Ever After

Page 13

 

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cool and carrying the hint of rain, the night wind pushed against me, sporadically sending my hair to tickle my neck. It brought to me the smell of early lilac and the sound of spring frogs and running water. Far in the distance was the sound of interstate traffic, barely a whisper. Behind me, Loveland Castle loomed dark, empty, and forbidding. Trent's snazzy black sports car sat parked in the dirt lot. My car was still at his gatehouse. The light from the camp lantern on the retaining wall behind me barely made it to the surrounding forest stretching around us-just far enough to make the place feel creepy.

  Edgy, I shifted my feet into the gravelly scree of the lower garden path as I stood in the glow of the lantern, my hands on my hips and Bis on the crumbling retaining wall behind me. Four feet tall, it almost put him eye to eye with me. Together we looked across the tall grass at the damaged ley line stretching across the lower, long-fallow garden and waited for Jenks and Trent to return.

  The ley line looked ugly with my second sight, worse in the lamp's glow than it had in the sun, with violet-purple streamers coming from the line to soak up the energy leaking through. But for all its nasty appearance, I was sure the line itself was fine apart from the original leak. Ku'Sox had moved all the minuscule imbalances from the other lines, concentrating them in mine to make an event horizon. It was an event, all right. The last one the demons would ever see.

  I shivered despite the night's warmth, and Bis tightened his grip on the retaining wall, making the stones crack. I didn't want to let the little guy know how nervous I was, but it was hard with him so close. Trent's rings were in my pocket. I had refused to give them to him when I'd come back through the vault, afraid he'd come out here with Quen and do something stupid. Quen wasn't up to magic yet, and it had taken both of us to convince the man to stay with Ray tonight lest Ellasbeth take her to the West Coast for her own hostage demands.

  Trent was helping Jenks canvass the nearby area for pixy intel, but I still felt naked knowing that Al wouldn't be able to save my butt if Ku'Sox showed. For the first time, I was really on my own. "Well?" I whispered to Bis, wishing they would hurry up. "What do you think?"

  Bis shifted his clawed hind feet and bits of rock pattered down. "It hurts," he said, simply, ears pinned to his skull. Depressed, I went to sit on the stone wall beside him, scooting myself up until my feet hung above the lower path.

  "But do you think we can separate the imbalances?"

  He shrugged, looking lost as his ears perked up. I was asking a lot, and I edged closer, rocks pinching me. "Let me hear," I said, touching his foot so I could feel the lines resonate.

  My teeth clenched as suddenly every single ley line within my reach sung inside my head. It was a heady experience-and why I usually had a bubble of protection around my thoughts when I touched Bis. This time, though, the harsh discord of my nearby ley line cut through the beauty, making my teeth ache and my head hurt.

  "My God!" I said as I let go of him and stared at the line with my second sight. "How can you stand it?" And how am I going to separate anything from that noise?

  The cat-size gargoyle shrugged, touching his wingtips together over his head. "I don't have a choice. Everyone is tired of listening to it. I've been told to fix it, and fix it now. "

  My thoughts zinged back to the three gargoyles I'd seen tonight before we'd left, perched on the roof of the church and spitting at the pixies to keep them out of earshot as they talked in low rumbles. I would've gone up into the belfry to eavesdrop, but I was afraid they might take Bis and move to another church. "You!" I said, surprised. "But it's my line!"

  His red eyes glowed eerily in the lantern's light. "And I'm responsible for you having made it. "

  "Bis, this isn't your fault. Neither is Ku'Sox exploiting the tear to try to break the ever-after. Even if you hadn't left me, I would have scraped that hole trying to get out. " I clutched my arms around myself, cold as I remembered it. I might have managed to jump the lines, but I'd damaged my aura and scraped a hole in reality in the process.

  "But I left you," he said, unable to look at me.

  Smiling, I bubbled my thoughts and touched his shoulder. "It was my fault, not yours, for trying to jump a line before I knew what I was doing. "

  He was silent, and I gave his shoulder a squeeze before letting go. I knew he still blamed himself. He'd changed a lot since then, waking up in the day for brief periods, becoming more somber, less prone to playing tricks on the pixies. He was getting older, and I worried that I'd brought an end to his childhood before its time. "Is this why there have been gargoyles on the roof with you?" I asked, not sure how much he'd be willing to tell me.

  Immediately Bis brightened. "They're teaching me the vibrations of their lines," he said proudly. "Usually a gargoyle is taught by only one other gargoyle, but the lines aren't acting right, so they're taking turns by singing me only their line, the one they know by heart. "

  "D-demons?" I stammered. "You've been talking to demon-bound gargoyles?"

  He nodded, almost going invisible as he flushed a deep black to make his red eyes stand out. "They're trying to teach me all the lines so that I can teach them to you. I only know a few, since most won't leave the ever-after and their demons. They want me to come to them. "

  He dropped his eyes, scared of the idea, and I frowned. "The lines aren't acting right," he said, clawed feet shifting as he looked at the line. "Demons aren't jumping on their own at all. Everyone needs their gargoyle, like they're brand-new to line jumping. "

  Remembering my jump from the mall to Newt's kitchen, I nodded. "They're teaching you line jumping," I said, and he grinned, a glint of light showing on his thick black teeth.

