“How about you go outside and stare longingly at the stars like you’re missing Gabriel, and the rest of your entourage follows you out because they’re worried about you?” Beezle suggested.

“Then everyone is standing still, and how will Jude sniff around? We need to all be outside and moving around, but not in a way that will make Bryson suspicious.”

We all fell silent, trying to come up with some logical reason for us to be outside in the snow on a frigid January night.

“Let’s make a snowman,” I said.

“A snowman?” Jude said, looking skeptical.

“Yeah, a snowman. We’ll all be outside running around the yard collecting snow, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to sniff around. Bryson will have no reason to suspect that we’re trying to find him.”

“I thought we’d reached a low when we tortured the rat-demon. Now you want to try to trick Mr. Awesome Agent by playing in the snow?” Beezle said.

“You were the one who said I should be my usual spastic self,” I said. “Building a snowman gets all of us outside. And Nathaniel and Jude don’t even have to actually do the building. You can stand around and look bored, or sneer, or whatever. It will look like you want to keep an eye on me but don’t want to participate.”

“I don’t want to participate, either,” Beezle said. “Rolling around in the snow is not my idea of fun.”

“Then stay inside. But you’re not getting anything else to eat.”

None of the others looked too thrilled with my idea, either.

“If anyone else has a suggestion, I’m happy to hear it,” I said.

“I guess it could work,” J.B. said reluctantly.

“It will totally work,” I said with a confidence I did not feel. The truth was, I thought it was kind of a dumb idea, too. But a lot of my dumb ideas seemed to work out. I laid out the basic plan and everyone agreed.

I pushed away from the table and said to Nathaniel, “Drop the veil now.”

My ears popped as the veil disappeared. I made a big show of being annoyed.

“Fine, the rest of you do what you want,” I said loudly. “I’m going outside.”

“Yeah, go outside and get yourself killed by another thing from Faerie,” J.B. said. “That’s real smart.”

“I’m not going to stay locked up in this house forever just because you think I should live under glass,” I said, grabbing my coat and stomping toward the back door.

Samiel followed me. Maybe you should listen to J.B.

“Not you, too,” I said, and clattered down the steps toward the outside door.

I threw the door open with a huff and went out to the back porch. I looked around for a moment, like I was trying to gather my thoughts. I couldn’t see any sign of Bryson, but my spider-sense was tingling. He was here somewhere.

Samiel tapped me on the shoulder, holding up my hat and mittens.

Forget something? he asked. He was already bundled up.

I took the hat and gloves from him. “Thanks. I’m sorry I lost my temper.”

I went down the three stairs to the yard and kicked the snow around, doing my best imitation of a person torn between depression and anger. It wasn’t that big of a stretch. I missed Gabriel every second of the day, and I was angry at constantly being hounded by threats and assassins.

Samiel tapped me on the shoulder, holding out a small, perfectly formed snowball. Want to make a snowman?

I smiled at him, like I was letting him cheer me up. “Sure.”

We started rolling the snowman’s bottom half. A few moments later Jude and Nathaniel came outside.

“Where’s J.B.?” I asked.

“He left,” Jude said.

Actually, J.B. had gone around front and intended to circle back by way of the alley. I felt that Bryson had to be flying or resting somewhere at second-story height, because he would want to see and hear what was going on inside my apartment. My hope was that he would be focused on me and not paying attention to J.B.’s approach from the alley.

Jude prowled around the perimeter of the yard like he was bored. Nathaniel walked to the fence that separated my property from the alley and leaned against it, watching us.

After a while Beezle came outside. He couldn’t stand not being in the middle of things. He had a scarf wrapped around his horns and another one wrapped several times around his middle.

“Why is it we’re outside freezing our butts off?”

“Can you not see that we’re building a snowman?” I said.

“I can see. I just want to know why,” Beezle said.

“I needed some air.”

“You needed air that’s only seventeen degrees?”

“Go back inside if you’re going to be annoying,” I said.

At that moment, Jude leapt over my head. As he did, he transformed into a shaggy red-and-gray wolf.

Nathaniel launched after Jude. I heard the sound of a wolf slamming into a human body with tremendous force. I spun around and saw the veil that was hiding Bryson fall away as Jude attacked.

The Agent slashed out with the knife he gripped in his right hand, but Nathaniel was there before the blade could strike Jude. The knife fell into the snow. The angel held Bryson’s wrists to the ground and Jude stood on his chest, growling.

J.B. flew over the fence and landed beside me. “Did I miss all the fun already?”

“Yup,” I said, approaching the three men in the snow.