered to life over my regular vision.

I gasped. “Evan, look!”

Even in the light of day I could see a sparkling web of magic, golden like pixie dust, surrounding the car. Wavering lines criss-crossed over us before winding together like a cable and shooting down the alley. This spell, or whatever, was literally dragging us somewhere.

Evan leaned closer to the window. “What does it say?”

“What?” I squinted, and it was only then that I saw it.

The net was made of little rows of Asian characters, woven together like a thousand tiny chains.

“What are they?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “Chinese, I think.”

“As Beni would say, screw this!” I held my hands up, fingers curling into the Benediction. As I whispered the Fathers of our Fathers under my breath, blue light kindled between my hands with each name--

“Wait.” Evan grabbed my wrist and my concentration shattered, banishing the true sight.

“What are you doing?” I tried to shake him off, but his grip tightened. “Let go.”

“We can’t dispel it, yet,” he said. “We don’t know what will happen.”

“But we have to do something,” I protested.

“What if we can’t get the car under control fast enough?” As if to punctuate his words, we rounded another sharp corner. “Saints can die in a car crash just as much as a hyletic can.”

He had a point, but still. “So we do nothing?”

“Not nothing,” he said calmly. “We wait, and prepare, and seize our moment when it comes.”

“If it comes,” I said. “Maybe we’re being dragged off a cliff.”

“I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “Whoever has power like this could have just killed us if they wanted.”

“Jee, that’s comforting,” I muttered.

“My point,” he continued, “is if they wanted us dead, we would be.”

My free hand flapped at the glowing letters. “What is all this, then?”

“I have a feeling we’ll soon find out.” A pointed glance fell on his hand still around my wrist, and then back up at me. “Okay?”

I sighed. “Okay.”

He let go of me, and I resisted the urge to rub my wrist.

“The town isn’t that big,” he said. “Wherever we’re going isn’t far. Then we’ll see who’s behind this.”

My hand slid between my seat and the console where Baby in her sheath lay waiting for me. When my hand closed around her hilt I instantly felt a little more in control.

“Fine,” I said. “We’ll wait.”

As we traveled the town began changing. Buildings were older, different styles of architecture, more obviously in need of repair here and there. I also noticed signs on walls or windows in the same possibly-Chinese as the web around us. (At least, it looked the same to me.)

“I think we’re slowing down,” Evan said.

“Finally.”

The car zig-zagged down a few more turns, and then stopped at last outside the back entrance of a Chinese restaurant. Song of the East, according to the sign. On the steps leading up to wide double doors, a diminutive Asian woman in a smart pants suit was watching us. There was something wrong with her face, a splotchy scar over one eye.

“Is that who…” I trailed off in disbelief.

With a click, the key turned itself off. No one was touching it. Even Saints get goosebumps.

“Must be,” said Evan. “Ready?”

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”