  "Yup. "

  I looked at the line, then him. "So you know what some of the lines sound like?

  He nodded, making a face. "I know what they're supposed to sound like. They're off. "

  "Because their imbalances are here in my line . . . " Fingers tapping the cold stone, I thought that over. "Bis, if you know what they're supposed to sound like and you can hear what they sound like now, then maybe I can find what's missing in my line here and shift it back. It's the misplaced imbalance that's causing the trouble. "

  Bis's eyes blinked slowly. "Maybe that's what they were talking about," he said, his heavy brow furrowing. "Pigeon poop, Rachel. Talking to those old gars is like talking to crazy old men. They never come out and tell you what they mean. Everything is spoons and two-legged chairs. What does a spoon have to do with a ley line? I don't know! Do you?"

  Clearly he was frustrated. I could sympathize, having listened to enough wise-old-man crap to fill a wheelbarrow. "No," I admitted, "but if we can separate even one imbalance and put it back, it might make a big difference in the leak. Buy us some more time. "

  "Or Ku'Sox might show up," Bis said.

  True. I exhaled heavily and turned in a slow circle, looking into the dark for the silver tracing of pixy dust. Jenks should have been back by now; Trent was slowing him down.

  "Sounds kind of hard," Bis said, the tip of his tail twitching.

  I turned to follow his gaze to the ugly, shrill line, slumping as my first excitement died. "I know," I said dejectedly. "I have no idea how to separate the imbalances. "

  Bis moved his wings, the hush of leather against leather making me shiver. "Why does it have to be hard?"

  Bis's head turned. A second later, Jenks's wings' clatter became obvious. "It always is," Jenks said as he hovered before us, dusting heavily and clearly having heard Bis's last statement. Behind him, a black shadow strode out from the surrounding woods. It had to be Trent, or Jenks would be having issues. Besides, no one else I knew moved with that kind of grace.

  "Well?" I asked Jenks, trying not to look at Trent as he rejoined us. Pierce's warning was still ringing in me. I was not in love with Trent, and never would be-especially with Ellasbeth back in the picture and Trent on a
mission to save the elves. True, we worked marginally well together. His unexpected surprises were annoying, but they did generally work out. And yes, he looked more than a little attractive in his sturdy black jeans, tucked-in stretchy shirt, and lightweight rain jacket. His fair hair was covered with a black cap to keep off the damp, and the black gloves were probably just for effect because I knew he wasn't cold. But to entertain anything more than a casual work relationship was laughable.

  Seeing Jenks hovering over his shoulder, I was struck by how they managed to look as if they went together though they were nothing alike. "There isn't much here for pixies unless there's a tour coming through," Jenks said, his face glowing from the dust. "They remember you being here yesterday, and a bunch of demons before that, but not one on his own like Ku'Sox. We did a quick survey, and we're good for at least a quarter mile unless you count the raccoons. "

  I squinted at the line. "Okay. I'm going to take a look-see-"

  "You're not getting in that line!" Jenks shouted, and Bis's red eyes widened in alarm.

  "I'm not getting in the line," I said, glancing at Trent to see him watching me with the same intensity as Jenks. "You think I'm out here sniffing fairy farts? Bis knows what some of the lines are supposed to sound like, and by comparing that to what they sound like now, maybe we can find the imbalance, bubble it, and move it out . . . "

  My words trailed off when Trent tilted his head. "That wasn't our original idea. "

  Jenks hovered right before my nose, wings clattering belligerently. "Yeah? Then what?"

  I winced. "Maybe if I move it out, it might just get sucked back into place?"

  Bis was making this weird noise, and we all turned to him. I think it was his version of clearing his throat, but it sounded like rocks in a garbage disposal. "Ah, bubbled imbalance won't get sucked anywhere," he said apologetically. "But if you tune the bubble holding it to the same vibration as its parent line . . . " His words trailed off and his wings shifted.

  Trent's exhale was long and slow. It wasn't the immediate no I had expected, and seeing him consider it, Jenks seemed to become even more frustrated.

  "Tink's little pink rosebuds," he grumbled, landing next to Bis and checking the sharpness of his sword. "Now I've got two of them to watch. Whose idea was this?" He looked up at Bis. "Yours?"

  I waited nervously as Trent thought it over, his boots scuffing the gravel. "Tuning your aura to a line pulls you into it, so tuning a bubble, which is basically an aura-tainted field of force, will pull whatever is in the bubble to the line? It's worth a look, since we have the rings as a safety net. " He turned to Jenks. "Jenks, what do you think?"

  My eyebrows rose. Asking Jenks for his opinion? Maybe the time they'd worked together had made an impact after all.

  "I think you're all screwy in the head," he said when Bis nodded his encouragement. "But go ahead. I've got Quen's number in my phone. I'll call him if you both explode in a flash of black underwear and money so I won't have to fly all the way home. "

  Bis made a snuffing snort of a laugh, but I was thrilled, and my heart gave a thump and settled. "Let's do it," I said as I turned to the line. "Bis? You want to sit on my shoulder?"

