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save my collection?”
    “You’re the witch,” he said. “You decide.”
    The raw anger in his voice made Neko squeak with discomfort. I could practically see my familiar offer up his soft underbelly as he interceded between us. “What about a week from Sunday?” Neko said, hopeful as a child begging for a sundae. “That would be a good day, wouldn’t it? Dark of moon?”
    “A week from—” I glanced at Melissa, who remained completely silent. Sunday was the day that she and I were going to be yoga goddesses.
    David spoke to me, following up on Neko’s suggestion without a hint of emotion. “Whatever you work under the dark of moon will be bound to you. Not free to wander, like full-moon creatures.” He glanced at Neko. “I assume that your familiar can make himself available?”
    My familiar scratched at his ear nonchalantly, his momentary bravery in entering our battlefield nearly forgotten. “She said that I could leave here, you know. I didn’t just walk out.”
    But now I wondered about that. Sure, Neko had the right to roam the city; that was the result of my having awakened him on a full-moon night. But there’d been something different over these past months. We’d grown apart from each other. Sure, I said it was because of stolen food and pilfered drink, but there was something more at play. My magical bond to Neko was as damaged and frayed as my connection to my other magical paraphernalia.
    “Well,” David said, silently passing judgment, even if his words stayed noncommittal. “Whatever magic you work this time will have to be explicitly bound to you. To your collection. Right?”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neko nod, and Melissa blinked. I realized that David was staring at me, a question haunting his somber eyes. The weight of the moment settled over my shoulders like a wet wool coat, and I resisted the urge to shrug. Instead, I said, “Yes. The magic will stay. This time.”
    “Fine, then,” David said. “I’ll see you a week from Sunday.”
    And he left. He turned on his heel, and he stalked out of my kitchen, leaving behind a nearly full glass of mojito and a plate with a few cracker crumbs.
    I started to go after him. I started to open the door, to call him back. I started to explain that I had missed him. I’d missed us . I’d missed being witch and warder, but I really, truly had been busy.
    But I couldn’t make myself move. Not to apologize. Not with Neko watching, and Melissa. Not when I hadn’t been wrong. Had I?
    When the silence became so heavy that I thought I might never be able to speak again, I noticed Melissa moving. Shooing Neko forward. Mouthing to him to do something .
    My familiar took a moment to shake himself back to awareness. Then, he sprang over to my cupboards and stretched for the top shelf, for a half-dozen tumblers of cobalt-blue. I’d placed them out of his reach months ago, when I’d realized that every glass he brought down to the basement never made it back to the kitchen.
    “Jane, as long as you’re using a spell to wash dishes tonight, could you clean these up, too? Jacques and I broke our last highball this afternoon, and these will be perfect replacements!”
    I contemplated priming my magic with a spell to shatter all my glasses, just to spite him, but I settled for a sigh. “Sure, Neko. Whatever.”
    He beamed. “Great! They’ll look great with the fish pitcher! Bottoms up!” He drained the last of Melissa’s concoction into one of the blue glasses.
    I drank with both of them, but I wondered what the dark moon would bring. And whether David would truly stand by my side when I faced it.

3
    I settled into the booth at Whitlow’s On Wilson, trying to squelch my unease at traveling to the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia. I didn’t venture out of the city often, and the last time I’d come to Arlington had been a disaster. I thought that I’d been visiting my one true love, but I’d discovered that he was a lying,