  He nodded, and as Jenks crossed his arms over his chest and hovered over the wall, Bis made the three-beat wing flap to me, landing with his toes spread wide so he wouldn't gouge me when he landed. The lines flashed into existence at his touch, but prepared for it, I gritted my teeth at the tinfoil-like sensation. It was awful, seeing as we were so close to a line, and I could understand why the gargoyles on both sides of reality were having issues.

  "Rache?" Jenks said suspiciously when my eyes closed in a strength-gathering blink.

  "Fine," I said, then choked when Bis tightened his tail around my neck.

  "Sorry," he said as he loosened his hold. The little guy was the size of a cat but had the weight of a bird, smelling like cold stone, leather, and feathers from the pigeons he ate.

  "My God," I said as I stared at the line, a sharp pain starting just over my right eye. "This is awful. Bis, can you show me what one of the line signatures you've learned looks like?"

  Trent cleared his throat. "You want to use that safety net, or keep it in your pocket, Ms. Morgan?"

  I jerked, sheepish at Jenks's severe look as I wiggled the rings out and extended them to Trent on my palm. Bis wiggled his toes as they glinted in the lantern's light. "I think you'd have more control if you took the bigger ring," I said, and as Trent reached for it, I closed my fist. "No funny stuff," I warned, opening my fingers again.

  Trent put his hand under mine to hold it steady, jerking back in alarm when the full force of the lines hit him through Bis. "Holy . . . ah, wow," he said, eyes wide in the low light, distress clear on him. "Is that what the line feels like to you?"

  Bis's feet tightened on me. "It kind of hurts. Can we hurry up?"

  Immediately Trent took the larger ring. I put the smaller one on my pinkie, but if it was like our practice run earlier, nothing would happen until he put his on. It bothered me that the only way I could take off my ring now was if Trent slipped his over mine, nesting them on my finger to remove them both at once. It had been a scary five minutes figuring that out.

  "Here we go," Trent said as he took his gloves off, and Jenks frowned, still not convinced. The glint of the pinkie ring twin to my own caught my eye, and I wondered at the connections we had. I still wore Al's demon mark. Was it the same thing, or different?

  My shoulders wiggled as the ring fitted about Trent's finger and a weird sensation of entanglement sprung up around me. Bis actually sighed in relief as the connection to the discordant line dulled. It was still there, but it felt diluted-the best I could put it was that the energy was now going through a maze of passages to find me. It was the chastity ring, and when I nodded, Trent eased the grip of it until the flow was again its normal self, almost as if he had lifted me above the maze and I could connect normally.

  Trent's presence was faint in my uppermost thoughts, sort of like a teacher walking the aisles during a test. We were ready, and I closed my eyes.

  "Okay. " Bis loosened his tail about my neck and shivered. "Ah, I'm going to sing you Newt's line first. "

  My concentration shattered. "Newt's!" I exclaimed, heart pounding.

  "Newt has a gargoyle?" Jenks exclaimed, and Bis's tail tightened until I nearly choked.

  "Rachel, will you listen? I think I'm going to spew pigeon feathers. Newt's was the first one I learned, okay?"

  I nodded, closing my eyes again, which made me feel dizzy. "Give me a sec," I said as I sat down in the puddle of lantern light, but then it only felt like the world was tilting.

  "Rachel?"

  Trent's voice was close, and I put my palms on the ground for balance. "Dizzy," I said, smiling at him. "We're okay. "

  Jenks's wings clattered. "This is as smart as sleeping outside in November," Jenks grumbled. "You sure you got her, cookie maker?"

  "I've got her. Just watch the woods, pixy. "

  "Listen," Bis demanded as he resettled his wings, and I closed my eyes, feeling the pure ting of a rise and fall of sound, glittering in my mind's eye like a silver thread of light, a bare hint of jagged red and gray and silver, half a beat out of step with the glorious hum. It sounded sort of familiar, comfortable. Like the line in the graveyard . . .

  "Got it?" he asked, and I mm-hmmed. "This is what it sounds like now," he said, and I jerked as if struck when the world seemed to hiccup. The feeling of the line I was looking at with my mind shifted slightly, and sure enough, the ragged half step was gone.

  "No way," I whispered, and my eyes opened. Trent was standing guard with his eyes on the forest line. Jenks was hovering at my eye level, his angular features pinched. Behind him, the line glowed like a deranged fair ride, dangerous and unreliable.

  "Rache . . . " he warned, and I held a hand up to forestall his next words.

  "Trent has me
, and I'm not going to do anything Bis doesn't want. " I reached up to touch the gargoyle's feet. "Bis? You want me to try to find that ragged half step in the imbalance?"

  Bis jumped to the ground before me. The expansive backdrop of the lines in my mindscape had vanished along with his touch, and my shoulders relaxed. Bis shifted from foot to foot as his tail whipped about until he curved it over his feet and sat like a little lion. "I'm sure this is how to fix the line," he said, and I heard a big unsaid however.

  "I'll be careful," I said to Jenks, then looked at Trent. "I won't do anything until Bis tells me I can, okay?"

  Jenks squinted at me, and when Trent nodded, the pixy gestured sourly to Bis to get on with it. A four-inch man ruled us all.

  "Maybe you should bubble yourself first," Trent suggested. "In case Ku'Sox shows. "

  It was a good idea, but as I sketched a small, easy-to-hold bubble around Bis and myself, Jenks's dust went an alarmed red.

  "Okay! That's it!" Jenks shouted, hovering before all of us. "I didn't like this before, and I like it less now! Rache, there has to be another way!"

  Bis met my eyes, shaking his head so narrowly it was almost no movement at all. I looked past him to Trent, his stance stiff and his expression fixed. Ku'Sox was stronger than me. If we couldn't fix the line and prove that Ku'Sox had made it, then how would we ever get Lucy and Ceri back?

  "Jenks," I said softly, and he hummed irately at me. "It's going to be okay. Trent will yank my butt out if I get stuck. "

  "I'm going to do a perimeter," he muttered. "You and Trent do your magic thing. "

  He buzzed off into the dark, and my gaze went to Trent. I didn't think Jenks was jealous, but it had to be hard to bear that I was putting myself in a narrow spot where anything bad could happen, and probably would.

  "Circle?" Trent suggested, his expression holding both determination and frustration for not being able to do this himself. I didn't have a problem helping him. I loved Ceri and Ray, too.

  Feeling odd, I reached a hand to the informal but securely scratched circle in the dirt. It was small, but I was sitting. Rhombus, I whispered within my thoughts, and a molecule-thin sheet of ever-after sprang up. It wavered as Trent tested his hold on me through the rings, and at my nod, the circle sprang up strong again. We were good.

  Bis was well within my circle, and he fidgeted, a wingtip sliding out and back in through my bubble. He was the only person in two realities who could pass through my circle. It was why it took a gargoyle to teach a demon-or a witch, for that matter-to line jump. Gargoyles could hear the lines and tell those they were bonded to how to tune their aura so they would be sucked into the right line. What gargoyles got out of the deal was beyond me.

  "Okay," Bis said as he reached out to take my hands. The harsh discord immediately fell on me, and I tried not to wince. His hands felt small in my grip, and I forced myself to smile reassuringly. "Take a look at your line here," Bis went on. "I'm going to focus on it, and hopefully the rest of the background noise will go away. "

  My breath came faster as suddenly the only thing I was hearing/seeing in my mind was my ugly ley line with the purple core screaming at me. I couldn't even hear the pure ting of energy behind it. It was disgusting. "Rachel?" Bis said in a pained voice, and I opened one eye a little. Behind him, Trent was scribing a larger circle around mine that could hold all of us. Wise man.

  "Right. " I turned my awareness to the purple sludge, careful not to get my thoughts near it and possibly get sucked in. Purple, everything was a blaring purple with fading striations of red, the sound of it rushing through me like ants, but the deeper I looked at it, the more I was able to listen past the purple coating to the twining colors behind it. Reds, blues, greens, oranges, and even browns and gold, just like auras, they swirled together but never mixed.

  "Find Newt's imbalance," Bis whimpered, and I peeked at him again.

  "Newt's!" Jenks shouted, and my eyes opened wide to see him sitting on Trent's shoulder, unable to stay away. "You telling me the line in the backyard-where my kids play-is Newt's?"

  Bis's face was screwed up, and he nodded, the tufts on his ears waving. I didn't like the idea that the line I had claimed as my primary source had been created by Newt, either, but it was what it was. Trent looked a little ill, and I wondered whose half-a-mile-long line was running through his office, back room, and gardens.

  Fingers holding Bis's, I resettled myself on the gravel path. It was obvious that this tight of contact with the line was hurting him. The discord was too loud, too painful.

  Bis's grip on my hands tightened. "Now, Rachel. "

  I plunged my thoughts back in the line, ghosting through the purple haze, finding it easier now that I'd done it before, searching, discarding, sifting until I found the half step of red, tiny and lost among the rest. "Got it!" I whispered, heart pounding as I gathered it to me, struggling to pull it free of the rest. It was stuck like Velcro.

  "Bubble it," Bis said. "Bring it out with you. With us. "

  With a curious flip-flop of thought, I bubbled the color/sound. My eyes snapped open as the connection broke and I suddenly found myself holding the memory of a mess of half-step red vibration in my mind. Trent was sitting before us, just outside the bubble with the line behind him. His eyes were wide, and I wondered how much he was getting through the rings.

  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jenks said, rising up on a dusting of blue. "That sounds like line jumping to me. Isn't this what you did to make your broken line to begin with?"

  Bis was smiling, looking exhausted as his wings drooped. "She's just going to move the imbalance, not herself. " He looked at me, his craggy brow furrowed in warning. "Right?"

  My hair was tickling my face, but I didn't dare let go of Bis's hand to brush it aside. "Right," I said. "And besides, Jenks. I've got it already. "

  Trent's face was alight, and I nodded at his unspoken question. Yep, I had it. It was doing flip-flops in my soul, and I didn't want to think about what might happen if I accidentally let go of the bubble and the imbalance became a part of me, but I had it. It sort of hurt.

  "Your line sounds better already," Bis said, his hand still in mine. "Do you remember what Newt's line sounds like without the imbalance?"

  I bobbed my head, afraid to move. "Tune my aura to it?"

  "No!" Bis shouted, startling me as his wings half opened. And then softer, almost sheepishly, he said, "Not your aura, just the bubble around the imbalance. "

  I fidgeted, embarrassed that Trent had seen the near miss. "Should I think about Newt?"

  Bis's red eyes widened. "I don't think so. "

  "I wouldn't," Jenks said sourly. "Rachel, will you just dump that imbalance and get on with it? Your aura looks really creepy holding a chunk of Newt's. "

  Trent was nodding his agreement, so I closed my eyes to better focus on the bubble of imbalance trapped in my mind's eye. It was coated with my cheerful gold aura and a thin layer of demon smut, and I needed to shift it to . . . silvery gray red. Licking my lips, I screwed my face up as I tried to imagine silver pinpricks blossoming on my gold sphere, growing to encompass everything.

  "Tune it higher," Bis whimpered, clearly in pain.

  "I'm trying!" I said, tightening my focus. My breath sucked in as the bubble flashed silver, overfocusing to a solid black. With a curious sideways shuffle, I pulled it back to silver, imagining a shading of a pure tinge of red lined with gray. For one breathless moment I held it, feeling my entire soul chime with the sound of silver light . . . And then it was . . . gone. There was a faint tug, and then even that severed, my awareness snapping back with a twang.

  "Rachel?"

  My eyes flew open at Trent's call. He'd felt it. I thought he might. Heart pounding, I looked at Bis in the lamplight, Trent standing behind him with Jenks on his shoulder. The gargoyle looked as shocked as me. "Holy crap!" I shouted, my voice echoing back from the trees. "Did we-"

  "You did!" the small gar
goyle exclaimed, and I ducked as he made one push with his wings and was through my circle and airborne, flying loops with the bats and yelling in delight.

  I beamed at Trent. We had done it. And if we had done it once, we could do it again and again until the line was fixed!

  "You did it, Rachel!" Bis said, startling me as he skidded to a landing on the gravel path, peppering my circle with kicked-up stones. His wings were spread and his eyes wild. "You did it! Look at that line! It sounds better already!"

  "We all did it," I said as I dropped the circle to put a hand on his shoulder. The glory of the lines flooded me, and yes, once I got past the discord, I could tell there was the faintest lessening of the leak. Relief filled me, and I swear, I almost cried.

  "Nicely done, Rachel. " Smiling up at Trent, I accepted his hand and stood. Our pinkie rings glinted together in the light, and I didn't know how to feel about it. My hands were shaking, but I was ready to put another imbalance back if Bis was.

  Pulling my hand from Trent's, I looked for Bis. "Another one?" I asked, my intention obvious, and he nodded from the retaining wall, his red eyes glowing in the lamplight.

  Jenks's wings clattered as he dropped down, shrilling something so fast I couldn't understand him.

  "You surprise me, Rachel," came an oily voice from the dark, and I spun, heart pounding as I turned to the river. Ku'Sox? Crap on toast!

  "It's Ku'Sox!" Jenks shouted, dripping an angry, frightened red dust. His sword was out, and his wings by my ear, harsh.

  "Not in that you figured it out," Ku'Sox said, a small sphere of light blossoming in his hand to show his presence beside my screaming, damaged line, "but that you're stupid enough to be out here alone. "

  Bis landed on my other side, puffing up as much he could by sucking in the moisture from the air. The size of a large dog, he crouched beside me with his tail thrashing.

  "She's not alone," Jenks spat, hovering at head height and brandishing his sword. "Back off, Cute Socks. I cut your nose off before, I'll do it again. "

  Ku'Sox's globe of light flickered, and with that as my only warning, I invoked my protection circle, still scratched in the dust around me.

  Bis yelped at the energy I yanked through me, the gargoyle shrinking as a ball of greenish black bounced off Trent's larger circle, invoked an instant before mine. Ku'Sox's spell hit the nearby retaining wall and stuck, glowing a weird greenish light. I dropped my circle.

  I stood, white-faced, and the ugly line hummed through me, harsh and dizzying as I pulled it in, trying to become stronger. "I cursed you!" I exclaimed as I stood behind a grim-faced Trent. "You can't leave the ever-after!"

  "I haven't. " Smug, he walked into the light of our hissing lantern, and my stomach clenched as my first thought was borne out. Nick. He had possessed him. A doppelganger curse was easy. Demons did them all the time. Al had once possessed Lee to walk about in reality in the daytime. "You're fortunate that your boyfriend is rather light in the loafers when it comes to manipulating ley line energy," Ku'Sox said, confirming my thoughts, "or I would tear through your familiar's paltry circle and be done with you right now. "

  "He's not my familiar," I said as Ku'Sox halted before us. "And Nick is not my boyfriend. He is a mistake!"

  Nodding absently, Ku'Sox poked at Trent's circle, evaluating the dimple he made as Bis continued to hiss and Jenks landed on my shoulder in solidarity. The demon was in a three-piece suit, and it looked dumb out here in the weedy garden at the foot of a homemade castle, whereas Al's crushed green velvet had somehow seemed right at home. The light coming from the spell that had hit the wall supplemented the lantern, showing his silvery-gray hair slicked back and reflecting off his shiny shoes. His expression was smug as he eyed me, running his eyes up and down my silhouette in a way I decidedly didn't like. "This body I'm in remembers what you feel like. Inside and out. "

  Trent stiffened, and the psychotic demon turned to him. "Your whore and child are alive. Come with me now, and they will stay that way. "

  I gripped Trent's arm, but he shrugged me off, the rising scent of cinnamon nearly overpowering the stench of ever-after Ku'Sox reeked of. "If you go with him, nothing will stop him," I said, and Trent's frustration grew until his circle hummed with it.

  "Don't you think I know that?"

  I wondered if he was wishing he'd never freed Ku'Sox. I knew I was.

  Sighing dramatically, Ku'Sox rolled his eyes. "As entertaining as this is, would you mind if we flipped to the last page? I want that curse lifted you put on me, Rachel. I want Trenton Aloysius Kalamack to make me a brand-new generation of demons to play with, and I want the ancient demons dead. I want the ever-after dead so I may never be trapped there again, and I want it all in that order. Notice you are not on the list . . . yet. "

  His gaze traveled over the lines of my tattoo, and I stifled a tremor. Feeling it, Jenks lifted from my shoulder. "Are you fairy-farting kidding me?" Jenks said, and Bis's tail lashed through my bubble. "Rache, you don't actually believe this freak, do you?"

  Ku'Sox almost snarled at the insult, but then his eyes lifted from Bis to Trent. "Working with elves . . . Really, Rachel. I think you should be commended for stretching your abilities, but Newt would be most displeased with you. "

  I pushed to the front of Trent's bubble. "Here's my list. We fix the line," I said as I carefully siphoned energy off the discordant line and filled my chi. "Then the ancient demons grow a pair and we all shove you in a little hole in St. Louis again. That's my list. I don't care if it's in that order, either. "

  Ku'Sox dramatically rolled his eyes. "My God, you are so like a woman. "

  "That's because I am one. "

  "Oh, this is tiresome," Ku'Sox moaned, and then he gestured, his hand glowing.

  "Look out!" Jenks shrilled, shooting straight up. Both Trent and I instinctively crouched. Trent gasped as Ku'Sox's spell tore through his bubble, breaking it, and I threw a wad of energy at the incoming ball, deflecting it. The night wind shifted my hair, and Ku'Sox's energy pinged over my ley line and into the woods to die. There was a tug, and Trent's circle was up again. Ku'Sox jerked to a halt, so close the circle hummed a warning.

  Trent's eyes met mine, and slowly we stood. I felt ill looking at the grim hatred in his expression. I didn't think it was the rings that had saved our skins. We just knew what to do.

  "Curious," Ku'Sox said, walking the edge of our circle like a lion in the shadows. "Both of you together? Unexpected. " His eyes slid to the ley line. "And potentially troublesome. "

  Satisfied, I stood straighter. A drop of sugar-coated anger slipped through my fear. "We can prove you did this," I said, and he rolled his eyes. "I'm going to Dali and-"

  My words cut off as a wash of energy made Ku'Sox flicker. Trent moaned when it melted away to show Ku'Sox holding Lucy on his hip. The fair-headed little girl was only a year old, innocent of the monster who held her and happy with the world. Her little mouth curved up in a smile when she saw me, and then she cried out when she saw Trent, reaching with her hands for him to come take her.

  "Rachel, I can't," Trent said, ashen. "She's my daughter. "

  "You'll go to Dali and what?" Ku'Sox said as he held her on his hip, his arrogant expression mocking. Beside me, Trent's breath quickened. Shit, he might do anything, I thought, and I grabbed his arm, refusing to let go lest he walk through his circle and break it. This was what had happened in the clearing with Quen and Lucy, and I vowed it would have a new ending.

  "Down!" Lucy demanded imperiously when she saw Trent, then, "No! No!" when Ku'Sox tightened his grip.

  "She's my godchild. You broke our agreement," I said as the little girl's pout drifted into the realm of a tantrum, and the clean-shaven demon in his three-piece charcoal suit smiled a perfect, evil smile.

  "File the paperwork. " Frowning, Ku'Sox jiggled Lucy, but she wouldn't be distracted, her hands extended to Trent and pleading for him to come get her. I didn't think I could h
ate Ku'Sox any more. Trent's hands were fisted, his breathing shallow. Bis's ears were down in indecision, and Jenks hovered at the top of Trent's circle, waiting for instruction. I didn't know what to do. Ku'Sox might hurt her.

  Seeing us frozen, Ku'Sox turned the magic wreathing his hand inward. Making a fist, he opened it to release a dozen tiny winged horses, pink, purple, and red. "Love is such a fine weapon when utilized fully," he said as Lucy caught sight of them and was predictably distracted.

  I stiffened when he set the wildly wiggling toddler down, but then he gestured, and the horses galloped into the dark, down the broken path and away from me. Shouting in delight, Lucy wobbled after them, her little riding outfit making her a darling of wealth and privilege.

  Trent jerked, catching himself before I had to. If we broke the circle, Ku'Sox would have us at his mercy. Still within our sight, Lucy lost her balance and plopped backward onto her butt. Laughing at her own mistake, she crawled to a retaining wall and regained her feet. My teeth clenched, and my heartache turned to hatred. "I'll kill you if you hurt her. "

  "And then I'll kill you again," Jenks said, his dust an eerie black.

  "If either of you touch her, I will eat her soul alive," Ku'Sox said mildly, brushing nonexistent dust from his shoulder. From somewhere in the dark, Lucy giggled.

  "This could all be over if you agree to come with me, Trenton Aloysius Kalamack," he said as he stood before us. "Ceri is no good at fixing things," he added, looking scornfully at the small gargoyle when Bis hissed at him. "You need to learn some respect, goyle. "

  Lucy toddled up, the newly risen moon making her hair a silver halo. Shouting in glee, she threw herself at Ku'Sox's knees, a purple winged horse in her grip. Trent groaned, and my stomach twisted at Ku'Sox's fake smile. "Aren't you a love!" he said brightly as he took her in his arms and rose, giving me an empty black stare when the little girl looked away. Trent was beside himself.

  "As you can see, I've not hurt little Lucy," Ku'Sox said, smiling. "I think elf children are sweet, actually. I don't have that grudge against the elves that my kin do. The new world wouldn't have that ugliness. "

  "Genocide is not a viable path to world peace," I said, seething. "I can prove you broke my line. "

  Seeing my anger, Lucy began to frown. The horse in her hand was dead, but she didn't let it go. Ku'Sox didn't seem to care. "Do that," he said, holding out a cookie to the little girl, but she'd have none of it anymore and wanted down. "I'll simply say we were working together and you backed out of the deal, leaving me to take the blame. "

  I thought of those life rafts in the form of infants. The panic I was holding seemed to shake its chain, gaining another few inches of freedom. They'd likely kill me for sure, four days or not. Dali was right. My silence was buying my continued existence.

  Lucy ignored the cookie Ku'Sox kept pushing at her, holding her hands out to Trent instead. "Down!" Lucy shrilled, squirming and kicking him. "Do-o-o-own!" she howled when he held her tighter, throwing the cookie Ku'Sox was trying to pacify her with at him. She truly was Ellasbeth's daughter and had the vocal power to prove it. "D-a-a-a-addy!" she cried, reaching out to Trent, her little hands opening and closing. "Daddy!"

  Ku'Sox gave her a little jerk, and she screamed at him, filling the night with her anger. Fear lit through me, and I swear he closed his eyes in bliss when he saw it. Lucy kicked furiously, howling and pinching his arm. Having endured enough, Ku'Sox gave her a shake, and the little girl vanished in a wash of ever-after. For a moment, her last cry of outrage echoed against the trees and castle, and then even that was gone.

  "No!" Trent raged, a blur as he lunged at Ku'Sox. I gasped as he threw a ball of black-rimmed energy. It tore through his circle. Jenks was up and away in an instant, Bis hot on his dust trail.

  "Trent!" I shouted as the cooler air rushed over me. Ku'Sox snarled, deflecting whatever it was right back at Trent. Every blade of grass, every leaf, took on a razor edge. I lunged for Trent but was jerked back by my hair.

  "Ow!" I howled, my scalp on fire as Ku'Sox swung me around and threw me to the ground. I got my knees under me, and the demon shoved me down again, so hard my breath was knocked out. Just within my sight, Trent writhed on the ground, taken out by his own magic.

  "You are troublesome," Ku'Sox said, and he sat on me, pinning me. There was a circle around us keeping both Jenks and Bis powerless, but I could still tap a line. I flooded him with it and he only sucked in his breath, enjoying it.

  "Get off!" I shouted into the gravel, then screamed in pain when he wrenched my arm back, nearly dislocating it.

  "Playing with elves?" Ku'Sox said, and the agony let up. He traced the outline of my tattoo with a soft finger, and I shuddered, breathing in the scent of carrion and trying not to throw up. This was exactly why I hadn't wanted to try to fight him. Why did no one listen to me?

  "You kill me, and they will be looking at you to fix the line," I rasped in the dark, scared to death as I felt him fingering the elven chastity ring. "They know you're responsible for it. "

  "As you say," he drawled, and I felt the ring spin on my finger. "But we also both know they're cowards, and if you can't overpower me, then they'll kill you to gain my good graces again. Is this how you found the strength to shift the imbalance back to the proper line?" he said, tugging experimentally at the ring. "Ingenious, melding your abilities with an elf to best me. Tsk-tsk. Mustn't play with wild animals. "

  "No, wait!" I shouted, helpless, and he gave a tug.

  Ku'Sox's cry of pain was like audible lightning, jerking through me. My arm thudded down on the gravel path, numb and unmoving as he was suddenly not sitting on me but writhing three feet away-his circle broken. It was the ring. It had its own safeguards, and they had just saved my ass.

  "Rache! Get up!" Jenks was shouting, his sparkles filling my vision and lighting the night. Dazed, I sat up, dead arm cradled in my lap. "Get up!" he yelled again, and I staggered to my feet. Ku'Sox was picking himself up off the ground. He was between me and Trent, the elf still gasping at his own spell. For an instant, we froze, and with a snarl, Ku'Sox turned to Trent.

  "No!" I shouted as the demon went for him, but it was too late, and I ran smack into Ku'Sox's circle. "Trent!" I exclaimed as I hammered on it, shocks of fire cramping my arm.

  Ku'Sox had pulled Trent to his feet, and I was sure it was the last I'd see of him, but with his arm around Trent's neck, the demon bared his teeth at me. Teeth clenched, I pushed my fingers into his field. There had to be a weakness, a hole. Pinpricks turned to fire, and agony pulsed with my heartbeat as I pressed harder.

  "Rache! You're burning your hand!" Jenks shouted, and with a cry of frustrated pain, I spun away, fingers throbbing. I couldn't do it. He was stronger than me. But I'd known that already.

  Ku'Sox looked me up and down, evaluating. "Clever, giving your elf the master ring," he snarled, clearly out of sorts for the wallop he'd taken, his back hunched and his perfect hair out of place. "I'm willing to wager I can take this one," he said, wrestling Trent's arm up. Trent tried to wiggle free, and Ku'Sox flooded him with energy. I saw it dancing over him like ants, sparkling in the dark. Trent groaned and went still, his eyes bloodshot as he hung in Ku'Sox's grip, his hand with the chastity ring splayed open.

  "You son of a bitch!" I shouted, burned hand cradled as he pulled the ring from Trent and let him fall to the ground, a slumped shadow in the dark. There was a quiver in my chi as the connection failed, but it didn't matter.

  He was going to take him, I thought in anguish as Ku'Sox made a fist around the ring and let the twisted mass of metal hit the ground beside Trent.

  "Mustn't play with demons, little elf," Ku'Sox mocked as he leaned over Trent and nudged him with a foot. "You'll end up dead, and I need you. Come with me of your free will, or I will cause you more pain, more heartache than you can bear. "

  "No-o-o," Trent breathed, the pain in his voice cutting me to my soul.

&nbs
p; "I'm not going to let you do this!" I shouted, and Ku'Sox straightened, the lamplight making his expression on his long features ugly. Looking at him past the strands of my hair, my hatred grew. "I know how to fix the line, and we will stop you," I vowed. "This will see you dead. I'm done being nice. "

  Trent's head came up. With a lip-curling sneer, Ku'Sox dismissed my words. "Kill me? Chances are you won't, but no need to take chances. "

  I stiffened when the circle surrounding Ku'Sox and Trent fell, but he wasn't interested in me anymore. "You, I can take. Come with me," Ku'Sox said, pointing at Bis, and the gargoyle spread his wings in alarm.

  "Bis!" I shouted as both he and Ku'Sox vanished in twin pops of inrushing air. Shocked, I stared, unbelieving in the new silence. Ku'Sox had taken Bis? Why? But the answer was obvious. Without Bis, I couldn't fix the line, rings or no rings.

  Ashen-faced, I stared at Trent. He was as stunned as I was. The lantern's glow fell upon the three of us, Jenks's dust shifting to a dismal blue. They were gone. They were gone!

  I stared for three seconds at where Bis had been. "No!" I shouted, unbelieving this had happened. "This is not fair!" I shouted at the sky, staggering three steps, but there was nowhere to go. "It's not fair," I said softer, then began to cry. I didn't want to, but the tears came.

  Sobbing, I dropped where I was, curled my knees to my chest, and just cried. He had Lucy. He had Ceri. And now he had Bis. Bis. He had Bis, damn it. I was responsible for the kid. And Ku'Sox took him like plucking a flower from a field. I was so stupid.

  "Rache? You okay?" Jenks asked from my shoulder, and I lifted my head, wiping my eyes only to get grit in them. Jenks was okay. I knew he would be. Ku'Sox must think he wasn't a threat.

  "Ask me Saturday morning," I said, my resolve beginning to gather.

  Jenks flitted up to my knee, his flight wobbly but growing more steady. "How are we going to get him back?" he asked, his face tight and his determination obvious.

  Moving slowly, I got to my feet, too numb to even look at Trent. He had lost Lucy again, and I didn't want to see that pain. "Plan C," I said. Trent had seen me cry. I didn't care. That butcher had Bis, Lucy, Ceri . . .

  Jenks landed on my good hand, and my arm ached where Ku'Sox had pulled it. "What's plan C?"

  Taking the remaining chastity ring off my finger, I threw it into the dark. Between me and the river was the broken line, and I looked at it, shaking. He'd taken Bis, Lucy, and Ceri. If I got the chance, I was going to kill him.

  "You don't want to know. "